Orchestral Works

Explore the finest recordings of orchestral masterworks, from baroque suites to modern tone poems.

Brandenburg Concertos

Johann Sebastian Bach

6 recordings
Top Choice: Benjamin Britten / English Chamber Orchestra

Orchestral Suites

Johann Sebastian Bach

3 recordings
Top Choice: Neville Mariner / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

The Art of the Fugue & A Musical Offering (Orchestrated)

Johann Sebastian Bach

1 recording
Top Choice: Karl Münchinger / Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra

Adagio for Strings

Samuel Barber

2 recordings
Top Choice: Thomas Schippers / New York Philharmonic

Concerto for Orchestra

Béla Bartók

4 recordings
Top Choice: Antal Doráti / London Symphony Orchestra

Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta

Béla Bartók

5 recordings
Top Choice: Antal Doráti / London Symphony Orchestra

Overtures (Complete Sets)

Ludwig van Beethoven

3 recordings
Top Choice: Kurt Masur / Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Egmont Overture

Ludwig van Beethoven

2 recordings
Top Choice: Ferenc Fricsay / Berlin Philharmonic

Coriolan Overture

Ludwig van Beethoven

1 recording
Top Choice: Wilhelm Furtwängler / Berlin Philharmonic

Hungarian Dances

Johannes Brahms

1 recording
Top Choice: Claudio Abbado / Vienna Philharmonic

Appalachian Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man, Rodeo & Billy the Kid

Aaron Copland

1 recording
Top Choice: Leonard Bernstein / New York Philharmonic

Concerti Grossi, Op. 6

Arcangelo Corelli

1 recording
Top Choice: Trevor Pinnock / The English Concert

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

Claude Debussy

5 recordings
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

La mer

Claude Debussy

6 recordings
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

Slavonic Dances

Antonín Dvořák

3 recordings
Top Choice: George Szell / Cleveland Orchestra

Enigma Variations

Edward Elgar

3 recordings
Top Choice: Sir John Barbirolli / Hallé Orchestra

Serenade for Strings & Introduction and Allegro for Strings

Edward Elgar

2 recordings
Top Choice: Sir John Barbirolli / Sinfonia of London

Peer Gynt (Suites & Incidental Music)

Edvard Grieg

4 recordings
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

Water Music & Music for the Royal Fireworks (Couplings)

George Frideric Handel

3 recordings
Top Choice: Rafael Kubelik / Berlin Philharmonic

Water Music

George Frideric Handel

2 recordings
Top Choice: Hermann Scherchen / Vienna State Opera Orchestra

Music for the Royal Fireworks

George Frideric Handel

2 recordings
Top Choice: Frederick Fennell / Cleveland Symphonic Winds

Concerti Grossi, Op. 6

George Frideric Handel

3 recordings
Top Choice: Andrew Manze / Academy of Ancient Music

Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Weber

Paul Hindemith

2 recordings
Top Choice: George Szell / Cleveland Orchestra

The Planets

Gustav Holst

4 recordings
Top Choice: Charles Dutoit / Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Sinfonietta

Leoš Janáček

2 recordings
Top Choice: Raphael Kubelik / Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Les préludes

Franz Liszt

2 recordings
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Incidental Music) & Hebrides Overture

Felix Mendelssohn

1 recording
Top Choice: Peter Maag / London Symphony Orchestra

Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade No. 13)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

2 recordings
Top Choice: / I Musici

Serenade No. 10 'Gran Partita'

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

2 recordings
Top Choice: Edo de Waart / Netherlands Wind Ensemble

Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel) & A Night on the Bare Mountain

Modest Mussorgsky

2 recordings
Top Choice: Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

Modest Mussorgsky

3 recordings
Top Choice: Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Pachelbel's Canon, Albinoni's Adagio & Baroque Miniatures

Various Composers

1 recording
Top Choice: Karl Münchinger / Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra

Romeo and Juliet (Complete Ballet)

Sergei Prokofiev

2 recordings
Top Choice: Lorin Maazel / Cleveland Orchestra

Peter and the Wolf

Sergei Prokofiev

2 recordings
Top Choice: Mario Rossi / Vienna State Opera Orchestra

Daphnis et Chloé (Complete Ballet)

Maurice Ravel

5 recordings
Top Choice: Pierre Monteux / London Symphony Orchestra

Boléro

Maurice Ravel

3 recordings
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

Pavane pour une infante défunte

Maurice Ravel

2 recordings
Top Choice: Pierre Monteux / London Symphony Orchestra

Roman Trilogy (Pines, Fountains, Festivals)

Ottorino Respighi

2 recordings
Top Choice: Arturo Toscanini / NBC Symphony Orchestra

Scheherazade

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

9 recordings
Top Choice: Kirill Kondrashin / Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Overtures

Giacomo Rossini

2 recordings
Top Choice: Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Carnival of the Animals & Danse Macabre

Camille Saint-Saëns

2 recordings
Top Choice: Charles Dutoit / London Sinfonietta (Carnival) / Philharmonia Orchestra (Danse)

Finlandia, Valse Triste & The Swan of Tuonela

Jean Sibelius

1 recording
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

Tapiola

Jean Sibelius

4 recordings
Top Choice: Lorin Maazel / Vienna Philharmonic

Má vlast (My Homeland)

Bedřich Smetana

4 recordings
Top Choice: Jiří Bělohlávek / Czech Philharmonic

Waltzes and Polkas

Johann Strauss II

2 recordings
Top Choice: Willi Boskovsky / Vienna Philharmonic

Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony)

Richard Strauss

4 recordings
Top Choice: Rudolf Kempe / Staatskapelle Dresden

Also sprach Zarathustra

Richard Strauss

5 recordings
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

Don Quixote

Richard Strauss

5 recordings
Top Choice: Pierre Fournier

Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life)

Richard Strauss

4 recordings
Top Choice: Eugene Ormandy / Philadelphia Orchestra

Metamorphosen

Richard Strauss

5 recordings
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

Don Juan & Til Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche

Richard Strauss

4 recordings
Top Choice: George Szell / Cleveland Orchestra

Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration)

Richard Strauss

4 recordings
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) & Petrushka

Igor Stravinsky

8 recordings
Top Choice: Antal Doráti / Detroit Symphony Orchestra

L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird)

Igor Stravinsky

2 recordings
Top Choice: Antal Doráti / London Symphony Orchestra

1812 Overture

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1 recording
Top Choice: Antal Doráti / Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra

Ballet Suites (The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

2 recordings
Top Choice: Mstislav Rostropovich / Berlin Philharmonic

The Nutcracker (Complete Ballet)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

3 recordings
Top Choice: Artur Rodziński / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Sleeping Beauty (Complete Ballet)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

2 recordings
Top Choice: Andre Previn / London Symphony Orchestra

Swan Lake (Complete Ballet)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1 recording
Top Choice: John Lanchbery / Philharmonia Orchestra

Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

2 recordings
Top Choice: Claudio Abbado / Boston Symphony Orchestra

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis & Fantasia on Greensleeves

Ralph Vaughan Williams

2 recordings
Top Choice: Sir John Barbirolli / Sinfonia of London

The Lark Ascending

Ralph Vaughan Williams

2 recordings
Top Choice: Iona Brown

Orchestral Music from the Operas

Richard Wagner

3 recordings
Top Choice: Herbert von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic