Ernő Dohnányi’s Symphony No. 1 (op. 9) was premièred under the baton of Hans Richter in early 1902 in Manchester. The Bratislava-born pianist and composer could boast a remarkable oeuvre even though he was not even 25 years old. Four years earlier, freshly graduated from the Music Academy, he had embarked on an immensely successful musical career that took him on tour around Europe and the United States, while he also composed many important works. His D-minor first symphony (1900–1901) was one of them. It was in fact his second work in the genre. (The first, the F-major symphony, which won a Millennial Royal Award, never came out in print and was not assigned an opus number either.) Composed for an immense orchestra in five movements, the ambitious work attests to creative invention and virtuoso skills. While the monumentality and even pathos of the work was not typical for Dohnányi, it will reveal the composer’s hallmarks – the always subtle, charmingly affectionate music, eclectic in an individual way – to the attentive listener.