Jean Sibelius made his first sketches for material that would later find its way into Cassazione at the end of the 1890s; there are already hints of it among the sketches for the First Symphony, completed in 1899. He conducted the first performance of Cassazione as the opening number in a concert of his music held at the Helsinki University Hall on February 8, 1904.

This is the first printing of the first version of Cassazione op. 6 for large orchestra.