20 Great Piano Composers: The Best Classical Piano Music

Top Keyboard Hits:

1. Prelude in C Major
2. Prelude and Fugue in C Minor
3. Goldberg Variations

Best Known For:

His religious music and, specifically for keyboard music, his counterpoint—multiple interwoven lines of music arranged in complex, creative, and clever ways.

Fun Facts:

• The two volumes of The Well-Tempered Clavier contain preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys.
• Four of Bach’s children also became composers: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, and Johann Christian Bach.

> 3 Easy Classical Piano Pieces

Top Keyboard Hits:

• Sonata in D Minor, Kk. 1
• “Cat Fugue” (Sonata in G Minor, K. 30)
• Keyboard Sonata in D Minor, K. 141

Best Known For:

555 piano sonatas and bridging the Baroque and Classical eras.

Fun Facts:

• Legend has it that a cat walked across Scarlatti’s keyboard and the notes it played led to Sonata in G Minor, K. 30.
• He and Handel were born in the same year and had a famous duel on keyboards, showing off their improvisational skills.

Top Keyboard Hits:

• 6 Progressive Sonatinas, Op. 36, nos. 1-6
• Sonata Op. 25, no.5
• Sonata Op. 24, no. 2

Best Known For:

Charming, beginner-friendly piano sonatinas that sound impressive. If you had classical piano lessons as a kid, you probably played Clementi!

Fun Facts:

• Op. 36 no. 5 was adapted by The Mindbenders into “A Groovy Kind of Love”, which was then made famous by Phil Collins
• Sonata Op. 24 sounds eerily similar to the opening of Mozart’s Magic Flute…you can say Mozart “sampled” Clementi.

> 5 Classical Pieces, From Easy to More Difficult

Top Piano Hits:

• Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major (“Rondo alla turca”/”Turkish March”)
• Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major (“Sonata facile”)
• “Elvira Madigan” from Piano Concerto No. 21

Best Known For:

Being a child prodigy and a genius. While he’s not everyone’s favorite composer, there is something clever and beautiful about Mozart’s melodies.

Fun Facts:

• Wolfgang’s sister Nannerl was also an accomplished piano player.
• Mozart famously began composing as early as four or five years old. This music was dictated by his father because it appears in Leopold Mozart’s handwriting.
• While Amadeus—the Oscar-winning film about Mozart’s life—is a great watch, many of its plot points are dramaticized and not true at all.

> Turkish March – Free Sheet Music & Tutorial

Top Piano Hits:

• Sonata No. 14, Op. 27 (“Moonlight”)
• Sonata No. 8 Op. 13 (“Pathétique”)
• Bagatelle No. 25 in A Minor (“Für Elise”)

Best Known For:

Moody and dramatic music, his 32 piano sonatas, and “Für Elise”—arguably the most famous piano piece of all time.

Fun Facts:

• We’re not 100% sure who Elise is and there are a few contenders. But the most likely suspect is Therese Malfatti (whom Beethoven proposed to but was rejected) because the piece was found in her belongings.
• Beethoven started losing his hearing in his mid-20s and was fully deaf by the time he was 45.

> The BEST “Für Elise” Tutorial on the Internet!

Top Piano Hits:

• Fantasy on The Marriage of Figaro Op. 493
• The School of Velocity, Op. 299
• The Art of Finger Dexterity, Op. 740

Best Known For:

Writing a lot of music, especially piano exercises. He was a student of Beethoven’s and in turn, taught Liszt.

Fun Facts:

• A workaholic, Czerny kept multiple desks and would rotate between them so he could work on multiple pieces simultaneously as the ink dried.
• He was one of the first to use the term “nocturne,” after composer John Field.

Top Piano Hits:

• “Erlkönig,” Op. 1
• Piano Quintet in A Major (“Trout” Quintet), Op. 114
• “Ständchen” – originally a lied but popularly played as a solo piano piece with arrangements by Horn and Liszt

Best Known For:

Writing over 600 lieder (songs for a singer accompanied by piano) and dying young, in relative obscurity.

Fun Facts:

• He wrote 20,000 measures of music in 1815 alone, including 150 lieder.
• He studied law for a while, but dropped out in favor of pursuing music.
• Schubert’s height and plump frame earned him the nickname Schwammerl (“Little Mushroom”).

Top Piano Hits:

• Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor, P. 1 No. 16
• “Fantasie-Impromptu” Op. posth. 66
• Nocturne in E-Flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2

Best Known For:

Being THE piano composer. Unlike most composers, he focused almost solely on piano. When you think piano, you think Chopin!

Fun Facts:

• He started writing poetry at age six and gave his first public concerto performance at age eight.
• Chopin had his own method of teaching piano, where he encouraged students to learn the B major scale first (instead of C) because it more naturally falls beneath the fingers. You can watch a modern interpretation of his method here.

Top Piano Hits:

• Liebesträum No. 3
• Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
• “La Campanella”

Best Known For:

Being the world’s first rockstar. A virtuoso and entertainer, Liszt cemented our modern understanding of the music performer.

Fun Facts:

• Interested in social justice issues, Liszt believed artists occupied a special purpose in society and donated much of his profits to charity.
• He was an avid improviser and many of his compositions are arrangements of other pieces. The virtuosic “La Campanella” is based on a concerto by Niccolò Paganini.

> The Ultimate Liszticle

Top Piano Hits:

• Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 20
• Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op.7
• 3 Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22

Best Known For:

One of few women who exerted an influence over classical music. She’s responsible for things we take for granted in modern concerts, such as playing from memory.

Fun Facts:

• She had eight children and still managed to be the primary breadwinner for the Schumanns. She was also in charge of Brahms’ investments.
• Clara was famously critical of new directions in music and often lobbed insults at Wagner. The conflict between conservative and progressive musicians at this time was called the War of the Romantics.

Top Piano Hits:

• “Clair de lune” from Suite bergamasque
• “Rêverie”
• “La fille aux cheveux de lin”

Best Known For:

Being THE impressionist-style composer and “Clair de lune,” one of piano’s most beloved pieces.

Fun Facts:

• He really didn’t like the term “impressionist.”
• He had multiple affairs and lost several friendships as a result.
• He only had one child, Claude-Emma, whom he nicknamed “Chou-Chou.” Children’s Corner is dedicated to her.

> How to Play “Clair de lune”

Top Piano Hits:

• Gymnopédie No. 1
• Gnossienne No. 1
• “Vexations”

Best Known For:

His eccentric personality and atmospheric background music.

Fun Facts:

• He kept a precise daily schedule that involved sleeping “very hard.” He also only ate white foods.
• He composed “furniture music,” which was meant to be background noise you don’t focus on.
• “Vexations” is often interpreted as being meant to be played 840 times. Performing “Vexations” takes several hours and a relay team of multiple pianists.

> How to Play Gymnopédie No. 1

Top Piano Hits:

• “The Entertainer”
• “Maple Leaf Rag”
• “The Cascades”

Best Known For:

Writing the iconic ice cream truck song (“The Entertainer”) and his association with the ragtime genre, a style designed almost exclusively for piano.

Fun Facts:

• He wanted to be taken seriously as a classical composer and tried to write ballets and operas, but people saw him more as a commercial writer of mass-produced rags. Obviously, this irked him.
• He didn’t like it when people played his ragtimes too fast.

> How to Play “The Entertainer”

Top Piano Hits:

• Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53
• Étude in D-Sharp Minor, Op. 8 no. 12
• 24 Preludes, Op. 11

Best Known For:

Virtuosic and experimental music, along with his eccentric belief system.

Fun Facts:

• He was born on Christmas Day and died on Easter, and his early music was heavily inspired by Chopin.
• He injured his right hand and subsequently wrote very challenging repertoire for the left hand.
• Somewhat of an egomaniac, Scriabin thought of himself as a god. He believed he would transcend death and be worshipped.

Top Piano Hits:

• Piano Concerto No. 2
• Piano Concerto No. 3
• “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini”

Best Known For:

Virtuosic, grandiose piano concertos that demand very large hands. The “Rach 3” is considered one of the most difficult piano pieces of all time.

Fun Facts:

• Rachmaninoff fell into a deep depression after the disastrous debut of his First Symphony. However, his second piano concerto was triumphant and he dedicated it to the doctor who helped him recover.
• He was very tall with infamously large hands. Some historians think he may have had Marfan’s syndrome. Rachmaninoff could reportedly reach a 12th, equal to one and a half octaves.

Top Piano Hits:

• “Jeux d’eau”
• “Pavane pour une infante defunte”
• Gaspard de la nuit

Best Known For:

Being the “other” French Impressionist next to Debussy. But his style is more improvisatory, almost jazzy.

Fun Facts:

• During World War I, Ravel served as a truck driver in the military. His Le tombeau de Couperin is dedicated to friends who died fighting the war.
• In Ravel’s time, Balakirev’s “Islamey” was considered the toughest piece for piano. So Ravel strived to beat it with the “Scarbo” movement in Gaspard de la nuit.

Top Piano Hits:

• 4’33”
• In a Landscape
• Sonata No. 5 from Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

Best Known For:

Avant-garde experimental music and “preparing” pianos with objects added to their mechanism, such as paper between strings.

Fun Facts:

• He was fascinated by indeterminacy or music created by chance, and he composed using the I Ching, an ancient divination book.
• In “4’33””, the pianist sits quietly at the piano for four minutes and 33 seconds. The music is the ambient sound of the environment you’re sitting in.

Top Piano Hits:

• “One Summer’s Day” from Spirited Away
• “Merry-Go-Round of Life” from Howl’s Moving Castle
• “Ashitaka and San” from Princess Mononoke

Best Known For:

Composing the film score behind beloved Studio Ghibli films such as Spirited Away.

Fun Facts:

• His legal name is Mamoru Fujisawa. “Joe Hisaishi” is his professional name.
• He wrote the music behind two Academy Award-winning films: Spirited Away (Best Animated Feature 2003) and Departures (Best Foreign Language Film 2009).

Top Piano Hits:

• “Nuvole Bianche”
• “I Giorni”
• “Experience”

Best Known For:

His simple yet beautiful and catchy instrumental music. Whether his music “counts” as classical depends on who you ask, but he’s responsible for revitalizing classical music’s popularity among younger generations.

Fun Facts:

• Einaudi composed the music for the Black Swan trailer.
• He is the most streamed classical pianist of all time, with more than two billion streams.

> How to Play “Experience”

Top Piano Hits:

• “River Flows In You”
• “Kiss the Rain”
• “May Be”

Best Known For:

A simple and melodious piano style, similar to Einaudi. “River Flows In You” is a viral hit and a favorite song among piano hobbyists.

Fun Facts:

• His legal name is Lee Ru-Ma, and he moved to the U.K. at age 10 to study at the Purcell School of Music.
• “River Flows In You” was originally released in 2001, but it experienced a resurgence during the coronavirus pandemic when housebound people started learning piano. The song was also frequently mistaken as “Bella’s Lullaby” by Carter Burwell, but it was later included in the Twilight soundtrack as well.

> Why River Flows In You Is So Popular