Carl Nielsen's Suite for String Orchestra was one of the composer's earliest works and was first performed at the Tivoli Hall on 8 September 1888.

Nielsen composed the Suite for String Orchestra when he was only 22 and was still studying composition with Orla Rosenhoff, his former teacher at the Conservatory.

Press reviews were mixed, but Avisen was very positive: "The young man obviously has a great deal on his musical mind that he wants to say, and what he told us on Saturday was presented in a beautiful, concise form, modestly and attractively, with excellent part-writing and an appealing fullness of sound that reveals an excellent eye for the string material."

The work marked an important milestone in Nielsen's career as it was not only his first real success but it was also the first of his pieces he conducted himself when it was played in Odense a month later.

The Intermezzo, a waltz, gives a hint of the composer's love of triple time, and features the occasional flat seventh grace notes that would later become so characteristic of Nielsen's music.