The theme is drawn from the first movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata in A, K. 331, and is first presented by the oboe and two clarinets before being repeated by strings.

The piece concludes with a final, forceful statement of the theme by trumpets.

The work, which takes about 33 minutes to perform, consists of the following movements: It is scored for piccolo flute, two concert flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four French horns, two trumpets, timpani, harp, string section.

This remains the composer's most popular and most-recorded orchestral work, although during the later 20th century it largely disappeared from the concert hall.

[1] It has obvious antecedents in Johannes Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn both in terms of the inspiration theme (both draw from a simple melodic phrase) and the subsequent style of variation.