Cocktail Party Fact: Despite his reputation for using vast orchestras, this is the only symphony composed in the latter half of the nineteenth century or the first decades of the 20th that does not include trombones.
Commitment Factor: About 55 minutes
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic Period (1900). A four-movement symphony in very unconventional form–the finale is a [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: This is the longest symphony ever written that actually gets played regularly.
Commitment Factor: 90 - 100 minutes
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic Period (1898). This symphony contains six movements, the fourth of which is an alto solo setting words by Nietzsche, while the fifth is a song that includes choruses of women and children. [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: This titanic work was, without a doubt, the biggest piece of music ever written when it was composed. It’s still in the top few.
Commitment Factor: 75 - 90 minutes (Mahler allows great freedom of tempo, so actual timings can vary considerably.)
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic Period (1894). This vast symphony has five movements–a [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The original version of this symphony had five movements, not four. The extra movement, called “Blumine” (”Flowers”), was extracted by the composer, but some conductors put it back.
Commitment Factor: 50 - 55 minutes
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic Period (1888). A five-movement symphony in cyclical form (the themes from the first movement reappear in [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The second movement, “Putman’s Camp,” ends with a collision between two marching bands, each playing different music in different keys at different speeds. It’s a typical Ivesian collage.
Commitment Factor: About 18 minutes
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic/Modern Period (1903-14).
What to Listen For: The movement titles are self-explanatory, but the last movement, “The Housatonic at [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The second and fourth movements of this symphony are so rhythmically complex that they require an extra conductor (sometimes two).
Commitment Factor: About 30 minutes
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic/Modern Period (1909-16). A four-movement symphony in which the first movement poses a question (the chorus singing the hymn “Watchman tell us of the night,”–which ends [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: There are seven movements, each representing a planet–earth is left out, and Pluto hadn’t been discovered yet.
Commitment Factor: About 50 minutes
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic/Modern Period (1916). Arranged is the form of a suite, each movement illustrated–not really the planet itself, obviously–but its emotional characteristic as represented in myth and legend: Mars/War; Venus/Peace; [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: After the rapturous reception given his First Symphony, Elgar was disappointed with the audience’s reaction to this finer work: “They sat there like stuffed pigs!” he complained.
Commitment Factor: About 50 - 60 minutes (Elgar’s music allows a wider range of tempo than most, and timings can vary considerably.)
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic Period [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Edward Elgar’s Cockaigne is a “concert overture.” That is, it isn’t associated with any particular play or opera; it’s simply a bright and colorful curtain-raiser.
Commitment Factor: About 15 minutes.
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic period.
What to Listen For: Named after the mythical land of plenty, and subtitled “In London Town,” Cockaigne is a vivid [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Mickey Mouse’s most famous role in Disney’s “Fantasia,” this little tone poem was actually inspired by one of Goethe’s (of “Faust” fame) ballads.
Commitment Factor: About 10 minutes
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic (1897). This is what we call in the music biz “program music:” something that tells a story or illustrates concrete images in [...]