Cocktail Party Fact: Mozart’s most famous symphony. Try singing the opening phrases of the finale to the words: “Oh Mozart’s in the closet, LET HIM OUT! LET HIM OUT! LET HIM OUT!” Where this originated is anyone’s guess, but it works.

Commitment Factor: About 25 minutes

Vital Statistics: Classical Period (1788). An austere, four-movement symphony, the only one of Mozart’s late works written without trumpets and drums. He later revised his work to add clarinet parts, but the piece can also be played with just the two oboes (along with flute and bassoons, horns, and strings).

What to Listen For: The key of this symphony, G minor, was Mozart’s “tragic” key–much of his most affecting music was written in it. In the case of the present work, the gorgeous opening tune has tended to obscure the fact that the emotional clincher actually occurs when the second theme–first presented in a happier major key, returns transformed into a sad memory of itself, in the minor. The same thing happens in the finale, making this one of the rarest of musical species–a work that actually ends in a minor (sad or unhappy) key.