The Petite symphonie concertante was completed the following year and received its premiere in Zürich on May 27, 1946 under the direction of Paul Sacher, the work's dedicatee.
Sacher's commission prompted Martin to assume the unusual ensemble of harp, harpsichord, piano and string orchestra divided into two groups, though all accounts suggest the final choice of instruments was the composer's own.
Each movement may then be divided into two 'halves', though the relationship between each part differs considerably between the two: the first comprises a slow introduction of forty-six bars out of which the following Allegro derives all of its motivic material; the second begins with an Adagio which showcases the three solo instruments (harp, piano, then harpsichord) before breaking into a lively march.
A 12-note row is apparent at the opening of the first movement, though Martin treats it as he does any other thematic or motivic material: it appears in various transpositions (all twelve, if fragmentary statements are included) but is never used in inversion, retrograde or retrograde-inversion forms, and is by no means present throughout the work.
The piece was intended for the so-called "revival harpsichord", the large early-20th-century instruments built in the piano tradition by makers such as Robert Goble and Pleyel.