Brahms's Symphony No. 3

After composing Serenade No. 1, Johannes Brahms waited fifteen years before he wrote another purely orchestral work for large ensemble. Infamous for his harsh self-criticism and haunted by the feeling that he was living in Beethoven’s shadow, Brahms finally broke his symphonic silence at the age of forty-two with the Haydn Variations, a musical experiment with the arrangement of sonic shapes. By the time he composed his Symphony No. 3, ten years later, he had fully realized his true voice as a symphonic master.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 9

Often called the greatest piece of music ever written, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 was the last he would ever write. The first symphony to feature a chorus and vocal soloists, Symphony No. 9 also includes the famous Ode to Joy.

Kodály’s "Dances of Galánta"

In his "Dances of Galánta," Zoltan Kodály recreated the sounds of his childhood, and helped preserve the stamping feet of a vanishing culture.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 4

Despite his family’s financial turmoil, the year 1806 was extraordinarily productive for Beethoven. He wrote many of his great works, including the Razumovsky string quartets, Piano Concerto No. 4, and Symphonies No. 4 and 5. Symphony No. 4—a return to the grace and relative simplicity of his earlier style—is perhaps Beethoven’s least frequently performed symphony. A passage in the middle of the second movement was called “one of the most imaginative passages anywhere in Beethoven” by musicologist Donald Francis Tovey.

Mozart's Symphony No. 36

Mozart wrote his "Linz" Symphony in just four days, but it was his biggest and grandest to that point, and it helped set the stage for the great symphonies of the 19th century.

Mahler's "Blumine"

Gustav Mahler revived one of his earliest compositions to use in his first symphony; he ultimately cut it, and it was forgotten for almost sixty years. Now, one hundred years after it was written, this musical orphan finally has a chance to bloom on its own.