On today’s date in 1873, some music by the German composer Johannes Brahms received its first performance by the Vienna Philharmonic. The piece was titled “Variations on a Theme by Haydn,” and was a big success at its premiere. Brahms must have heaved a great sigh of relief.

For the previous 18 years, Brahms had struggled to complete his First Symphony, unconvinced that he had “the right stuff” to pull it off. In the summer of 1873, he wrote his “Haydn Variations” as a kind of personal test to see how audiences would react—and to bolster his own confidence. Lucky for us, it worked: Brahms returned to work on his First Symphony, which he managed to complete after another three years of perfectionist tinkering and revisions—and went on to write four symphonies in all!

On today’s date in 1990, the Fourth Symphony of the American composer Lou Harrison received its premiere performance by the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Much of Harrison’s music has been influenced by non-Western traditions, especially Javanese gamelan music, and his Symphony No. 4 is no exception.

Harrison was 73 when this symphony premiered, and he dubbed it his “Last Symphony” —apparently agreeing with Brahms that four was enough when it came to symphonies. When asked what would happen should he decide to write still another, Harrison quipped, “I’ll call it the ‘VERY Last Symphony.”