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 12
Romantic piano
Eleven short pieces from Field to Grieg, each holding one mood.
In the nineteenth century the piano became the instrument of the home and of the solo recital, and composers wrote short pieces for it that each hold one character: an impromptu, a song without words, a nocturne, a ballade, a dream of love. John Field's nocturnes open the path; Chopin took the genre from him. Many follow a simple three-part plan, a melody, a contrast and the melody again, and the map makes that shape easy to follow; others, like Chopin's ballade, tell a longer story.
FieldNocturne No. 5 in B-flat major, H. 37Field is credited with the first piano nocturnes: a singing melody over a gently flowing accompaniment. When the A section returns, the tune is the same but its ornaments are new, a habit Chopin would take much further.
SchubertImpromptu No. 3 in G-flat major, D 899 / Op. 90 No. 3One long melody over broken chords that hardly change. The middle section darkens into E-flat minor before the melody returns.
MendelssohnSongs Without Words: No. 6 in G minor, Op. 19b No. 6A gondola song: lapping figures in G minor, a love song in thirds and sixths above them, and a fade into darkness.
ChopinBallade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23Two themes told like a story. Both return transformed, and in the final return they come in reverse order before the coda.
- ChopinNocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27 No. 2
Two themes, A and B, come round three times, each time more richly decorated, over a rocking left hand.
SchumannKinderszenen, Op. 15Thirteen scenes of childhood, most under two minutes. The seventh is Träumerei (Dreaming); the last, The Poet Speaks, ends the set in stillness.
LisztLiebestraum No. 3 in A-flat major, S. 541 No. 3 / R. 211It began as a song about love that lasts. The melody passes through four sections divided by short cadenzas and reaches its climax in octaves.
TchaikovskyThe Seasons: June, Op. 37a No. 6June from The Seasons, a boat song written for a monthly magazine. A melancholy G minor melody rocks over an oar-like rhythm; the middle section brightens into G major, and after a climax the melody returns and fades.
RachmaninoffPrelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2Written at nineteen. A heavy three-note motif sets the key, and after the agitated middle section the main theme returns at full power.
BrahmsSix Piano Pieces (Klavierstücke), No. 2: Intermezzo, Op. 118 No. 2From a late set that Brahms dedicated to Clara Schumann. A gentle melody in A major frames a restless middle section with a hidden canon in the left hand.
GriegLyric Pieces: Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Op. 65 No. 6A present for Grieg’s wife on their anniversary, recalling the silver wedding at their home, Troldhaugen, when far more guests turned up than were invited. The festive march of the arrivals frames a quieter, reflective middle section.
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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 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 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
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