Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
(b. Vienna 2 Noember 1739 - d. Neuhof 24 October 1799)
Miscellaneus Orchestral Works
Sinfonie F Major
Sinfonie E flat Major
Overture of the oratorio «Esther»
Il combattimento dell´umane passioni Divertimento
Le Carnaval ou la redoute Grande Symphony
Preface
«Ditters has done great honour to the nation because he is a good composer as well as a great violinst.» Thus wrote Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf about his own achievements. It is also true; he was one of a group of musicians working in and around Vienna in the 18th Century who enriched the vocabulary of music and laid the foundations for the supremacy of Austro-German classical music in the next century.
His relative neglect is not easy to understand. In an age when we can buy scores and recordings of all the orchestral music of Mozart and Haydn (not to mention their choral, operatic, chamber and instrumental works) there are very few of Dittersdorf’s 120 symphonies and 45 operas available, notwithstanding that Doktor und Apotheker was a huge success in Vienna and was one of the first German operas, just following Mozart’s Der Entfürung aus dem Serail. Yet Dittersdorf’s music is consistently well crafted, skilfully (and often unexpectedly) orchestrated and shows genuine warmth and wit. Indeed, it has been called charmingly subversive.
This volume contains two typical symphonies, both scored for strings with pairs of oboes and horns, a set of ballet music that reminds us that its composer was a friend of both Mozart and Gluck (like them, he was a Knight of the Golden Spur), and the overture to the oratorio Esther. This last work was first performed with great success in Vienna in 1773, the year he was appointed Amtshauptmann von Feidwaldau, Overseer of Forests and Chief Magistrate to Count Schaffgotsch, the Prince-Bishop of Breslau. It was after a performance of Esther that Kaiser Josef II offered the composer the post of Kapellmeister to the Imperial Court, but Dittersdorf refused the honour. (Esther was to play a role in Mozart’s career too, as he gave the first performance of his E flat piano concerto, K482, between the oratorio’s two halves at a performance in 1785.)
The two longest works here are the Combattimento del’Umane Passione (Battle of Human Passions), which dates from about 1771, and the later Grande Symphonie: Le Carnaval ou la Redoute. The former is in seven sections, ranging from Il Superbo (arrogance), through Il Contente (contentment) and Il Malonconico (melancholy) to a finale that is definitely Il Vivace (liveliness).
Like the Combattimento, the Carnaval is really a sort of serenade, in the Mozartean sense, containing as it does a miniature violin concerto within a suite of dance movements that include a polonaise, and English and German dances. One movement, the Ballo Strassburghese, has a clear similarity to part of Mozart’s Violin Concerto, K218.
Phillip Brookes, 2005
For performance material of Sinfonie F Major, Sinfonie E flat Major and Il combattimento dell´umane passioni please contact Kalmus, Boca Raton. Performance material of Overture of the oratorio «Esther» and Le Carnaval ou la redoute is in preparation. Please contact mph, Munich. Reprint of a copy from the collection Phillip Brookes, Market Drayton
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