Ralph Vaughan Williams 's Lark Ascending is the nation 's favourite piece of classic music . The Lark Ascending has been voted the nation 's favourite piece of classical music . Ralph Vaughan Williams 's work topped the Classic FM Hall of Fame after listeners cast more than 200,000 votes . It topped the poll last year as well and four years ago was named the nation 's favourite Desert Island Discs tune . British composer Vaughan Williams was inspired by a poem of the same name by George Meredith . He completed the more familiar orchestral version in 1920 . It found a wide audience last year when it was played as Hayley , played by Julie Hesmondhalgh , took a lethal cocktail to end her suffering on Coronation Street , following a battle with cancer . The top five was completed by Rachmaninov 's Piano Concerto No . 2 , another Vaughan Williams work Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis , Elgar 's Enigma Variations and Beethoven 's Piano Concerto No . 5 . The full poll - 300 pieces of music in total - also includes 12 pieces of music used to soundtrack video games , with two of them making the top 20 . Music from the Final Fantasy series , by Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu , is at number nine while The Elder Scrolls , composed by Bafta award-winner Jeremy Soule , is at number 11 . John Suchet , who presents a weekday show on the station , said : 'Twenty years after the very first Classic FM Hall of Fame countdown , I 'm delighted that we 've attracted so many votes for our chart . 'What I find truly exciting is the continued increase in a younger audience for classical music - I did n't expect to be thanking the video game industry for introducing the genre to a new generation of people , but it 's wonderful . ' Lark Ascending was played as Hayley Cropper ( Julie Hesmondhalgh ) took a lethal cocktail to end her suffering on Coronation Street last year . 1 . Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending . 2 . Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No . 2 . 3 . Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis . 4 . Elgar - Enigma Variations . 5 . Beethoven - Piano Concerto No . 5 ( 'Emperor ' ) 6 . Allegri - Miserere . 7 . Beethoven - Symphony No . 9 ( 'Choral ' ) 8 . Mozart - Clarinet Concerto . 9 . Uematsu - Final Fantasy . 10 . Beethoven - Symphony No.6 ( 'Pastoral ' ) 11 . Soule - The Elder Scrolls . 12 . Holst - The Planets . 13 . Kirkhope - Banjo Kazooie . 14 . Elgar - Cello Concerto . 15 . Bruch - Violin Concerto No . 1 . 16 . Barber - Adagio for Strings . 17 . Pachelbel - Canon . 18 . Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture . 19 . Jenkins - The Armed Man : A Mass for Peace . 20 . Dvorak - Symphony No . 9 ( 'From the New World ' )
Topped poll after Classic FM listeners cast more than 200,000 votes . British composer inspired by a poem of same name by Beethoven . It found a wide audience last year when it was played as Hayley took a lethal cocktail to end her suffering on Coronation Street . Full poll also includes 12 pieces of music used to soundtrack video games .