In the fifth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, we encounter the legend which narrates how Perseus deals with a rival entreaty for the hand of Andromeda. It was the gripping account of the petrifaction of Phineus and his associates that provided the stimulus for this, the last of Dittersdorf's six symphonies after Ovid, and this D major work is one of several which have survived in original manuscript form. Scored for flute, pairs of oboes, horns, and trumpets, with the usual timpani and strings, the subject matter of Classical legend afforded plenty of illustrative potential, though some of the effects employed help to account for the fact that Dittersdorf was roundly censured for endless striving after palpable realism in his orchestral music. The symphony has the expected four movements, the first of which (Andante più tosto Allegretto) is in straightforward ternary form, but is not (contrary to Dittersdorf's familiar practice in these works) given a Latin head-note to outline its narrative. Instead the work opens in lambent pastoral mood, but this soon gives way to frenzy and high drama when, following interruption of the settled mood, alarming heraldic trumpet fanfares lead into a demonic, threatening episode in Sturm und Drang style. This is the second movement of the piece, headed by lines from Ovid's text "at ille, iam moriens oculis sub nocte natantibus atra, circumspexit Athin" ("but he, now dying with eyes swimming under dark night, looked on Athis"). At this point, the Assyrian warrior Lycabas mourns his friend Athis, whom Perseus has killed in his jealousy, and he too suffers the same fate at the hand of the hero. Dittersdorf uses a solo oboe above pizzicato strings in the slow movement (Andante); its plaintive melody suggests a musician murdered despite his peaceable art, by Pettalus, one of Phineus' band. The vivace closing movement brings Phineus to confront his final destiny. Perseus appears, at the wedding banquet for Phineus and the reluctant Andromeda. He is bearing the head of the Gorgon, and bids any true friend present to hide his face. Seeing two hundred of his followers dead, Phineus finally capitulates, and is turned to stone, leaving Perseus and Andromeda to marry without hindrance. Again, the movement has simple bi-partite structure, the vehement first section portraying the demise of Phineus, while the celebratory closing sequence is a scene of jubilation as the minuet withheld earlier is now used as music for the wedding procession which closes this unusual symphony.



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