[3] More tuneful and Scriabinesque in comparison with his four other symphonies,[4] it was written as his graduation composition at a time when he had become influenced by the music of Scrabin and Richard Wagner.
[5] The symphony is described in the 1999 edition of The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs as "a well-crafted, confident score" that "abounds in contrapuntal elaboration and abundant orchestral rhetoric".
[6] A similar vision of the war to Nikolai Myaskovsky's Symphony No.
The reflective second movement is redeemed by a finale that is, according to the music historian Ferrucio Tammaro, "not only dynamic, but even heroic, in close conformity with the tastes of emerging Soviet symphonism".
[7] The symphony is written for an orchestra consisting of 3 flutes (3rd also piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets (A) (3rd also bass clarinet (B♭)), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns (F), 3 trumpets (B♭), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, tam-tam, glockenspiel, harp, and strings.