Failing in his efforts to get funding for premieres of Schoenberg's original compositions, Otto Klemperer took pains to ensure that at least Schoenberg's transcriptions of other composers' works were publically performed. Klemperer led the Kolisch Quartet on 6 and 7 January 1938 in a performance of the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, which Schoenberg had based on Handel's Concerto Grosso. He also invited the composer to make an orchestral transcription of Brahms' Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25, for inclusion in an upcoming Brahms cycle.

Schoenberg was delighted with the commission, and set to work transcribing "strictly in the style of Brahms." The work Schoenberg dubbed "Brahms Fifth Symphony" was the result. It premiered under Klemperer's baton on 8 May 1938 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

The newly-orchestrated Brahms inspired admiration - if also some confusion. "I don't know why people say that Schoenberg has no melodies," the orchestra manager confided to Klemperer after the performance. "That was very melodic!"