Michael Steinberg's hefty book "The Symphony" has what you're looking for
in regard to Mozart syms 35, 36, and 38-41 (also 15 or so of Haydn's, all
of Beethoven, Mahler and Sibelius, and numerous others.) Steinberg has an
amazing ability to describe music without using intensely musicological
terms, yet without resorting to overly picturesque associations either.
Jon Lewis
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