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. 4 (Vaughan Williams) the time." The British composer Sir William Walton admired the work greatly, telling fellow composer Arthur Benjamin that it was "the greatest symphony since Beethoven". Only two symphonies of Vaughan Williams end loudly; No. 4 and No. 8. The work was first performed on 10 April 1935 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult. Its first recording, made two years later, featured the composer himself conducting the same orchestra in what proved to be his only commercial recording of any of his symphonies. It was released on 78-rpm discs in the U.K. by HMV and in the U.S.