The mid-1880s witnessed the creation of a mighty handful of great French symphonies—Saint-Saëns' "Organ" Symphony, Lalo's Symphony in G minor, d'Indy's Symphony on a French Mountain Air, and César Franck's Symphony in D minor (begun in 1886 and completed in 1888). Having hit his mature compositional stride during this period, Chausson inevitably wished to add a symphony of his own to the series—hopefully one that would help him overcome his reputation as an affluent dilettante. His B flat Symphony was begun in September 1889 and completed in December of the following year. Its three-movement layout has prompted comparisons with that of his mentor, Franck—for instance, both employ the "cyclical" recall of themes from previous movements in the last, and make prominent use of the cor anglais—though perhaps the most significant common quality between the works is their intense mood of idealism. Chausson's preoccupation with symphonic forms and expression would carry over into his contemporaneous work on his opera, Le Roi Arthus, begun in 1886; it suffers somewhat from its self-conscious striving for nobility of utterance in formally wrought (sometimes overwrought) sections of "pure" music.

The Symphony opens with a brooding Lent introduction, the basic melodic shape of which will reoccur throughout the work; having the character of a prolonged sigh, it rises in ever more anxious iterations to a thunderously impassioned statement before giving way to a light, shimmering, syncopated, heraldic first theme (Allegro vivo). The following development—fraught with sudden shifts from minor to major and constant modulations—is animated by real conviction, as aureately ecstatic moments vie with tempestuous alarums. A brief recapitulation and coda round off the movement with a rare moment of relative triumph.

The second movement (Très lent), also with two themes, is a long-breathed lamentation, rising to a passionate climax and ending in the optimistic glow of a prolonged D major chord. In good cyclic fashion, the third movement (Animé) opens stormily, with a fanfare-like reminiscence of the first movement introduction ushering in thematic transformations of material from the preceding movements; the first movement's Allegro vivo theme receives special emphasis. Development and recapitulation seem to have reached an impasse when the opening motto theme is heard as a chorale—a Franckian ritual also strategically employed in symphonies by d'Indy and Magnard—which succeeds by the audacity of being scored for brass choir alone. Conferring a moment of mournful benediction, it is taken up by the orchestra in a grandiose peroration.

Of Wagnerian amplitude, the orchestral writing is graced by a glowing, almost impressionist, richness which compensates for such weaker passages as the repetitive third movement. In its grandeur and gloom, the Symphony is abreath with the aspirations and anxieties of the Franckist table ronde.

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