An extraordinary work for a 22 year-old composer, this early symphony was completed in 1903, the same year of Scriabin's Third and Sibelius' Violin concerto. It was first played in Geneva in 1908. The symphony employs a large orchestra and comprises four movements. The first, Lento - Allegro agitato ma molto energico, is intense, full of an almost mahlerian dramaticism. The second, Andante molto moderato, has a memorable happy and majestic main tune. The third, Vivace, is a scherzo whose fanfares frame a lyrical central episode. The finale, Allegro energico e molto marcato, opens with a fugue and concludes confidently with a reprise of the theme of the second movement. Bloch himself recognized that this work contains the seeds of his many musical aspects.

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