Odes to Joy

At Classic FM, we believe that classical music has the power to touch people’s lives in a way that no other musical genre can come close to managing. Whatever your mood, there is a classical work to match it.

Last month, we teamed up with the Radio Times to find the nation’s Odes to Joy – the classical works that put a smile on your face.  Thanks to all of you who voted – here are the results, as revealed by our very own Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on Bank Holiday Monday.

There were six categories for you to vote in - orchestral music, choral and vocal music, chamber music and concertos, aria from an opera, film or TV soundtrack and song from a musical - and you voted in your thousands.

Here are the works you chose as your favourites in each category:

Orchestral:  Beethoven Pastoral Symphony

Vocal/choral: Beethoven Ode to Joy from Ninth Symphony

Chamber & Concerto: Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2

TV/ Film Soundtrack: Gabriel’s Oboe Ennio Morricone

Song from a Musical: Music of the Night/Phantom Lloyd Webber

Aria/Duet from an Opera:   Bizet Au fond du temple saint (Pearl Fishers’ duet) from The Pearl Fishers

To see the runner's up in each category, click on the links below:

• Orchestral music
• Choral and Vocal Music
• Chamber Music and Concertos
• Aria from an Opera
• Film or Television Soundtrack
• Song from a Musical