Even if you're not a huge classical fan, if you enjoy listening to music, these pieces are definitely worth a listen. Symphonies tend to be long, but as finals week is coming up, it's a perfect time to make a short playlist and just listen all the way through while studying.

Brahms 3

Brahms 3rd Symphony is one of my all time favorite pieces. It evokes a wide range of moods and emotions from mysterious, earnest, melancholy, exciting, joyous and epic. It's absolutely beautiful and extremely well written. For those of you who don't know Brahms, he is easily considered one of the greatest composers of all time. He was commonly known as a perfectionist, having spent nearly 15 years on his first symphony. He only ended up writing three more. Brahms lived in the 1800s during the Romantic period, and wrote this piece in 1883. It is the shortest of the four symphonies; this compactness adds to its drama as Brahms elegantly but powerfully creates and resolves tension quickly and passionately.

Tchaikovsky 4

Tchaikovsky was also a composer during the late Romantic period. Initially, this piece was not well liked by critics, but it is now revered as one of Tchaikovsky's best symphonies. His life was riddled with depression and crisis, as his more Euro-centric sounding music often got him negative feedback from his Russian heritage. I personally love this symphony for many reasons. One being that I was fortunate enough to perform this piece under Gustav Dudamel's direction, where his passion and expression of this tormented piece created a new found empathy in me for Tchaikovsky's work. The piece opens in a heavy brassy fanfare style which is sure to capture your attention. Although a lot of this piece seems to express a lot of Tchaikovsky's anguish there are elements of a dream-like state that balance the piece beautifully with optimism and hope.

Mahler 9

This piece I highly recommend, not only can you listen to it here at the link but the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra is giving a live performance of it next weekend May 6 and 7 and it's only $5 for students! Mahler was a composer of the late Romantic era as well. He is one of the most often performed composers to this day, as his work was very influential in bridging a gap between the traditional and contemporary musical styles. Mahler's ninth symphony was his last complete symphony before he died of heart failure. The piece is often seen as paralyzing or terrifying in that it is a true of expression of life and death since it was written after he learned of his heart problems as well as the death of his daughter. The end of the piece is perhaps the most striking as themes of human existence and mortality truly come to a close with the extended dying off and loss of sound. Overall, the piece is one of the most fervent and heart wrenching pieces I've heard, so definitely try and come out next weekend to hear it performed live in Hertz Hall at 8 p.m.!