The premiere performance was given on 2 December 1883 by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Hans Richter.

The D Major Second Symphony followed barely 12 months after the First, and the next few years saw Brahms' creative peak, during which he created "a series of large-scale masterpieces with fluency and ease.

In October, he played the first and last movements (on piano) for Antonín Dvořák, who remarked to Fritz Simrock: “I say without exaggerating that this work surpasses his first two symphonies; if not, perhaps, in grandeur and powerful conception—then certainly in—beauty.”[3] The first movement begins with a statement (F-A♭-F) which is broadly assumed to represent Brahms' personal motto, frei aber froh (free but happy).

"[4] The first movement's opening F-A♭-F motto is followed immediately by a passionato theme; a descending sequence which bears a strong resemblance to a phrase[a] from Robert Schumann's Third Symphony, the 'Rhenish'.

Brahms' stay in Wiesbaden (on the Rhine) during the composition of his Third Symphony may also have brought back memories of his early days in Düsseldorf in the home of Robert and Clara Schumann.

Whether this reference was a tribute to his recently deceased rival is unknown, although Brahms' admiration of Wagner's music was no secret; he had even possessed the original Tannhäuser manuscript for a time.

At the time of the Third Symphony, Brahms was a fifty-year-old bachelor who declared himself to be Frei aber froh, "Free but happy".

[6] At the beginning of the symphony the motto is the melody of the first three measures, and it is the bass line underlying the main theme in the next three.

Instead of the rapid scherzo standard in 19th-century symphonies, Brahms created a unique kind of movement that is moderate in tempo (poco allegretto) and intensely lyrical in character.

[7] The fourth movement is in F minor (ending in F major) and features a modified sonata form in 22 time.