It was premiered at the Donaueschingen Festival on 7 October 1951 by the South German Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Rosbaud.
The symphony is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion (4 players), harp, celesta, piano and strings.
The first is quiet, featuring the flutes, bass clarinet, bassoons and horns, developing into fanfares from the brass.
[1] Rhythms of 3/4 and 3/8 prevail and the mood is only interrupted briefly by a calm and canonic episode immediately before the "furious"[1] ending.
According to Henze "Some people were not best pleased that the work failed to follow the modernist eclectics of the Darmstadt School.