The NPR Classical 50 archive
Listen Claude Debussy's Painterly Preludes
September 29, 2009 – The subtle, elusive quality of Debussy's 24 preludes is captured perfectly by pianist Paul Jacobs.
Listen The Autumnal Glow Of Strauss' Four Last Songs
September 22, 2009 – Hear the extraordinary opulence soprano Jessye Norman brings to Strauss' final songs.
Listen Beethoven's Carefully Choreographed Violence
September 15, 2009 – Hear pianist Emil Gilels bring his brand of leonine passion to three of Beethoven's best sonatas.
Listen Appealing To The Masses: Brahms' Requiem
September 8, 2009 – Hear conductor Otto Klemperer's soulful rendering of Brahms' personal and rapturous Requiem.
Listen Best Of Broadway: Bernstein's 'West Side Story'
September 1, 2009 – The original Broadway cast recording still sounds fresh more than 50 years after the show opened.
Listen Mravinsky's Supercharged Tchaikovsky
August 25, 2009 – Evgeny Mravinsky conducts Tchaikovsky's final symphonies with an intensity rarely heard.
Listen Schubert Most Sublime: The String Quintet In C
August 18, 2009 – Hear Schubert's personal brand of lyrical melancholy in his innovative String Quintet in C.
Listen Brahms' 4th Symphony At Full Strength
August 11, 2009 – Hear conductor Carlos Kleiber bring out all the pent-up emotions in Brahms' final symphony.
Listen Gold Standard For Bach's 'Goldberg Variations'
August 4, 2009 – Murray Perahia's fleet fingers and seasoned musicality make this a Bach recording for the ages.
Listen Mozart's Forward-Looking 'Magic Flute'
July 28, 2009 – Ted Libbey recommends an all-star cast performance of Mozart's last opera, The Magic Flute.
Listen Pastoral Passion: Ravel's 'Daphnis and Chloe'
July 21, 2009 – Jean Martinon conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in this sensual recording of Ravel's ballet.
Listen Josquin Des Prez's Luminous Sound
July 14, 2009 – Pure and expressive, his Missa Pange Lingua is at the summit of Renaissance masses.
Listen Brilliant Beethoven By The Emerson Quartet
July 7, 2009 – The group defies the difficulties inherent in performing Beethoven's 16 string quartets.
Listen Rhapsody In Blue: Gershwin At His Greatest
June 30, 2009 – Leonard Bernstein performs American music with mid-century flair in this 1959 recording.
Listen Debussy's La Mer
June 23, 2009 – Claude Debussy's La Mer is an impressionistic vision of the sheer power of the ocean.