1. Haydn usually bores me – – he wrote over 100 symphonies, and they mostly sound all the same but two are unique: the “Surprise” Symphony has a long boring passage designed to lull people to sleep, followed by a fortissimo that jolts them back awake; and the “Farewell” Symphony, often played at the end of a symphony season and *always* when an orchestra goes bankrupt, in which during the final movement musicians begin rising one by one and departing the stage, until only the concertmaster (the first violin, and the actual leader of the orchestra) remains – – then he, too, departs.

2. There’s also the one with hyperactive tympani.
   String quartets are often very nice. They have enough parts to them to be complex, but few enough (and just one of each) that the construction is clear. A symphony has so much going on that it’s often easy to get lost.
   I’ve been a classical music fan ever since grade school, where our teacher introduced us to classical music by playing Grieg’s “In the hall of the mountain king” (from “Peer Gynt”). But there is a lot, and a great deal of variety. Bach’s pieces for small orchestra are great. And some of his organ pieces (fugas) will blow you away. The same is true for some much later works by various Russian composers, Scriabin and Prokovief (“toccata”) come to mind.

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