Composed between 1886 and 1888, Franck's sole mature symphony received its premiere at the Paris Conservatoire on February 17, 1889 under the baton of Jules Garcin to decidedly mixed reviews. This opinion changed soon though and the work was already being performed by orchestras worldwide by the first part of the 20th century. The composer gave his manuscript to the dedicatee Henri Duparc, which sadly was destroyed in a fire at the Duparc estate in 1935.

This newly engraved edition, carefully prepared from the first edition and other authoritative sources by Clinton F. Nieweg was first issued by the now-defunct publisher E.F. Kalmus in 2012. The study score offered here is a reduced format reissue of the 2012 score, which is now also available along with the orchestral parts from Serenissima Music.