Path 01
Start here
Ten well-known works to learn the map on, each open in full to everyone.
Pachelbel → Bach → Vivaldi → Mozart → Beethoven → Schubert → Chopin → Dvořák → Debussy
Listening paths · Path 17
Chopin's piano music
Nocturne, étude, mazurka, scherzo, ballade, polonaise, waltz: Chopin's genres in twelve works, in the order he wrote them.
Chopin wrote almost nothing that did not involve the piano, and he wrote for it in a handful of genres, some borrowed and remade, some invented. The nocturne came from John Field, the mazurka and the polonaise from Polish dances, the étude from the teaching studio; the ballade was his own idea, and in his hands the scherzo stopped being a joke. Each work here stands for one genre, from a nocturne of 1831 to the Minute Waltz of 1847, two years before his death.
ChopinNocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9 No. 2The nocturne, a genre Chopin took over from John Field: a singing melody over a swaying left hand. Here the opening melody returns twice, each time more richly decorated, and the Coda holds a bar with no fixed tempo.
- ChopinEtude in C minor, Op. 10 No. 12
The étude: a study in one technical problem that is also a concert piece. The left hand never stops its rushing sixteenth notes while the right hand drives a theme in octaves. The name “Revolutionary” is not Chopin’s.
- ChopinEtude in E major, Op. 10 No. 3
A study in singing on the piano: one hand has to carry the melody and a soft accompaniment at the same time. The calm A section gives way to an agitated B that peaks in double sixths, and the melody returns, shorter.
- ChopinMazurka in A minor, Op. 17 No. 4
The mazurka, a Polish dance in triple time that Chopin returned to throughout his years in Paris. This slow one, close to the kujawiak, opens and ends with the same four bars, and its middle section turns to A major.
- ChopinFantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. 66
The impromptu, a piece meant to sound improvised. Chopin never published this one. Racing outer sections, with the right hand’s fast runs against the left hand’s groups of six, surround a singing middle section in D-flat major.
- ChopinScherzo No. 2 in B♭ minor, Op. 31
In Chopin’s hands the scherzo became a large dramatic piece. He told a pupil the hushed opening was a question and the loud burst its answer; much of the music then lives in bright D-flat major, with a meditative Trio in A major.
- Chopin24 Preludes, Op. 28
Twenty-four preludes, one in every major and minor key, many holding a single idea. Some last under a minute; No. 15, the “Raindrop”, keeps one note repeating beneath its melody, and No. 24 ends with three blows on the lowest D.
- ChopinPiano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35
The Funeral March came first, about two years before the rest, and the sonata grew around it. After it comes the strangest finale Chopin wrote: both hands in unison, quiet and without a rest, over in about a minute and a half.
- ChopinPolonaise No. 6 in A-flat major, Op. 53
The polonaise, a stately Polish dance, here on its grandest scale. A chromatic rush leads to the proud Main Theme over pounding left-hand octaves, and when the Main Theme returns for the last time it is louder still.
- ChopinBallade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52
The ballade, a genre Chopin invented for the piano, tells a story without words. In the Fourth the waltz-like First Theme keeps returning in new guises, the Second Theme swells to a powerful climax, and a hushed chorale opens the way to a stormy Coda.
- ChopinBarcarolle in F-sharp major, Op. 60
A gondolier’s song expanded into one of Chopin’s last large works. The rocking bass hardly stops, and the melody is sung in thirds and sixths, like two voices of an Italian opera duet.
- ChopinWaltz in D-flat major, Op. 64 No. 1
The waltz, the lightest of his genres. “Minute” was meant as “small”, not sixty seconds: a spinning A section, a calmer sostenuto middle, and the opening again, ending with a quick run down the keyboard.
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Path 02
Symphonies everyone should know
Twelve symphonies from Mozart's Fortieth to Shostakovich's Fifth, the core of the concert repertoire.
Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Schubert → Berlioz → Mendelssohn → Brahms → Mahler → Tchaikovsky → Dvořák → Shostakovich
Path 03
Calm classical music
Twelve slow, quiet pieces, from Chopin's lullaby to Pärt's Fratres.
Chopin → Liszt → Wagner → Debussy → Massenet → Fauré → Grainger → Delius → Williams → Rachmaninoff → Pärt
Path 04
Baroque essentials
Ground bass, ritornello, fugue and dance: the Baroque in twelve works, from Purcell to Bach's Musical Offering.
Purcell → Pachelbel → Bach → Vivaldi → Handel → Scarlatti
Path 05
Understanding sonata form
The form behind most first movements, heard twelve times, from a small sonata to a symphony.
Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Schubert → Mendelssohn → Brahms → Prokofiev
Path 06
Haydn in London
Haydn's two London visits, 1791–95: six of the symphonies he wrote there, three piano sonatas, and what he took home to Vienna.
Haydn
Path 07
Ten minutes or less
Short, complete works for a single sitting.
Bach → Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Schubert → Mendelssohn → Saint-Saëns → Sibelius → Ravel → Debussy → Gershwin → Copland
Path 08
The string quartet, 1772 to 1960
Four players across almost two centuries: Haydn shapes the conversation, Bartók breaks it open, Shostakovich turns it inward.
Haydn → Mozart → Schubert → Beethoven → Dvořák → Debussy → Reger → Bartók → Shostakovich
Path 09
Fifteen kinds of work
One work for each kind in the catalog, from the symphony to choral music.
Beethoven → Vivaldi → Debussy → Holst → Dvořák → Mozart → Chopin → Scarlatti → Bach → Schubert → Strauss → Handel
Path 10
Beethoven's nine symphonies
From the First of 1800 to the Choral of 1824, in the order Beethoven wrote them.
Beethoven
Path 11
The concerto, 1721 to 1959
Soloist and orchestra across two and a half centuries, from Bach's harpsichord to Rostropovich's cello.
Bach → Vivaldi → Mozart → Beethoven → Mendelssohn → Tchaikovsky → Dvořák → Rachmaninoff → Ravel → Shostakovich
Path 12
Romantic piano
Eleven short pieces from Field to Grieg, each holding one mood.
Field → Schubert → Mendelssohn → Chopin → Schumann → Liszt → Tchaikovsky → Rachmaninoff → Brahms → Grieg
Path 13
The art song, from Schubert to Strauss
A poem, a voice and a piano, later an orchestra: from Schubert's first masterpieces to Strauss's last songs.
Schubert → Schumann → Wagner → Mahler → Debussy → Fauré → Strauss
Path 14
Variations and fugue
Two ways of making much from little: a theme changed again and again, and a subject passed from voice to voice.
Bach → Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Mendelssohn → Brahms → Elgar
Path 15
Paris around 1900
Fauré, Satie, Debussy, Chausson, Dukas and Ravel, from 1887 to 1920.
Fauré → Satie → Debussy → Chausson → Dukas → Ravel
Path 16
Russian voices
From Glinka to Shostakovich: a century of Russian music, in the order it was written.
Glinka → Balakirev → Mussorgsky → Borodin → Rimsky-Korsakov → Tchaikovsky → Rachmaninoff → Scriabin → Prokofiev → Shostakovich
Path 18
Essential Mozart
Mozart in twelve works, from a motet written at sixteen to the Requiem he left unfinished.
Mozart
Path 19
Essential Brahms
Brahms in twelve works, from the First Piano Concerto to the last of his piano pieces.
Brahms
Path 20
The piano sonata, from Mozart to Prokofiev
Twelve piano sonatas from Mozart and Haydn to Prokofiev's war sonata of 1942.
Mozart → Haydn → Beethoven → Schubert → Chopin → Liszt → Berg → Bartók → Prokofiev
Path 21
Debussy and Ravel
Two French composers side by side, often compared and often confused, from 1891 to Boléro in 1928.
Debussy → Ravel
Path 22
Romantic violin concertos
Ten violin concertos, from Beethoven's of 1806 to Sibelius's of 1904.
Beethoven → Paganini → Mendelssohn → Wieniawski → Bruch → Lalo → Brahms → Tchaikovsky → Dvořák → Sibelius
Path 23
Mahler, Bruckner and Strauss
The late Romantic orchestra at its largest: Bruckner's and Mahler's symphonies and Strauss's tone poems, 1880 to 1945.
Bruckner → Mahler → Strauss
Path 24
Music of the nations
Folk songs, dances and landscapes, from Liszt's Hungary to Márquez's Mexico.
Liszt → Smetana → Grieg → Albéniz → Dvořák → Sibelius → Elgar → Williams → Janáček → Villa-Lobos → Rodrigo → Márquez
Path 25
Choral masterpieces
Choirs from Handel's coronation anthem to Ligeti's cloud of voices: masses, requiems and psalms, 1727 to 1966.
Handel → Mozart → Brahms → Verdi → Fauré → Orff → Messiaen → Bernstein → Ligeti
Path 26
Famous overtures
Twelve overtures from Mozart's Figaro to Bernstein's Candide, each a complete piece in a few minutes.
Mozart → Beethoven → Rossini → Weber → Mendelssohn → Wagner → Berlioz → Offenbach → Brahms → Tchaikovsky → Bernstein
Path 27
20th-century classical music
Twelve directions the century took, from Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht of 1899 to Piazzolla's tango of 1982.
Schoenberg → Ives → Bartók → Holst → Gershwin → Barber → Prokofiev → Copland → Ligeti → Górecki → Piazzolla