Symphony No. 41 (Mozart) Reportedly, from the very first chords, Mozart's Symphony No. 41, in C Major reminded Cramer of Jupiter and his thunderbolts. The celebrated finale of the symphony is a re-working, albeit a majestic one, of the opening movement of Carl Ditters's symphony in D, "Der Sturz Phaëtons" (The Fall of Phaëton) of 1785. In those days of classical education, members of the Philharmonic Society, of which Salomon was a founding member, will have known that the planet that the ancient Greeks called "Phaët(h)on" is the same planet that the ancient Romans called "Jupiter." Thus the majestic nickname is also a humorous
Symphony No. 2 (Rachmaninoff) Rachmaninoff wrote not only his Second Symphony, but also the tone poem "Isle of the Dead". Rachmaninoff was not altogether convinced that he was a gifted symphonist. At its 1897 premiere, his Symphony No. 1 (conducted by Alexander Glazunov) was considered an utter disaster; criticism of it was so harsh that it sent the young composer into a bout of depression. Even after the success of his Piano Concerto No. 2 (which won the Glinka Award and 500 rubles in 1904), Rachmaninoff still lacked confidence in his writing. He was very unhappy with the first draft of his Second Symphony