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Those are the number of votes each piece has received. At last count, according to this poll, the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto is the greatest piece ever written!! Actually, no, it isn't. It's just the most popular, so far.

Regards,

Revision 3, below

My list:

Opera, Verdi, Otello or Falstaff.
Lieder, Schubert, Winterreise
Orchestra, chorus and SATB, Beethoven, Missa Solemnis
Symphony, Brahms 4th
chamber music, Schubert, quintet (in c minor, I think).

Tomasino

C major actually. Sorry, tomasino, don't get angry at me. I love that piece and I'm only giving you a...

Your admiration of Schubert is never in doubt and seconded here.

A more-or-less alphabetic list of “greatest” pieces and number of votes received.

Revision 3 :

Bach : Brandenburg Concerto No 2 – 1,
Bach : Mass in b minor – 1,
Bach : Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor – 1,
Bach : St Matthew Passion – 1,
Bach-Busoni : Chaconne – 1,
Bartók : Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste – 1,
Beethoven : Missa Solemnis – 2,
Beethoven : Piano Concerto No 3 in c minor, Op 37 – 1,
Beethoven : Piano Concerto No 4 in G major, Op 58 – 1,
Beethoven : Piano Sonata No 23 in f minor, Op 57: “Appassionata” – 2,
Beethoven : Piano Sonata No 29 in Bflat major, Op 106: “Hammerklavier” – 2,
Beethoven : Piano Sonata No 31 in Aflat major, Op 110 – 1,
Beethoven : Piano Sonata no 32 in c minor, Op 111 – 1,
Beethoven : String Quartet, Op 132 – 1,
Beethoven : Symphony No 3 in Eb major, Op 55, “Eroica” – 1,
Beethoven : Symphony No 9 in d minor, Op 125 – 4,
Beethoven : Violin Concerto in D major – 2,
Brahms : Piano Concerto No 2 – 1,
Brahms : Piano Pieces, Op 118 – 1,
Brahms : German Requiem – 1,
Brahms : Symphony No 1 – 1,
Brahms : Symphony No 4 – 1,
Brahms : Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel – 1,
Brahms : Violin Concerto – 1,
Britten : War Requiem – 1,
Cherubini : Requiem – 1,
Chopin : Ballade No 4 – 1,
Chopin : Piano Sonata No 3 – 2,
Debussy : Clair de Lune – 1,
Debussy : L’isle joyeuse – 1,
Elgar : Dream of Gerontius – 1,
Handel : Messiah – 4,
Haydn : The Creation – 1,
Liszt : Ballade No 2 – 1,
Liszt : Paganini Etudes – 1,
Liszt : Mephisto Waltz – 1,
Liszt : Sonata in b minor – 4,
Mahler : Symphony No 9 – 1,
Mingus : The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady – 1,
Mozart : Don Giovanni – 2,
Mozart : Mass in c minor, “Great” KV427 – 1,
Mozart : Piano Concerto No 20 in C major – 1,
Mozart : Piano Concerto No 23 in A major – 1,
Mozart : Requiem – 4,
Pärt : Festina Lente and Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
Prokofiev : Piano Concerto No 2 – 1,
Prokofiev : Piano Sonata No 7 – 1,
Puccini : La Bohème – 1,
Raatavaara : Cantus Arcticus – 1,
Rachmaninoff : Moments Musicaux – 1,
Rachmaninoff : Piano Concerto No 2 in c minor, Op 18 – 6,
Rachmaninoff : Piano Concerto No 3 in d minor, Op 30 – 2,
Ravel : Gaspard de la Nuit – 1,
Ravel : Tzigane – 1,
Schoenberg : Verklarte Nacht – 1,
Schubert : String Quintet in C major, D956 – 1,
Schubert : Wanderer Fantasy – 1,
Schubert : Die Winterreise – 2,
Schumann : Fantasy – 2,
Schumann : Kreisleriana – 1,
Schumann : Piano Concerto – 1,
Schütz : Musicalische Exeguien – 1,
Shostakovich : Violin Concerto No 1 – 1,
Sondheim : Sweeney Todd – 1,
Strauss : Der Rosenkavalier – 1,
Stravinsky : Rite of Spring – 2,
Tchaikovsky : Romeo and Juliet – 1,
Tchaikovsky : Piano Concerto No 1 – 1,
Tchaikovsky : Violin Concerto – 1,
Verdi : Requiem – 2,
Wagner : Götterdamerung – 1,
Wagner : Tristan und Isolde – 2,
Wagner : Parsifal – 1,

Amongst a plethora of favourites, here are five musical works of whose beauty and genius I never tire:

Bach - St John's Passion
Beethoven - Piano Sonata Op109
Mahler - 6th Symphony
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring
Ravel - String Quartet

-Michael B.

five greatest PIANO pieces in my mind:

Beethoven - Piano Concert No. 5 (Emperor)
Schubert - Piano Sonata D960 (his last)
Liszt - Sonata in B Minor
Bach - Goldberg Variations
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2

Overrated.
Okay but not the best ever.
Most overrated musical work ever.
Okay but not the best ever
Most difficult yes, best no.

A little surprised not to see any love yet for Beethoven's 7th.

i love Beethoven 7th, but his 3rd is ranked higher and i only had 5 choices.

I missed the poster who choose "Sweeney Todd"
Bravo--now that's really cutting edge music!

Indeed, barbers can be very cutting edge. Sorry, couldn't resist.

I'm surprised Beethoven's 3rd symphony was mwntioned only twice. I think there are two types of music; music before the 3rd, and music after the 3rd. In terms of hisrorical importance the 3rd probably surpasses all other works by any composer.

we are in much agreement (altho i'm not much of a Brahms fan)

My favourites, in alphabetical Order:

Bach - B minor Mass ("Kyrie" & "Dona nobis pacem")
Beethoven - Sonata 27 (Op. 90)
Boccherini - Cello Concerto in B-flat (2nd mov.)
Orlando Di Lasso - Missa Bell' Amfitrit' altera
Monteverdi - "Pur ti Miro"


Off the charts: "Cuchi" Leguizamón - Zamba de Juan Panadero

Bach - Goldberg Variations
Mozart - Fantasia and Sonata in C minor, K. 457
Schumann - Fantasy, op. 17
Prokofiev - Sonata no. 8 in B-flat major, op. 84

Why bring this up now?

......nice :rolleyes:

Five? No. Five hundred? Well... Five thousand? Better, but I don't have the patience to type them all out.

After all, there are times, when I'm just in the right mood, when I think Chabrier was the greatest composer that ever lived. And an hour later, it might be Bruckner. And then in the next hour, Xenakis. It all depends on what I find most musically nourishing at the very moment I hear it, and that could be almost anything.

Inevitably, I don't feel qualified to name the greatest five pieces ever. Perhaps once I've listened to everything there is to listen, I'll come back with a better list... in two or three lifetimes.

Besides, this is a biased, mostly piano-based and ultimately ignorant list. But hey, here it goes:

1) Rachmaninov's 3rd. Yeah, I know, the 2nd is "nicer", but hearing the way he twisted the beatiful melodic line in the 2nd and 3rd movements of this concerto just does it for me. Particularly, the climax of the 2nd movement and how the dispariging, conflicting voices come to peace and unite after it in the denouement (as it were), has to be the best development I've ever heard.

2) Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht

3) Rachmaninov's Piano and Cello sonata, op. 19

4) Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky

5) Piazzolla's Seasons.


OK, those were the answers off the top of my head. But what about Debussy's Arabesques and Clair de Lune, Chopin's studies (Black keys!), his Andante Spianato + Grand Polonaise (op. 22), Ginastera's "Estancia" suite, Tchaikowsky's Pathetique Symphony, Mendelssohn's lieder.... there're so many things, any list I come up with seems unfair and insufficient.