This is a "short" list given to me by my piano teacher Bryan Boyce (DMA). With his permission, I post it here for those who want to have a general background of western classical music.
Vocal genres
Mass
- Tournai Mass
- Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame
- Dufay: Missa se la face ay pale
- Ockeghem: Missa mi mi
- Josquin: Missa L'Homme Arme super voces musicales
- Josquin: Missa Pange Lingua
- Lasso: Missa Susanne un jour
- Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli (Kyrie and Credo)
- Bach: Mass in B minor: Kyrie I, Christe, Gloria in excelsis, Et in terra pax, Laudamus te, Crucifixus, Confiteor, Agnus dei, Dona nobis pacem
Medieval Polyphony/Motet
- Leonin: Alleluia Pascha nostrum
- Perotin: Alleluia Pascha nostrum
- El mois de mai/De se debent bigami/Kyrie
- Phillipe de Vitry: Tribum/Quoniam secta/Merito bec pastimur
- Guillaume de Machaut: De bon espoir/Puis que la douce rousee
- Dunstable: Beata mater
- Dufay: Nuper rosarum flores
- Josquin: Ave Maria gratia plena ... virgo serena
Madrigal
- Arcadelt: Il bianco e dolce cigno
- Rore: Da le belle contrade d'orie
- Marenzio: Scaldava il sol
- Monteverdi: Cruda Amarilli
- Gesualdo: Moro, lasso, al mio duolo
- Monteverdi: Zefiro torna from Scherzi musicali
Lieder
- Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrade
- Schubert: Erlkonig
- Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin: "Der Neugierege," "Tranenregen," "Die liebe Farbe," "Die bose Farbe"
- Schumann: Dichterliebe: "Im wunderschonen Monat Mai," "Als meine Tranen sprieben," "Die Rose,die Lily,die Taube, die Sonne," "Wenn ich in deine Augen seh," "Ich grolle nicht," "Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen," "Die alten,bosen Lieder"
- lara Schumann: "Ich stand in dunklen Traumen"
- Brahms: Vier ernste Gesange
- Wolf: Nimmersatte Liebe
- Wolf: Auch kleine Dinge
- Wolf: Das verlassene Magdlein
- Strauss: Allerseelen
- Strauss: Heimliche Auforderung
- Strauss: Morgen
- Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings: "Pastorale," "Nocturne," "Elegy," "Dirge"
Opera
- Caccini: "Amarilli mia bella" from Le nuove musiche
- Monteverdi: Orfeo, Acts I and II; "Possente spirto" from Act III
- Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea: Act I, Seneca's death scene (beginning of Act II); "Pur ti miro" from end of Act III
- Lully: Armide: overture; Act III; Passacaille from Act V
- Handel: any da capo aria from Biulio Cesare or Rinaldo
- Cluck: excerpts from Orfeo ed Euridice
- Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro: Acts I and II; sextet from Act III
- Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots: Consecration of the Swords scene.
- Bellini: an act from Norma
- Donizetti: final act from Lucia di Lammermoor
- Verdi: Rigoletto
- Verdi: La traviata
- Wagner: Tristan und Isolde: Prelude; Act II and "Liebestod," or Act III
- Strauss: Elektra: Maid's scene, Elektra's first monologue, Recognition scene, everything after the death of Aeghistus to end
- Berg: Wozzeck, Act I
- Weill: Mahagonny Songspiel, Nos. 1 and 2
- Gershwin: Prgy and Bess
- Britten: The Turn of the Screw
- Glass: Einstein on the Beach: Acts I and II
- Glass: Akhnaten, Act I
- Sondheim: Sweeney Todd
- Adams: Nixon in China, Act I
Instrumental Genres
Variations
- Frescobaldi: 14 Partite sopra l'Aria della Romanesca
- Bach: Goldberg Variations: Aria, Variations 1,5,13,15,16,25,26
- Haydn: Piano Variations in F minor
- Mozart: Clarinet Quntet in A major: IV
- Beethoven: Symphony no. 3 ("Eroica"): IV
- Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
- Brahms: Symphony No. 4: IV
- Schoenberg: Variations for Orchestra
- Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated
Sonata
Sonatas, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
- Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzon septimi toni (C 172) from Symphoniae sacrae I (1597)
- Biagio Marini (1597-1665): Sonata quarta per il violino per sonar con due corde (1629)
- Henry Purcell (1659-1695): Sonta 6 from Sonatas in Four Parts (pub. 1697)
- Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713): Sonta da chiesa, Opus 3, no. 11 (1689)
- Corelli: Violin Sonata in D Major, Opus 5, no. 1 (1700)
- Bach: Sonata for Flute and Harpsichord in B minor, BWV 1030
Sontas, mid-eighteenth century to present
- Scarlatti: Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 545
- C.P.E. Bach: Sonata in E minor from Sonaten fur kenner und Liebhaber, Sixth Collection (Wq. 60)
- Mozart: Piano Sonata in F Major, K.333
- Haydn: Piano Sonata No. 52 in E-flat Major
- Beethoven: Piano Sonata in D Major, Opus 10, no.3
- Beethoven: Piano Sonata in C Major, Opus 53 ("Waldstein")
- Beethoven: Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, Opus 106 ("Hammerklavier")
- Schubert: Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, D.960
- Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor
- Hindemith: Piano Soonata No.3
Piano Character Pieces
- Beethoven: Bagatelles, Opus 126: Nos. 1 (G Major), 3 (B minor), 6 (E-flat Major)
- Schubert: Moments musicaux in A-flat, Opus 94, no.2
- Schubert: Klavierstucke, D.946, no.1 in E-flat
- Mendelssohn: Songs Withour Words: Opus 30, no.3 and Opus 67, no.4
- Chopin: Mazurkas, Opus 17
- Chopin: Polonaise in A Major, Opus 40, no.1 ("Military")
- Chopin: Polonaise in A-flat Major, Opus 53
- Chopin: Ballade in F minor
- Schumann: Carnaval: "Pierrot," "Eusebius," "Arlequin," "Valse noble," "Coquette," "Replique," "Papillons," "Asch-SCHA," "Chiarina," "Chopin," "Estrella"
- Liszt: "Feux Folletts" from Transcendental Etudes
- Liszt: Reminiscences de Don Juan
- Liszt: Funerailles
- Liszt: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca
- Brahms: Opus 76, no.8
- Brahms: Opus 116, nos.2,4,5,7
- Brahms: Klavierstucke, Opus 118: nos.1-3
- Brahms: Opus 119, no.2
String Quartet
- Haydn: String Quartet in F minor, Opus 20, no.5
- Haydn: String Quartet in G, Opus 33, no.5
- Haydn: String Quartet in B-flat, Opus. 50, no.1
- Haydn: String Quartet in C, Opus 76, no. 3
- Mozart: String Quartet in G Major, K.387
- Beethoven: String Quartet in F, Opus 18, no.1
- Beethoven: String Quartet in F, Opus 59, no.1
- Beethoven: String Quartet in A minor, Opus 132
- Schubert: String Quartet in D minor ("Death and the Maiden")
- Brahms: String Quartet in C minor, Op. 51, no.1
- Bartok: String Quartet no.4
- Carter: String Quartet no. 2
- Crumb: Black Angels ("Threnody I," "Sounds of Bones and Flutes," "Pavana lachrymae," "Sarabande de la Muerte Osacura," "God-music")
- Shostakovich: String Quartet no.12
- Reich: Different Trains;
Chamber Music
- Schubert: Piano Trio in E-flat
- Schumann: Piano Trio in D minor
- Brahms: Trio in A minor for Clarinet,Cello and Piano, Opus 114
- Dvorak: "Dumky" Trio
Symphony
- Haydn: Symphony No.47 ("Farewell")
- Haydn: Symphony No.104
- Mozart: Symphony No.29
- Mozart: Symphony No.38 ("Prague")
- Mozart: Symphony No.41 ("Jupiter")
- Beethoven: Symphony No.3 ("Eroica")
- Beethoven: Symphony No.9, especially IV
- Schubert: Symphony No. 9
- Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
- Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 ("Italian")
- Schumann: Symphony No.3
- Liszt: A Faust Symphony
- Brahms: Symphony No.3
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4
- Dvorak: Symphony No.9
- Bruckner: Symphony No.8
- Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
- Franck: Symphony in D minor
- Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements
- Hindemith: Symphony, "Mathis der Maler"
- Harris: Symphony No.3
- Rouse: Symphony No.2
Concerto
- Corelli: Concerto grosso in G minor, Opus 6, no.8 ("Christmas")
- Vivaldi: Concerto in A minor, Opus 3, no.8
- Handel: Concerto grosso in D Major, Opus 6,no.5
- Handel: Organ concerto in F Major, Opus 4, no.5
- Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no.4 in G Major
- Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in A Major
- Mozart: Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, K.482
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto no.5 in E-flat Major ("Emperor")
- Schumann: Piano Concerto
- Brahms: Piano Concerto no.1 in D minor
Program Music
- Beethoven: Symphony No.6
- Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
- Mendelssohn: The Hebrides
- Liszt: les prelues
- Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet
- Smetana: Ma vlast
- Strauss: Don Juan
- Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun