The Curse of the Ninth Symphony

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1. The numbering of this composer's symphonies is a bit confusing. His Seventh doesn't exist, and his Eighth is "Unfinished". His Ninth is nicknamed the "Great C Major", to distinguish it from his Sixth, in the same key. He died in 1828, the year after Beethoven. Who is he? Robert Schumann Johannes Brahms Richard Wagner Franz Schubert

2. This English composer gave his first three symphonies names rather than numbers: "A Sea Symphony", "A London Symphony" and "A Pastoral Symphony" respectively. He completed his Ninth at the age of 85, in the year of his death. What is his name? Peter Maxwell Davies Edward Elgar Ralph Vaughan Williams Benjamin Britten

3. The numbering of this Czech composer's symphonies is not straightforward, to say the least. His Sixth was originally published as his First, and the piece we now know as his Ninth was originally published as his Fifth. To make matters worse, it was subsequently known for a while as his Eighth. Fortunately, it has always been best known by the name given to it by the composer: "From the New World". What is his name? Bedrich Smetana Antonin Dvorak Leos Janacek Zdenek Fibich

4. This nineteenth-century Austrian composer's Ninth Symphony is unfinished, although the three completed movements form a convincing whole, and are frequently performed as such. In fact, he also wrote two early symphonies that pre-date his official First, and which are numbered as "00" and "0". Can you name him? Arnold Schoenberg Anton Bruckner Johann Strauss Max Reger

5. The music of this nineteenth-century Scottish composer, born in 1813, is now almost entirely forgotten, although as well as nine symphonies he wrote eighteen operas (including "King Charles II" and "Robin Hood") and thirteen oratorios and cantatas. He does, however, appear in books of quotations as the author of the couplet "Let's dance and sing and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year." Who is he? William Sterndale Bennett Charles Villiers Stanford Sir George Alexander Macfarren William Hurlstone

6. Although much of the work of this English composer is light-hearted and tuneful (such as his sets of regional dances and some delightful overtures), his Ninth Symphony, completed in 1986, concludes with an awesomely bleak and despairing "lento" finale. He is also known as a composer of film music, and for his music for brass band. What is his name? Havergal Brian Humphrey Searle Malcolm Arnold Michael Tippett

7. This Russian composer was definitely one of those with a superstition about the number nine: in 1910, aged 45, he deliberately broke off work on his Ninth symphony in the belief that its completion would signal his death. Future events would seem to support this belief, since he lived on for 26 more years! What is his name? Alexander Glazunov Peter Tchaikovsky Sergei Rachmaninov Dmitri Shostakovich

8. This American composer's nine symphonies spanned the whole of his long composing career: the first appearing in 1927, the last in 1978. His sixth, seventh and eighth symphonies form a trilogy cataloguing his response to the Vietnam War. Who is he? Roger Sessions Leonard Bernstein Samuel Barber Aaron Copland

9. Like Beethoven's, the Ninth Symphony of this twentieth-century Scandinavian composer is choral. Known as the "Sinfonia Visionaria", it uses texts from the thirteenth-century Icelandic epic, the "Poetic Edda", describing the creation and destruction of the world. Can you name him? Kurt Atterberg Jean Sibelius Carl Nielsen Hugo Alfven

10. This composer followed a massive Eighth symphony with another large work for orchestra, chorus and soloists. However, for superstitious reasons he chose to describe it as a "song cycle" rather than a symphony, and gave it a name - "Das Lied von der Erde" - rather than a number. Subsequently, he did in fact complete an official Ninth, but his Tenth was incomplete at his death - only the first movement and part of the second being fully orchestrated. What is his name? Alexander Scriabin Richard Strauss Gustav Mahler Alban Berg