Peter Maxwell Davies's Symphony is substantial enough to have prompted an intensive study of the score, and problematic enough to have prompted this essay. ‘Problematic enough’ is not a tactful or cowardly euphemism for ‘bad enough’, though it might just be a euphemism for ‘uneven enough’: we shall see. In any case, to talk of problems here is the most objective approach as well as the most honest: initially, at any rate, it leaves the question open whether the problem is Peter Maxwell Davies's or mine or, most likely, a bit of both.