Debussy’s Images

Debussy's Images is music that "never looks back," and it still sounds new, more than a century later.

Stravinsky’s "The Firebird"

Serge Diaghilev was turned down by four composers before turning to Igor Stravinsky to write the music for a new production by the Ballet Russe. Luckily, Stravinsky, eager to try his hand at a ballet, had already been working on the music for a month, and their artistic relationship went on to produce Petrushka and The Rite of Spring.

Shostakovich's Piano Concert No. 1

After Shostakovich's first opera landed him in hot water with the Soviet authorities, the success of his first Piano Concerto gave him the confidence to keep composing, and put him back in the government's good graces—at least, temporarily.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 5

It's the most famous four-note pattern in all of music. But it's also the key to Beethoven's 5th Symphony—and maybe to Beethoven himself.

Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3

Sibelius' Symphony No. 3 is deliberately anti-Romantic. There is no story, no imagery and no drama except the drama of the music itself.