Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2

After nearly being expelled from conservatory and enduring the disastrous premiere of his first symphony, Rachmaninoff didn’t write a note of music for three years.  But after trying out hypnosis therapy (“You will write a Concerto. . . You will work with great facility. . . It will be excellent”), Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 2.

Brahms Symphony No. 4

Ever the brutal self-critic, Brahms did not write his first symphony until the age of 42.  By the time he wrote his Symphony No. 4 in 1885, he had reached the pinnacle of his orchestral composition—the music he had always wanted to write.