 In January 1903 Carl Nielsen and his friend the pianist Henrik Knudsen were travelling in Germany to stir up interest in the new symphony and in "Saul and David".When in Berlin, they showed the symphony to Ferruccio Busoni whom Nielsen had known since 1891.Busoni took an interest in the work and promised to put it on the programme in the series of concerts of new and rarely heard music that he was giving at this time with the Berlin Philharmonic.