The work was commissioned by Aleksandr Kholodilin, the head of the music division of the Committee on Artistic Affairs, with the completion date specified as 1 November 1951.
[2] The work drew, in part, on material contained in Prokofiev's earlier Cello Concerto, which was premiered in 1938.
[3] The work was first performed, as Prokofiev's Second Cello Concerto, on 18 February 1952 in Moscow, with Rostropovich as soloist and Sviatoslav Richter as conductor.
[4] Following a review by the Union of Soviet Composers, the concerto was further revised and retitled as the "Симфония-концерт" (commonly rendered in English as "Symphony-Concerto").
The end of the concerto requires the cellist to play off the fingerboard, reaching as high as an E7, the extreme upper limit of the cello's range.