Symphony No. 2 (Piston)

Symphony No. 2 by Walter Piston is a symphony composed in 1943.

Piston's Second Symphony was commissioned by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and was premiered in Washington, D.C., on March 5, 1944, by the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hans Kindler. On the day after the premiere, Kindler sent Piston a note declaring that the symphony "is without even the shadow of a doubt one of the half dozen great works written during the last ten years. It sings forever in my heart and in my consciousness, and it does not want to leave me."

Subsequent performances quickly followed, first by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, then in New York on May 12, 1945, by the NBC Symphony Orchestra at Columbia University's First Annual Festival of American Music, and again in New York by the New York Philharmonic Symphony, conducted by Artur Rodziński. On the basis of these New York performances, Piston won the Music Critics' Circle Award for the 1944–45 season. It was this work that established Piston's reputation as an important American composer.