While Lutoslawski's Symphony No. 2 is regarded as a less challenging work for the listener than his 1947 First, which was received poorly by Communist Party arts meddlers, it can hardly be classed as easy listening. Cast in two movements, the first subtitled "Hesitant" and the second "Direct," the work is austere, if colorfully scored, and structurally unconventional, veering away from the exposition-development-reprise pattern and other forms typically found in traditional symphonies in favor of a more episodic or, to use the composer's term, open structure. Yet, especially for its time, it cannot be called avant-garde, either—indeed, it has quite recognizable, if difficult themes.

"Hesitant" opens with an extended passage of what seemingly begins as big brass-dominated fanfares, but what soon deteriorates into roiling, discordant music struggling to find direction. The mood then turns relatively calm, but the music appears uncertain of its direction. Gradually, amid much delicate but busy instrumental activity, the thematic material unravels, without, however, shedding its sense of indecision or generally unsmiling mood. The scoring is brilliantly imaginative throughout, conveying a sense of the primitive. Note, in particular, the growling brass and winds at the close of the movement.

"Direct," as the listener would surmise, presents its material more directly and imparts a more resolute sense of shaping its structure and trajectory. That said, it begins mysteriously, the orchestra wandering and roiling in its lower ranges. Soon the accrued tension finds partial release when sonorities rise higher and take on a brighter mood. But tension continues to grow, with several dissonant brass outbursts and frenetic, driving strings and winds. Even when things seem to herald calm, the music soon begins to spew energy again: a menacing piano dazzles in its dissonant fanaticism, inciting the orchestra to a fury of rhythmic drive and sonic mayhem. But the close is relatively calm, even if the music divulges an undercurrent of unresolved tension.

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