If he had been so inclined, Poulenc might have gone into history as a composer of a symphony. He must have named the work with the diminuitive form of "symphony" on account of its light-hearted mood, for at over twenty-eight minutes it is as long as the symphonies of his old friend Arthur Honegger.

Following the reopening of the Continent after the military defeat of the Nazi Germans, Poulenc received the commission for this work from the BBC, to be premiered on its fine arts channel, "The Third Programme."

The first movement is not symphonic in construction (perhaps another reason Poulenc held back from assigning the work the august title of "Symphony.") Opening with a gruff idea, the movement is a succession of themes of lyrical character, which are not afraid to occasionally cross the line into sentimentality.

The second movement, a scherzo, in the most light-hearted of all the movements, happily adopting the mood and style of Tchaikosky while also borrowing ideas from Mozart and from Poulenc's own ballet Les Biches. The slow movement is a more serious lyrical movement with a hauntingly beautiful main theme.

The final movement begins in the rather gruff tone that Poulenc adopts when he appropriates something of the character of Igor Stravinsky's neo-classical period, but this soon turns into the light mood of Poulenc the boulevardaire as the composer quotes the main themes (in music-hall mood) of an early string quartet that failed so badly the embarassed composer threw the score down a sewer. These themes, finally, find the right context in this vivacious conclusion.

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