Classics

Orchestral Music

Three contrasting ways to determine which musical works count as classics is to look at which works are most frequently performed by major ensembles, which are cited by audience members as favorites, and which are most frequently purchased in recorded format. Although in past centuries novelty pieces, arrangements of contemporary popular songs, and similar works were often intermingled with what is today considered classics (e.g., works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), this practice is less common today, and most classical works included on “most popular” and “most performed” lists today are also critically respected.

The League of American Orchestras, a membership organization of about 800 North American orhestras including everything from youth ensembles to world-famous organizations such as the New York Philharmonic, compiles an annual list of works performed by member orchestras during the classical season. During the 2009 to 2010 season (the most recent available), the most performed works by league members were Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (22 performances), Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (21 performances), Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 (20 performances), Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (19 performances), Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony (19 performances), Johannes Brahms's Violin Concerto in D Major (18 performances), and Pyotr IllyichTchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 (15 performances).

All of the works in the top 10 were written by European composers in the 19th century and are within the common-practice tonal style of music with which most concertgoers are familiar and comfortable; all are also works that are well regarded by critics and commonly studied by students in music schools. Even a simple list based on frequencies of performance can be less straightforward than expected, however; for instance, the works of Mozart are both popular with audiences and well respected by critics but no single work of Mozart made the top 10 list because so many different works of his were performed.

A 2011 poll of listeners of the British music station Classic FM, which describes itself as the biggest classical musical station in the world, produced a different list but one that is also dominated by works composed within the common-practice tonal idiom. This listeners' poll found that the most popular work was Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, which has remained popular in the country since it was first composed in 1900 and whose fame was also boosted by appearing in David Lean's 1945 film Brief Encounter, as well as in Clint Eastwood's 2010 film Hereafter. The Classic FM list also showed a clear preference for British composers, who wrote half the works in the top 10. These works include Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending (second on the list), composed in 1914 for violin and piano and later prepared in a version for violin and orchestra; Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (third), Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations for orchestra (seventh), and Elgar's Cello Concerto (eighth).

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