Pfitzner completed this work in 1940; it was premiered on October 11 of that year in Frankfurt.

Although lieder were his specialty for decades, he wrote three symphonies in the next-to-last period of his life, before he became disillusioned with the Nazi hierarchy which had classified him, alongside Richard Strauss, as a cultural treasure, and had encouraged him to concentrate on composing and guest conducting rather than teaching. The first symphony, in C sharp minor, was a 1932 transcription of his String Quartet No. 2, Op. 36. The second, composed in 1939, he called Kleine Sinfonie. The third one, in C, followed a year later with a dedication "To my Friends." To the end of his life, Pfitzner's harmonic vocabulary remained post-Wagnerian: diatonic in the case of the C major Symphony, which linked it to Lohengrin rather than later operas. Structurally, however, Schumann was his model: multiple movements within a single-movement frame, with a restatement at the end of the main theme.

Pfitzner begins Allegro moderato in common time. Over a cello ostinato of sextuplets, a solo horn announces the main theme, which trumpets and strings then take up. Three sub-themes of a more subdued nature follow, in the dominant key of G. Clarinets play the first one "very expressively." Oboes and flutes quietly introduce the second non-legato one. Oboes and clarinets combine "peacefully" for the third one. Both development and reprise are abbreviated before the tempo slows for the work's middle section, marked Sehr langsam = Adagio, in 3/4 time. The English horn gets to sing over a soft cushion of strings. Then all the winds play in canon until the English horn resumes, leading to the one surprise in this sinfonietta-size piece—a fortissimo attack, without warning, that launches the Presto finale in 6/8 time. A fugato section follows in Reger style until trumpets and trombones reintroduce the main theme of the first movement. With horns filling in harmony, winds and strings race up and down the scale until a triple-forte conclusion in tonic C major.

© Roger Dettmer, All Music Guide