The second part of the third volume to appear in the magnum opus of A. Peter Brown continues the geographical tour of the mid-19th-to early-20th-century symphony begun in Vol. 3A. Brown discusses works from England, Russia, and France including those by Potter, Bennett, Stanford, Elgar, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Gounod, Bizet, Franck, Dukas, and many others. A single source provides a detailed analysis of stylistic traits and background material on the composition and performances of these masterpieces.
Brown's series synthesizes an enormous amount of scholarly literature in a wide range of languages. It presents current overviews of the status of research, discusses important former or remaining problems of attribution, illuminates the style of specific works and their contexts, and samples early writings on their reception. There are overviews of the symphony as a genre and in-depth analysis of particular aspects of the symphony (such as composer, period, or instrument). No other book or series of books allows for the in-depth musical analysis and historical context that Brown provides in each volume of The Symphonic Repertoire."