In 1959 the Boston Symphony Orchestra maintained its tradition of introducing exceptional new works of music on the occasion of its major anniversarites. Dutilleux's Second Symphony was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in memory of Sergei and Natalie Koussevitzky for the Orchestra's 75th Anniversary. It was premiered by them under the leadership of Charles Munch on December 11, 1959. Munch realized the great value of this symphony immediately and became its early champion. He played it with other orchestras in eight more performances in nine months.The work is called "The Double" not just because it contrasts a twelve-piece chamber orchestra with the full orchestra. An even more important reason is that it uses the ideas of mirrors and reflections, alter egos, contrasts and superimpositions as its poetic and constructive ideas. The chamber group, which includes timpani, celesta, and harpsichord, is drawn up into a semi-circle around the front of the conductor. The large orchestra then fans out in a normal seating arrangement. Dutilleux seems not to have thought of the arrangement as a kind of modern-day concerto grosso: Rather than being a collection of solo instruments, the 12-member group is a single solo voice en masse. Dutilleux described the orchestral plan as well as the musical concept as representing "two characters in one, one being a reflected image of the other. Dutilleux also said that after a performance a woman told him the music made her think of Gauguin's picture "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" He says that in pondering this remark later he realized she had truly understood the music.

As is usual in Dutilleux, the principle of variations is paramount in the structure of the symphony, as are contrasts between static, space-like music with music of powerful rhythmic movement. The first movement is in an A-B-A form, with the "B" section being the center of gravity. The themes are not stated before they are varied and developed. Rather, they emerge from the variation process. As the middle section of the first movement was its true heart, so the second movement of the symphony is its core. This is a haunting and beautiful song in binary form, which includes a stream of pivot chords the rotate around the note c-sharp. There is a secondary melody of tone-colors. The final movement is fast, with convulsive rhythms and thick pillars of chords which in the end descend to a deep sense of calm. The harmonic language takes Debussy as its starting point, but enriched with the twelve-tone examples of Schoenberg and late Stravinsky.

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