Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf's third symphonic exploration of themes from Ovid's Metamorphoses is set in the Pastoral language so fashionable amongst the intellectual elite of post-Enlightenment European society, which advocated a return to rural values and simple living as an antidote to the repression of urbanization. The mood and indeed the setting seem totally apt, for this is the tale of Actaeon, who was famously transformed into a stag, having watched the Goddess of the Woods bathing. For his innocent voyeurism, Actaeon suffered the ignominious fate of being torn limb from limb by his own dogs.

The opening movement (Allegro) presents a hunting scene, in a manner very familiar to 18th century Classical composers. Beginning with a buoyant theme for unison strings, above which high-register horns imitate the calls of huntsmen's' horns, a secondary oboe theme offers glimpses of the hunting party making their joyous way homeward following a day of successful sport. The entire main first movement exposition is repeated (according to Classical custom), paving the way for a development section in which the jubilant atmosphere is suddenly and unexpectedly transformed by a minor-key digression on the strings' opening unison figure, now permeated with threatening wind chords and violent tremolando effects in the violins. This episode is derived in mood from the Sturm und Drang sentiments of many early Classical symphonies, especially by Haydn. The recapitulation arrives in its wake, bringing a block reprise of the opening sections, and the movement ends in confident style.

The extended Adagio slow movement takes the form of a lengthy and richly ornamented flute solo above a delicate muted string accompaniment (possibly imitating the piping of the God Pan, and also at times reminiscent of Gluck's Dance of the Blessed Spirits from his opera Orfeo ed Euridice). It is headed in the score by the lines "the Goddess of the woods, tired from hunting, was wont to bathe her virgin limbs in the dews."

The third movement is a vigorous minuet with trio. Again commencing with a unison figure for strings, the music was intended to show how, returning from the hunt himself, Actaeon strays into the glade as the Goddess bathes, and is captivated by her beauty, and unable to avert his gaze, as suggested by the lush oboe melody in the trio section.

The concluding movement, marked Vivace, begins in relaxed mood, but as the Goddess senses she has been observed, and plots her revenge, the tension mounts through the use of repeated note groupings in the strings, and the appearance of insistent ostinato figures. A series of unison chords precedes the actual moment of Actaeon's transformation, but after his brutal demise at the jaws of his own hunting dogs, the symphony comes to its close on a somber, reflective and unsettlingly enigmatic note.



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