Symphony instruments, 19th century symphonies were gradually augmented with more string players and more wind parts, so that the orchestra grew substantially in sheer numbers, as concert halls likewise grew. At the beginning of the 20th century, Gustav Mahler wrote long, large-scale symphonies. His Eighth Symphony, for example, was composed in 1906 and is nicknamed the "Symphony of a Thousand" because of the large number of voices required to perform the work. Additionally, his Third Symphony is one of the longest regularly performed symphonies at around 100 minutes in length for most performances. The 20th century also saw further diversification in
Piano symphony White's Piano Sonatina No. 8 (1961) consists of six movements, of which the fifth is called "Symphony in Five Movements". Haskel Small has also composed a piano symphony. Piano symphony A piano symphony is a piece for solo piano in one or more movements. It is a symphonic genre by virtue of imitating orchestral tone colour, texture, and symphonic development. The first piano symphony was written by French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan in 1857. José Vianna da Motta wrote of it, "Alkan demonstrates his brilliant understanding of [symphonic] form in the first movement of the Symphony (the fourth Study [of his