This substantial three-movement work (about 25minutes long, it is a symphony for strings in all but names) appeared at a time when a new optimism, confidence, and assuredness in handling musical ideas becomes evidence in Bliss's works. It was commissioned for the 1935 Salzburg Festival and was premiered at that event with Adrian Boult conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. It is one of Bliss's finest works, and shares some of the feelings and textures of the Introduction and Allegro for String of Edward Elgar. That older master, with whom Bliss had a friendly and collegial relationship, had just recently died when Bliss began work on this composition, so it is tempting to ascribe to this music the quality of a tribute, but there is no evidence for such intent.

The opening movement is flamboyant, energetic, and virtuosic, propelled by a fresh and lively bass line. A quintet for solo strings makes a direct transition to the middle movement, which is a rhapsody, featuring complex and shifting time signatures such as 9/8, 12/8, 15/8, and 18/8. The final movement is also complex and disparate as to matters of tempo and meter, although the use of a basic theme unifies all these. It starts "allegro molto" and speeds up to "presto," rushing to a breath-taking conclusion.

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