Cocktail Party Fact: Carl Nielsen wrote his Fifth Symphony soon after the First World War ended. Bordering on expressionism in places, it’s the most “modern” of his symphonies, and caused a riot when it was first performed in Stockholm.

Commitment Factor: About 33 minutes.

Vital Statistics: Late Romantic Period. A symphony in two long movements.

What to Listen For: Nielsen clearly meant this symphony to depict the triumph of humanity over its own violent tendencies (or at least his optimistic vision of that triumph — he died in 1931, before the awful truth emerged). The first movement pits peaceful but eerily tense music against a strutting, deafening march driven by an obsessive snare drum rhythm, like a mechanized army trampling innocent woodlands under foot. Note the seemingly endless two-note ostinato in the violins — it goes on for a hundred measures. The second movement is almost Mahlerian in its extreme contrasts, except for one famous passage that sounds like a deliberate imitation of Brahms. After many struggles, and near-tragedy in a few spots, the symphony ends on a note of ultimate victory.