Martinů’s standing in America received a substantial boost in 1942 when Kousssevitzky asked him to write a work for large orchestra, to be dedicated to the memory of his wife Natalie. Koussevitzky’s commission was in fact a response to a letter written by Martinů on 19 December 1941, preserved in the Library of Congress. In it Martinů expresses his desire to write a symphony for Koussevitzky and his orchestra, for the following season. A short orchestral threnody, along the lines of his later Memorial to Lidice, would have fulfilled the terms of the commission admirably but he was clearly keen to make a more ambitious statement at this difficult stage in his career. A symphony would call more attention to itself and its composer than would a modest commemorative work, and Martinů had yet to build on the success achieved by the premiere of the Concerto Grosso. He had already thought of writing a symphony for Koussevitzky in 1928, the result being La Rhapsodie, and perhaps felt that the time was now right for a work of special significance. A symphony would not only be a fitting tribute to the wife of his long-standing champion, but would also exploit the opportunity to best advantage. If an element of selfpromotion informed his decision, one could hardly blame him in such difficult circumstances. His strategy, if such it was, proved successful when the First Symphony (H289) won favour with audience and critics alike at its first performance in Boston on 13 November 1942. Koussevitzky declared that he had not had such a perfect work in his hands for twenty-five years or longer, though this may have been a standard line from him – he was later to say of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra that it was ‘the best orchestra piece of the last twenty-five years’. Martinů’s remarks on the symphonic form in his programme note for the premiere are, to say the least, ambivalent. At one point, he expresses sentiments of reverence, even of awe: