Cocktail Party Fact: Musical terminology can be confusing. A piano quartet is a quartet for piano and string trio — not a blowout for four pianos. Similarly, a piano quintet is a quintet for piano and string quartet.
Commitment Factor: 33 minutes for the E flat major quartet. 28 minutes for the G minor.
Vital Statistics: Classic [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The gorgeous middle movement of this concerto was such a hit with the opening-night audience that Mozart had to repeat it.
Commitment Factor: About 35 minutes.
Vital Statistics: Classical Period.
What to Listen For: The first and last movements are in the sunny key of E flat major, but with many Mozartean digressions. Note especially [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The soulful middle movement of this piano concerto was heard on the soundtrack of the 1967 movie Elvira Madigan. Record sales went through the roof for a while, and the concerto is still sometimes given the Elvira Madigan subtitle on CD covers. To Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who composed it 182 [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Incredibly, this splendid composition — the flowering of Mozart’s maturity as a composer of piano concertos, and perhaps the most popular of all his concertos with modern listeners — disappointed the audience at its premiere in 1785. In fact, the legendary financial troubles that afflicted Mozart can be said to have begun [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The most famous recording of the horn concertos is a monaural record that features the legendary British horn player Dennis Brain. It was the top best seller in the Angel catalog for years after the stereo record became the standard recording medium.
Commitment Factor: About 15-20 minutes per concerto.
Vital Statistics: Classic period. (1782-89). [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Mozart originally included a second minuet before the slow movement of his famous “A Little Night-Music,” but he later changed his mind and the movement is now lost.
Commitment Factor: About 18 minutes.
Vital Statistics: Classical Period. A four-movement work for string orchestra.
What to Listen For: This beloved composition is so familiar to [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: This score exists only as a single autograph copy because it was written for very special circumstances: the invention of a trumpet that could play notes in any key. The instrument was a failure, but the music, fortunately survived. It is Haydn’s very last purely orchestral work.
Commitment Factor: About 17 minutes
Vital Statistics: [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: This series of symphonies was Haydn’s musical calling card to his new employer, Prince Paul Esterhazy, whose favorite piece was Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” If you like the Vivaldi, then this is the sequel.
Commitment Factor: 20 - 25 minutes (each)
Vital Statistics: Late Baroque/Classical Period (1761). Although Haydn was one of the “big [...]

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: 1732-1809
Position: Distinguished Austrian composer.
Career Highlights: Farewell Symphony (subtitled the Michael Jordan theme song), Surprise Symphony, (also subtitled the Michael Jordan theme song), Emperor String Quartet, and Creation Oratorio.
Career Totals: Over 1000 works, including 125 or so symphonies, 77 or so quartets, several operas, approximately 53 keyboard sonatas, and hundreds of songs.
Scouting Report: The [...]