Honegger's Symphony No. 2 was begun in 1937 as a commission from Paul Sacher of the Basel Chamber Orchestra. But the rising international tensions in the late 1930s and finally the start of the war in 1939 interrupted its progress and the "Symphonie pour cordes" was not completed until 1941 and was premiered by Sacher in 1942. As much as Vaughan Williams' Fourth or Shostakovich's Seventh, Honegger's Second is a war symphony. Cast as all Honegger's symphonies are—in three movements—the work charts the same course as Beethoven's Fifth, the course from darkness to light. The Second opens with a weighty Molto moderato wrenched into a bludgeoning Allegro; moves through a "somber, not to say, at times, positively hopeless" Adagio mesto; and ends in a climactic Vivace non troppo—Presto. In the closing pages, Honegger calls for a solo trumpeter ad lib who "calls forth a golden sun on the horizon. Joy conquers at last, but only at the very last moment." Honegger's language is astringent, but still tonal, his rhythms abrasive and propulsive, his forms lithe but monumental, his intentions noble, and his success complete.

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