Sinfonia Concertante No. 2, H 322 represents a partial return to Martinů's classicist roots from the early 1930s in the development of his musical thinking. The roots of the composition are linked to Martinů's first encounter with Joseph Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante in B flat major, Op. 84, performed by the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire conducted by Charles Munch in Paris. Martinů finished the composition of the same name, in the same key and for the same instrumentation, in New York on March 5, 1949. Shortly after, Charlotte Martinů mentioned the composition in a letter to Swiss conductor and patron Paul Sacher. This news aroused Sacher's interest, and after studying a reproduction of the autograph score, in November he informed Martinů that he was delighted with the work and would like to perform it in December of the following year on the occasion of the composer's 60th birthday. The world premiere of the composition finally took place as planned on December 8, 1950, in Basel.
The work shows the composer's continuity in his approach to formal solutions (concerto grosso), but also the development his creative poetics underwent during his stay in America and his inclination towards symphonism. At the same time, this work can be seen as a tribute to Haydn, whose compositional style the composer admired and who also inspired him in his own aesthetic reflections on the essence of musical creation.
Pavel Žůrek, Marek Pechač, „Souborné vydání díla Bohuslava Martinů: IV. Čtyřkoncerty (2),“ Hudební rozhledy 12, vol. 75, 2020, p. 56.