Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf Sinfonia No.1 In C Major, "Les Quatre Ages Du Monde after "Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Bohumil Gregor (conductor) -1 Larghetto – 00:00 -2 Allegro e vivace – 03:55 -3 Minuetto con garbo – 09:24 -4 Finale. Prestissimo. Allegretto – 14:43 Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (2 November 1739 – 24 October 1799) was an Austrian composer, violinist and silvologist. His father was a military tailor, serving in the Austrian Imperial Army of Charles VI, in a number of German-speaking regiments. Having retired successfully from his martial obligations, he was provided a sinecure with the Imperial Theatre. In 1745, the six-year-old August Carl was introduced to the violin and his father's moderate financial position allowed him a good general education at a Jesuit school and private tuition in music, violin, French and religion. Ten-year-old Carl Ditters begins playing with the Viennese Schottenkirche orchestra. Prince Joseph Friedrich von Sachsen-Hildburghausen noticed him and hired him for his court orchestra. There he studied violin with Francesco Trani and composition with Giuseppe Bonno; during this period he also became acquainted with Haydn and Gluck. In 1761 he was made violinist for the imperial court theater, and in 1763 he traveled to Bologna with Gluck. After a salary dispute with the imperial theater in 1764, Differs took a post as Kapellmeister for the court of Adam Patachich, Hungarian nobleman and Bishop of Grosswardein- Nagyvárad (now Oradea, Romania). There he composed mostly church music and Schuldramen; he lost his job in 1769 when Empress Maria Theresa denounced the bishop. The following year he met Schaffgotsch, Prince-Bishop of Breslau, who wished to start a musical establishment at his court at Johannisberg (near Javorník, Czechoslovakia). In 1770 or 1771 Ditters accepted the post as court composer. This employment formed the center of his creative activities for the next twenty years. He composed symphonies, chamber music, and opere buffe. In 1773 the prince made Ditters Amtshauptmannof nearby Freiwaldau. Since this new post required a noble title, Ditters was sent to Vienna to become, for a fee, von Dittersdorf. From the early 1780s Dittersdorf began making frequent appearances in Vienna: in 1784 or 1785 six of his twelve programmatic "Ovid" symphonies were performed in the imperial Augarten, and in 1786 his Oratorium Giob was performed at a benefit The Tonkünstler-Societät. His breakthrough came in 1786, when his comic opera Der Apotheker und der Doktor became a huge success in Vienna and quickly traveled to nearly every major theater in Europe. In 1794 Dittersdorf experienced a falling-out with Schaffgotsch, who finally expelled him from his palace; the composer was spared from utmost poverty by an offer in 1795 from Baron Ignaz von Stillfried to live at his spare castle in southern Bohemia. His final decade was occupied with overseeing operatic productions and with compiling and editing his own music for publication. His memoirs, Lebenbeschreibung, were published in Leipzig in 1801. Dittersdorf’ early compositions are Gluckian in structure but do not exhibit the courtly style then popular in Germany and Austria. These works were a prefiguration of his serious output that was to come in later years - an almost Italianate style focused on melodic development without the overt flourishes characteristic of ‘le style français’. His symphonies (around 120 of them) are considered fine pieces with their folk-like melodies and witty passages; they include twelve based on Ovid's Metamorphoses (six of which have survived to the present day). He also wrote oratorios, cantatas, concertos (including two for the double bass and one for the viola), chamber music, piano pieces and other works.

• published: 29 Oct 2020
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