Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges

The plot of Prokofiev's opera The Love for Three Oranges may be almost incomprehensible, but the symphonic suite is anything but: whimsical and dramatic, with one of the most famous marches ever written.

Shostakovich’s 9th Symphony

As World War II was winding down, the Soviet Union was waiting for Shostakovich's 9th Symphony, and they expected a great victory symphony, like Beethoven's 9th. What they got was something very different.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 2

Beethoven spoke of setting out upon a fresh path with his Second Symphony, and even included veiled musical jokes, which shocked the sensibilities of many critics. Produced between the widely popular First and the revolutionary Eroica, Symphony No. 2 forged new territory with development of theme and architecture, and would eventually take its place among Beethoven's great works.

Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde

Gustav Mahler's Song of the Earth may end with a funeral march, but it's really a symphony about the triumph of life and love.

Schumann's Symphony No. 2

By the time he wrote what we now know as his Symphony No. 2, Robert Schumann had already completed his Symphony No. 1, his Overture, Scherzo, and Finale, and the first version of the work that would eventually be published as Symphony No. 4. However, by summer 1844, Schumann began to be ruled by his mood swings and phobias (including fear of blindness, heights, death, and poison), effectively halting his creative activity. But then, midway through 1845, he wrote a letter to Felix Mendelssohn about dreams of blaring trumpets in C. Finally, in December 1845, he wrote, in three weeks, the essentials of Symphony No. 2, and the symphony was premiered in November 1846.

Berlioz’s Harold in Italy

Among musicians, the viola may be the least respected member of the orchestra, but Berlioz' Harold in Italy gives it a chance to shine—despite having been rejected by the virtuoso for whom it was written.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, Jupiter

Mozart's final symphony was nicknamed the "Jupiter," and—like the planet and the Roman god that share its name—it still stands out as one of the greatest of its kind.

Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3

Bruckner's Third Symphony was his gift to "the master," Richard Wagner, and it's full of tributes and allusions to Wagner's works. But those tributes were buried under revisions and revisions of revisions, and only now can we hear what Bruckner originally presented to his idol.

Prokofiev’s Cinderella

Sergei Prokofiev wrote his ballet Cinderella as a simple love story that could be beautifully danced. Of course, the Soviet government had its own interpretation.

Hermann’s score to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo

Bernard Herrmann's score to Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Vertigo swirls and spins like the main character's condition, while it pulls you into the heart of his obsession.

Mozart's Symphony No. 39

In the space of nine weeks in summer 1788, Mozart produced the last three of his symphonies, including Symphony No. 39. Started within a month after his opera Don Giovanni opened to a less than enthusiastic audience in Vienna, the symphony opens with a reflection on the opera’s overture.

Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4

On an extended journey through Italy in 1830 and 1831, Felix Mendelssohn began work on his Fourth Symphony.  A wildly talented composer who wrote his famous Octet when he was only sixteen, Mendelssohn was prompted to finish the work when the London Philharmonic Society requested a symphony from him (and offered payment of a hundred guineas). Mendelssohn called it the jolliest music he had ever composed. Although he remained dissatisfied with the symphony and planned numerous revisions, the Italian Symphony still stands as one of his most easily recognizable works.

Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis

Carl Maria von Weber was no ugly duckling as a composer, but Paul Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphosis" turns four of Weber's themes into symphonic swans.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 8

Much like his fifth and sixth symphonies, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his seventh and eighth symphonies in quick succession. Compared with Symphony No. 7 and Symphony No. 9 (which would not be completed for twelve more years), Symphony No. 8 seems like a look back to Classical times, with nods to Beethoven’s teacher, Josef Haydn. However, the Eighth is more a study in compactness: there is just as much music packed into fewer notes, a sentiment that Beethoven himself echoed—when asked why the Seventh was so much more popular, he responded, “. . . because the Eighth is so much better.”

Dvorak's New World Symphony

In June 1891, Antonín Dvořák was invited to direct the newly-formed National Conservatory in New York City. Leaving four of their six children behind in Bohemia, Dvořák and his wife made their new home on East 17th Street in cacophonous Manhattan, just a few blocks from the new school. Through his diverse student body and the advent of the polyrhythmic ragtime, Dvořák first encountered African American and Native American music. He was particularly taken with those cultures’ spirituals. He borrowed musical elements from diverse popular sources for many of his compositions, including his Symphony No. 9, From the New World.

Schumann’s Symphony No. 1

Schumann's Symphony No. 1—"born in a fiery hour"—is as personal, original, and fresh as the season that gave it its nickname: Spring.

Schumann's Symphony No. 3

Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, Rhenish, completed in 1850 after his much celebrated appointment as Municipal Music Director in Düsseldorf, reflects his optimism in the face of new challenges. Filled with spirited, glorious themes, Rhenish marks the high point in the life of a composer who struggled with mental illness.

Saint-Saens's "Organ" Symphony

A child prodigy, Saint-Saëns was not only a gifted composer but an accomplished pianist who could perform all of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas from memory by the age of ten.  Composed for the Philharmonic Society of London, his Symphony No. 3, Organ, is dedicated to his friend Franz Liszt.

Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No. 3

Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suite No. 3 is a kind of symphony lite—he called it "a ballet without choreography”—but it's really a symphony, a ballet, an opera and a roller-coaster ride all rolled into one.

Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5

Sibelius's 50th birthday present to himself and his homeland was his Symphony No. 5, music distilled to its essence. "While other composers were engaged in making cocktails," he said, "I offered the public pure cold water."

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5

Composed alongside fellow distinguished Russian composers at a House of Creative Work northeast of Moscow, Prokofiev’s renowned Fifth Symphony saw its premier in January 1945, as Soviet armies had begun their final push to victory over Germany. As Prokofiev raised his baton in the silent hall, the audience could hear the gunfire that celebrated the news, just arrived, that the army had crossed the Vistula and driven the German Wehrmacht back past the Oder river.

Haydn’s Mass in D minor, Lord Nelson

The real title of Haydn's popular Lord Nelson Mass is "Missa in angustiis" or "Mass in Troubled Times." But those "troubled times" inspired Haydn to new heights of creativity, variety, surprise, and drama.

Respighi’s Roman Festivals

Ottorino Respighi was a master of orchestral color, and his Roman Festivals contains all the colors of the musical rainbow, and then some.