César Franck wrote his Symphony in D minor in 1887/88; in spite of the work's lukewarm reception at its world premiere on 17 February 1889, the work was published during his lifetime. It was not until a few years later that the established conductors dared perform this work more frequently . It marked the inevitable triumph of a work which had once caused such a furor and whose individuality of conception burst the framework of the genre ("double tonality" of D and F minor in the opening movement; the combination of Andante and Scherzo in the central one; the recapitulation of the main themes and motifs of the previous movements in the finale). The work was finally accepted into the concert repertoire for good around the turn of the century, not least through the good offices of influential critics and composers.

Just as with the previously published "Carnival of the Animals" (PB/OB 5321) by Saint-Saens, Franck's work also raises many questions concerning its origin and history. Peter Jost based his work on the first edition (the autograph was destroyed in a fire in 1935) as well as on the piano reduction (four-handed) by the composer.