The New York Youth Symphony has pulled a specially commissioned piece from its program for a performance this Sunday at Carnegie Hall, saying the work’s reference to a Nazi anthem is unsuitable content for a youth orchestra.

The symphony commissioned the work last April from a young Estonian-born composer, Jonas Tarm. The title of the piece, “Marsh u Nebuttya,” is in Ukrainian and translates to “March to Oblivion,” Mr. Tarm said.

According to the symphony, it only became aware of the disputed content after performing the piece last month at a concert uptown at the United Palace Theatre in Washington Heights.

Shauna Quill, the symphony’s executive director, said the orchestra received an anonymous letter saying the music contained the Nazi anthem, “Horst-Wessel-Lied,” which is banned in Germany and Austria. The note was signed “A Nazi Survivor.”

In an interview this week with The Wall Street Journal, the composer, a 21-year-old student at the New England Conservatory of Music, defended the piece and cast the issue as an attack on freedom of expression.