Sinfonias on Ovid's Metamorphoses Nos 4 - 6

Abstract

The group of six Ovid Symphonies (or "Sinfonias") by part-time Forest-Warden, raconteur, Court Official and Kapellmeister Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-99) are much the best known of the many symphonies written by this prolific and gifted contemporary of Mozart. In his own highly colorful autobiography, the composer himself explained how, at the time of the 1786 outdoor premiere in Vienna's fashionable Augarten, bad weather threatened postponement, and he was forced to seek permission to change the venue from the Emperor himself. Owing to the complexity of Austrian bureaucracy, no one of lower station could presume to decide on the issue, a matter Dittersdorf relates with obvious relish!

Ovid's Metamorphoses, a 15-volume survey of Greek and Roman legend, offer a loosely episodic framework in which events in the narrative are often rather tenuously linked. But the themes of Classical legend and antiquity were fair game to Classical composers, and Dittersdorf's cycle of six Symphonies or "Sinfonias" enjoyed tremendous popularity in their day. Symphony No. 4 in F is scored for a small orchestra comprising pairs of oboes and horns with strings. Cast in the expected four movements, it lacks, however, a stand-alone Minuet, and instead of appearing before the finale, the minuet section forms part of it, tacked on at the close of the entire work.

Another unusual departure from the norm in this series of symphonies is that the first movement lacks any Latin superscription. Equally surprising is that the symphony begins with a slow movement, marked Adagio non molto ("slow, but not too slow"), in which the first oboe is given a prominent solo role. Dittersdorf leaves it to the imagination of the listener to surmise that the soaring, long-breathed melody heard over muted strings represents the flight of Perseus, after he has used Medusa's severed Gorgon's head to turn Atlas into stone, transforming him into a mountain.

The succeeding Presto movement ("motis talaribus aëra findit") offers a brilliantly evocative sonata- form survey of the events described by Ovid, in which King Cepheus of Ethopia's wife Cassiopeia must atone for her boastfulness, and placate the sea-God Poseidon by sacrificing her daughter Andromeda. Urgently propulsive string figurations and highly contrasted first and second themes suggest the mood graphically as, by the close, Perseus sees Andromeda chained to a rock awaiting her fate. The un-titled third movement, (Larghetto) is in a style immediately suggestive of the laments from Gluck's operas, and it is not difficult to imagine suitable texts being sung to the fine melodies employed, as the heroine bemoans her plight, and awaits rescue.

Structurally, the final movement ("gaudent generumque salutant") is the most radically innovative of the four. It opens in stern, tragic D minor, moving progressively to the relative major of F for the concluding Minuet section, again in the French Rejouissance style so popular on the opera stage. General jubilation accompanies the scene, as Perseus, having slain the monster Poseidon, now takes Andromeda as his bride.

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