It’s that bracket-filled time of year. 91Classical needs your help deciding which orchestral pieces merit the thrill of victory, and which should fall victim to the agony of the downbeat.
Our March Music Madness bracket allows you to make your picks just like you would with basketball. Each matchup includes two pieces of orchestral music. No composer is in there twice. We included a variety of time periods and musical forms. Download our printable bracket, and take a listen to all our picks below:
- Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
- Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade
- Mozart: Symphony No. 40
- Rouse: The Infernal Machine
- Vaughan-Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
- Walker: Lyric for Strings
- Gershwin: An American in Paris
- Dun: Passacaglia
- Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn
- Higdon: blue cathedral
- Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
- Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasy
- Handel: Music for Royal Fireworks
- Adams: Short Ride on a Fast Machine
- Gubaidalina: Fairytale Poem
- Whitacre: Deep Field
- Dvorak: Symphony No. 9
- Glass: Symphony No. 4
- Ravel: Bolero
- Price: Symphony No. 1
- Smetena: Die Moldau
- Marquez: Danzon No. 2
- Holst: The Planets
- Ellington: Les Trois Rois Noir
- Copland: Appalachian Spring
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
- JS Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
- Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
- Beach: Gaelic Symphony
- Still: Afro-American Symphony
- Mendelssohn: Italian Symphony
- Haydn: Surprise Symphony
Make your picks this week, and we’ll open Round 1 for voting next week. You can send your predictions to us via email (scan or photograph your bracket) at [email protected], or tag us in a photo on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – we’re @91Classical.
Let us know what you think: did our picks miss the mark? Is your favorite piece a sure thing? Do you have a good idea who might make an upset? Let us know in the comments on our Facebook page.
Tune in on Spotify to a playlist we’ve made of (almost) every participating composer.