Cocktail Party Fact: Mahler never heard this, his last completed symphony, performed.
Commitment Factor: 80 to 90 minutes
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic/Modern Period (1909). This symphony reverses traditional form: two slow outer movements enclose two quick ones. The movements share themes, most especially the second movement’s demented waltz tune, and the slow central interlude in the third [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Nicknamed “Symphony of a Thousand” this is the largest symphony ever written [that actually gets played regularly]. You can actually do it with about 450 people if necessary.
Commitment Factor: 75 - 80 minutes
Vital Statistics: Late Romantic/Modern Period (1906). Composed in two large movements, the first is a setting of the Latin hymn [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: This is one of the very few symphonies that ends tragically in a minor key (unhappy endings are actually very rare), but the struggle to get there is so powerfully fun to listen to that it has also become one of Mahler’s most popular works in recent times. It’s also the first [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The better you know Mahler, the more you will realize that his entire life’s work is like one large piece of music. The symphonies share themes, rhythms, and structural ideas. The very opening of this symphony is a trumpet fanfare that first appears in the first movement of the Fourth Symphony.
Commitment Factor: [...]

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: Gustav Mahler gave this piece the subtitle Symphony for Tenor and Contralto (or Baritone) and Orchestra, and composed it right after his 8th Symphony. But he is said to have been superstitiously afraid that he would die after completing 9 symphonies, so he tried cheating fate by naming it The Song of [...]

Active Years: 1864- 1949
Position: German composer.
Career Highlights: Der Rosenkavalier, Also Sprach Zarathustra, (2001 theme song), Death and Transfiguration.
Career Totals: 15 operas, over twenty orchestral works, works for piano, almost 200 songs, and various chamber music.
Scouting Report: The son of a famous horn player, Strauss was a precocious child who had already composed a symphony by [...]