Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra

In his Three Pieces for Orchestra, Alban Berg finally "graduated" from his studies with Arnold Schoenberg, and took his first giant step towards fulfilling his musical destiny.

Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale

In his theater piece The Soldier's Tale, Igor Stravinsky shows off his gift for parody, as he lovingly sends up both old and new: Russian folk tales and American jazz.

Brahms's Symphony No.2

Brahms's Symphony No.2 is generally thought of as his most lighthearted, but it's actually built on the contrasts between light and dark, between sunshine and clouds. Kind of like life.

Samuel Adams's Drift and Providence

Samuel Adams's Drift and Providence is not so much about the ocean as it is like the ocean: ebb and flow, crest and trough, and destinations that may be more felt than seen.

Mahler's Symphony No. 7

Mahler's 7th is sometimes called "The Song of the Night," but it's really a journey from night into day, with some very interesting stops along the way.

Copland's Appalachian Spring

For many, the sound of Copland's Appalachian Spring IS the sound of American classical music.

Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra

In Also Sprach Zarathustra, Richard Strauss set Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy to a new kind of music. But was the world ready for either?

Ravel's Piano Concerto in G

Ravel’s American influences are easily heard in his Piano Concerto in G Major, which he modeled after the light, divertimento-like concertos of Mozart and Saint‑Saëns.

Britten's Peter Grimes

Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes is one of the great operatic psychodramas–an outcast in a closed society, is Grimes truly a villain, or a victim of circumstance?

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15

Dmitri Shostakovich summed up his life and art in his 15th and final symphony. But, in the end, did it reveal who he really was, or was it just another mask for him to hide behind?

Britten's The Prince of the Pagodas

Britten's exotic fairy-tale ballet The Prince of the Pagodas fuses the sounds of East and West in a magical mix that sounds like nothing else he ever wrote.

Fauré’s Reqiuem

Gabriel Fauré called his Requiem "a lullaby of death...as gentle as I am myself." Serene and hopeful, it's one of the great spiritual masterpieces of the 20th century.

Bach’s Missa brevis

Like many of Bach's works, much of his Missa brevis had been used before and all of it would be used again, in his epic Mass in B minor. But in its original form it was actually something quite different: a bribe.

Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4

Bach's Orchestral Suite #4 is a dazzling combination of rhythmic complexity and sonic brilliance; all the more amazing in that he wrote it (most likely) just for fun!

Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 “Romantic”

Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 "The Romantic" was a departure from his usual symphonic testaments of faith. It's a journey into the Age of Chivalry, of knights, quests, and - above all - the hunt.

Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 “The Great”

Schubert's "Great" C major symphony was the longest, most advanced and most intricately constructed symphony ever written by anyone not named Beethoven. With it, Schubert staked his claim as his idol's heir.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov traveled the world as a naval officer, but it was his musical journey into the world of the Arabian Nights that became one of his most colorful and enduring masterpieces.

Ravel’s La Valse

In 1906, Maurice Ravel made some sketches for a tribute to Johann Strauss, the Waltz King. By the time he got back to it, World War I had ravaged Europe, and Ravel's tribute had turned into something much darker.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 3

In his Symphony No. 3, the largest and longest in the current symphonic repertoire, Mahler  leaves the story up to the listener—according to the composer, “you just have to bring along ears and a heart and—not least—willingly surrender to the rhapsodist.”

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4

The Fourth Symphony was a product of the most turbulent time of Tchaikovsky's life—1877, when he met two women (Nadezhda von Meck, a music-loving widow of a wealthy Russian railroad baron, and Antonina Miliukov, an unnoticed student in one of his large lecture classes at the Moscow Conservatory), who forced him to evaluate himself as he never had before.

Sibelius’s Symphony No. 6

In his Symphony #6, Jean Sibelius created a musical sanctuary from the chaos of war and revolution that had engulfed his world. He once said that it reminded him "of the scent of the first snow.”

Britten’s Simple Symphony

When Benjamin Britten was twenty, he took music he had written more than a decade earlier and arranged it into a work he called "Simple Symphony" - a remarkably assured portrait of the artist as a young composer.

Beethoven’s Mass in C

Beethoven's Mass in C may not be as well-known as his Missa Solemnis, but its harmonic daring and deceptively gentle nature changed the Mass the same way his Eroica changed the symphony.