Artist
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven appears 4 times in our Classical Period and Romantic lists, placing as high as No. 1. Hand-curated, with a reason for every pick.
- Ranked entries
- 4
- Appears on
- Classical Period and Romantic
- Years
- 1801–1824
- Highest placing
- No. 1 in Classical Period
- Updated
- 2026-08-30
Appears on
Symphony No. 5 in C minor
1808
Ranked No. 1 in Classical Period
Four notes, and a forty-minute argument about what can be built from them. The most famous opening in music is also the most thoroughly worked-out, which is not a coincidence.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor
1824
Ranked No. 1 in Romantic
A choir in a symphony, which was not done, singing Schiller in praise of universal brotherhood. Beethoven was too deaf to hear the applause and had to be turned around to see it.
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat "Eroica"
1804
Ranked No. 4 in Classical Period
Twice the length of any symphony before it, and the dedication to Napoleon scratched out so hard it tore the page. The single clearest break between one era and the next.
Piano Sonata No. 14 "Moonlight"
1801
Ranked No. 6 in Classical Period
A first movement marked to be played with the dampers raised throughout, so the harmonies smear into one another. Nobody called it Moonlight until after he was dead.