Cocktail Party Fact: Dmitri Shostakovich composed this symphony during the Siege of Leningrad in World War II, in which he served as a volunteer fireman. A picture of the composer in his fireman’s hat made the cover of Time magazine around the time Toscanini gave the symphony its media-hyped American premiere.
Commitment Factor: About 75 minutes.
Vital [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Dmitri Shostakovich produced a series of mildly modernist works which Stalin took a disliking to. Fearing for his life (this was during the purges of the 1930s), Shostakovich composed this work, which he called “A Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism.”
Attention Factor: About 45 minutes.
Vital Statistics: Modern Period. A symphony in four [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Realizing that this sort of modernist music had fallen into ideological disfavor, Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich withdrew his 4th Symphony before its premiere. When asked if he wanted to make any changes in it when he finally released it for performance 25 years later, he said, “Let them eat it.”
Commitment Factor: About [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Toward the end of his life, Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich revealed that the second movement of this symphony was a portrait of Joseph Stalin.
Commitment Factor: About 50 minutes.
Vital Statistics: Modern Period. A big Mahler-ian symphony in four movements.
What to Listen For: The high drama of the first movement is followed by [...]

Active Years: 1840-1893
Position: Russian composer.
Career Highlights: Symphony Pathetique, Piano Concerto No. 1, 1812 Overture, and Swan Lake.
Career Totals: 11 operas, 3 ballets, 6 symphonies and dozens of other orchestra works, several concertos, miscellaneous chamber music, scores of piano pieces, and over 100 songs.
Scouting Report: Tchaikovsky’s music is known for its’ beautiful melodies, brilliant instrumental writing, [...]

Active Years: 1910-1971 (born 1882)
Position: Started out as a Russian composer, switched to the French team, finished his career as an American.
Career Highlights: Petrushka, The Rites of Spring, The Firebird, The Soldier’s Tale, Oedipus Rex, The Rake’s Progress, Elegy for J.F.K.
Career Totals: Fifteen ballets, three operas, two symphonies, five concertos, twenty-seven other orchestral works, sixteen [...]

Active Years: 1906-1975
Position: Russian composer.
Career Highlights: Lady Macbeth, Symphony #5, and Eighth String Quartet.
Career Totals: A dozen ballets and operas, 15 symphonies, 15 string quartets, 36 film scores, incidental music for 11 plays, and vocal music of all kinds.
Scouting Report: A member of the Soviet team (the Reds) throughout his career, Shostakovich was torn between [...]

Active Years: 1915-1963 (born 1895)
Position: German Composer
Career Highlights: Mathis de Mahler, Violin Concerto, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed, The Swan Turner Viola Concerto
Career Totals: Seven operas, three ballets, three symphonies, over thirty-five other orchestral pieces, six string quartets, approximately thirty choral works, many other chamber works, many songs and sonatas.
Scouting Report: Paul Hindemith [...]