The Symphony No. 2 ("Mysterious Mountain") is without a doubt Hovhaness' best-known and most popular work. The work was commissioned by Leopold Stokowski, one of the composer's most consistent advocates, and premiered by the Houston Symphony on its first program under the legendary conductor. The concert was telecast nationwide, and Stokowski subsequently featured the work during guest appearances with many of America's leading orchestras. However, the disproportionate success of "Mysterious Mountain" is probably chiefly attributable to a 1958 RCA Victor recording of the work by the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner. Though the work has been recorded a number of times, the Reiner recording has scarcely waned in popularity and has remained in print for over 40 years.

The Symphony No. 2 is notable for a pervasive sense of spiritual serenity. The first of its three movements alternates between richly consonant hymnlike passages and calm, gentle instrumental solos; throughout, the peaceful mood is never broken. The second movement is a double fugue: the first subject is pentatonic, its development resembling the polyphonic techniques of Renaissance masters like Josquin Desprez; the second subject is quite vigorous and provides the only moments of agitation in the entire work. (This material, indcidentally, appears in more primitive form in Hovhaness' 1936 String Quartet No. 1). Eventually the two subjects come together in a majestic, awe-inspiring climax. The third movement returns to the calm, peaceful mood of the opening. A melody, barely audible at first, is repeated rather ominously at an ever-increasing dynamic level until it peaks in a full climax. The Symphony ends with an epilogue that expresses an exquisite spiritual rapture—a passage, the composer maintained, that came to him in a dream.

© Walter Simtec Simmons, All Music Guide