The symphony was well received by the audience, and the press was generally positive. But not all the reviews were good. Writing in the Danish newspaper "Dannebrog", composer and music critic Leopold Rosenfeld commented: "Carl Nielsen’s new work should, I suppose, rather be called a suite of moods for orchestra than designated as what we understand by a symphony. But aside from the name, this new work by the highly fêted composer again bears favourable testimony to its author’s uncommon ability to give expression to characteristic sound painting through a considerable orchestral technique. Whether one really dares call these constructed orchestral sounds music is another question again. What is especially captivating about these musical illustrations is the composer’s ability to mix colours, which neglects no opportunity to exercise the listening ear. Sometimes, though, the colours are very brutal and in their crudeness easily cross the aesthetic line." In January 1903 Carl Nielsen and his friend the pianist Henrik Knudsen were travelling in Germany to stir up interest in the new symphony and in "Saul and David". When in Berlin, they showed the symphony to Ferruccio Busoni whom Nielsen had known since 1891. Busoni took an interest in the work and promised to put it on the programme in the series of concerts of new and rarely heard music that he was giving at this time with the Berlin Philharmonic. It was probably out of gratitude for this that Nielsen dedicated the work to Busoni. On 5 November 1903 the symphony was performed in Berlin, with Nielsen conducting. As Busoni had warned, the work was not very well received. The symphony did however gain increasing popularity, quickly becoming one of Nielsen’s best loved orchestral works. By 1928, the composer had conducted at least 13 performances in Denmark, Norway (Christiania and Bergen), Sweden (Gothenburg) and Germany (Berlin). In 1921, it was also performed in London under Sir Henry Wood and, in 1927, by the Pasdeloup Orchestra in Paris conducted by Frederik Schnedler-Petersen. The symphony also exists in a version for piano four hands by Knudsen. Books  Scores