The ninth symphony in the Periodical Overtures series by Johann Stamitz was the first of Bremner’s issues to be in the key of G major. The “Andantino” is in the subdominant key of C major, and Bremner follows Huberty’s tempo indication for this central movement, in contrast to that of the Regensburg manuscript that Wolf used for his thematic catalogue, which designates the slow movement as “Andante non Adagio.”[1]

In the dramatic opening movement, Bremner matched Huberty with the designation of an “Allegro” tempo, whereas the Regensburg source uses “Presto assai.” Bremner’s print differs from them both, however, in his use of cut-time meter; the others are set in common time. The movement is structured as a sonata form without repeats, a practice that grew more frequent with Stamitz’s “middle-period” symphonies and became his normal practice with his late works.[2] A brilliant upward “Mannheim rocket” introduces the march-like first theme (m. 3), even though Stamitz himself is less linked to this striking motif than some of his Mannheim colleagues.[3] It is supported by other characteristic gestures, such as the second violin’s measured tremolos and the lower strings’ “drum 8ths.” The second theme (m. 26) contains “filigree” embellishments along with alternating measures of piano and forte, but the development—which again features the rocket (m. 42)—also employs a Mannheim crescendo (m. 57). The initial two-measure orchestral rocket is omitted, however, when the march-like theme reappears for the recapitulation (m. 79).

The expressive “Andantino” is a duple-meter showcase for strings alone and comprises a straightforward rounded-binary form. Its delicate first theme features a downward octave jump followed by an upward leap of a twelfth; the pattern is repeated sequentially before making a long conjunct descent. Although the second theme (ms. 39) starts with an upper-neighbor gesture and several repeated notes, it shares the characteristic downward octave-jump motif. Each half of the structure ends with the celebrated crescendo technique, starting in measure 28 and again in measure 79. Throughout the movement, Stamitz shifts the dynamics from piano to forte in close succession, sometimes in every measure.

Stamitz’s gigue-like finale offers a bit of cyclic unity by launching another rapid Mannheim rocket at the opening, again supported by drum 8ths. This “Presto” employs a binary-sonata pattern that James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy call a “Type 2 Sonata” form, in which the first theme opens the second half of the movement in the dominant key (m. 69), but only the second theme returns (m. 109) to recapitulate the tonic (||: a/I b/V :||: a/V b/I :||).[4] In its initial appearance in the first half of the finale, the second theme (m. 39) opens with a piano conjunct descending scale, then shifts to a bouncy forte consequent phrase, creating a nice “classical” counterbalance to the opening theme. In general, the movement is an effervescent romp that exemplifies Stamitz’s skill at deploying the classical orchestra in diverse but always engaging ways.

Alyson McLamore

[1] Wolf, The Symphonies of Johann Stamitz, 381.

[2] Wolf, The Symphonies of Johann Stamitz, 285, 340.

[3] Wolf, The Symphonies of Johann Stamitz, 304.

[4] James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 353–4.