Cocktail Party Fact: This is the only Bruckner symphony with a title, though there is no indication as to the music’s “meaning” beyond this single word.
Commitment Factor: About 65 minutes
Vital Statistics: Romantic Period (rev. 1880), naturally. A grand, four-movement symphony in Bruckner’s own unique cyclical form (the main theme from the first movement comes back [...]

Active Years: 1756-1791
Position: The greatest composer who ever lived.
Career Highlights: Marriage of Figaro, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and virtually any other piece he wrote. The definition of never having a bad day.
Career Totals: More than 600 compositions, including 12 Operas, and an equal number of smaller dramatic works, 15 masses and scores of other choral church [...]

Active Years: 1811-1886
Position: Hungarian pianist, conductor, and composer.
Career Highlights: Transcendental Etudes, (not to be confused with that gas you get before a cavity is filled), and Faust Symphony.
Career Totals: Several symphonic poems, 2 piano concertos, over 100 solo piano works, works for organ, 4 masses, over 60 songs, and various other choral works.
Scouting Report: A [...]

Active Years: 1898-1937
Position: American pianist, composer, and conductor.
Career Highlights: Porgy and Bess, Rhapsody in Blue
Career Totals: Dozens of musicals and film scores, 2 operas, scores of songs, various chamber music, orchestral pieces, and solo piano works.
Scouting Report: Gershwin began as a song writer for Broadway shows, never became proficient at reading music and always thought [...]

Active Years: 1810-1849
Position: Polish pianist and composer
Career Highlights: Piano Concerto No. 2
Career Totals: Many preludes, waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises, nocturnes, etudes, every dance but the “macarena” for piano.
Scouting Report: An extremely talented pianist, Chopin wrote pieces almost exclusively for himself to play. He was not well known for his interpretations of the works of others, much [...]

Active Years: 1845-1896 (Born 1824)
Position: Austrian composer and organist
Career Highlights: Nine gigantic symphonies
Career Totals: Eleven symphonies, four masses, six chamber works, over forty cantatas, over fifty psalms, many choruses and songs.
Scouting Report: Bruckner is a composer who arouses fanatical support and intense dislike. To his detractors, he’s a bore who wrote elephantine symphonies with long, [...]

Active Years: 1833-1897
Position: German composer.
Career Highlights: German Requiem, 4th Symphony, and the 2nd Piano Concerto.
Career Totals: 4 symphonies, 2 serenades, many works for solo piano, 3 quartets, 3 trios, several sonatas, 230 songs, other choral works.
Scouting Report: A real student of the game, Brahms was haunted by his determination to continue the line of great [...]

Active Years: 1918-1990
Position: American conductor, composer and lecturer.
Career Highlights: Compositions include Symphonies Jeremiah and Age of Anxiety, Chichester Psalms and compositions for the theater, West Side Story, Candide, and On the Town.
Scouting Report: Born just outside Boston, Bernstein graduated from Harvard, and became a pupil of Koussevitsky at Tanglewood. He became the assistant conductor and [...]

Active Years: 1823-1869 (Born 1803)
Position: French composer, conductor, and critic
Career Highlights: The Damnation of Faust, Symphonie Fantastique, L’Enfance du Christ.
Career Totals: Berlioz’s major works include eight orchestral pieces, four operas, ten choral pieces, nine works for solo voice and orchestra, and over thirty songs.
Scouting Report: Berlioz had two specialties: dramatic subjects and inventive orchestration. His [...]

Active Years: 1770-1827
Position: Great German composer
Career Highlights: Fifth Symphony, Ninth Symphony, “Emperor” Concerto.
Career Totals: 9 Symphonies, 9 overtures, 16 quartets, various concertos, 10 sonatas for violin, dozens for piano, 1 opera, 2 masses, various songs and incidental music.
Scouting Report: Not a child prodigy, but a tireless worker, a man of quick temper, did not suffer [...]