Dittersdorf Symphonies
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 5/1988
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 113
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN8564/5
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (6) Symphonies after Ovid's Metamorphoses |
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer
Adrian Shepherd, Conductor Cantilena Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer |
Composer or Director: Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 5/1988
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: DBRD2012
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (6) Symphonies after Ovid's Metamorphoses |
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer
Adrian Shepherd, Conductor Cantilena Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer |
Composer or Director: Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 5/1988
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: DBTD2012
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (6) Symphonies after Ovid's Metamorphoses |
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer
Adrian Shepherd, Conductor Cantilena Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer |
Author: Stanley Sadie
All credit to Adrian Shepherd and Cantilena for continuing their explorations into the byways of eighteenth-century music with this fascinating recording of Dittersdorf's symphonies on Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to one writer in Grove, these are among the least interesting of Dittersdorf's symphonies: if the remaining 120 or so symphonies he wrote are indeed superior, Cantilena have plenty more to do. For this set is full of attractive and graphic music. Dittersdorf chose one of the Ovid mythological tales as the basis for each work, writing music that portrayed, often in some detail, the events of the story: you hear Actaeon's hunting music in the predictable 6/8 and you hear the croaking of the frogs created by Latona from the disagreeable Lycian peasants. And a lot else—but there is a great deal that one cannot identify without Dittersdorf's careful annotations, which the booklet, although it has an acceptable historical note, signally and regrettably omits to provide. The symphonies can't really be appreciated as they are meant to be without such information—it would take a much fuller, descriptive note but would make the set far more worthwhile.
As it is, there is still a lot to enjoy. The symphonies date from the mid 1780s, they are typically Viennese in their rich scoring and fully argued developments, though they are not much like Haydn, even less like Mozart. Rather, the main influence is Gluck, whose serene, spacious manner turns up several times, notably in the first of the set (on ''The Four Ages of Mankind'')—and the slow movement of the ''Actaeon'' Symphony (No. 3) echoes in spirit the ''Che puro ciel'' music of Orfeo, while the finale of the ''Andromeda'' one is akin to the dance from his Don Juan that we know better from its later incarnation for the Furies in the French Orphee. Dittersdorf was of course a close friend and colleague of Gluck's. There is a Gluckian nobility, too, though the manner is Dittersdorf's own, to the exceptionally beautiful oboe solo (beautifully played here, too) in the first movement of ''Andromeda'' (No. 4). But the listener will find it frustrating not to know what such obviously graphic pieces of writing as the trumpet fanfares in two of the symphonies and the alternation between eloquent music and fierce music in the ''Lycian Peasants'' Symphony (No. 6) is meant to signify. Dittersdorf aimed in these works to combine a narrative element with the normal musical forms of his time, which demands a good deal of ingenuity. Sometimes he has to change the movement structure, and several times, usually where a minuet in the regular position would have been programmatically inapt, he pops one on to the end. The result is intriguing and individual, often compelling and inspiriting.
The performances are adequate, not ideally polished perhaps, and once or twice not quite perfectly judged in tempo but there is no want of fire, there is (as I have indicated) some excellent solo playing, and certainly too a sense of dedication, which the music repays. The recording serves well. I hope many readers will try it: and I hope, too, that Chandos will consider making available a commentary that relates the stories more closely to what is going on in the music.'
As it is, there is still a lot to enjoy. The symphonies date from the mid 1780s, they are typically Viennese in their rich scoring and fully argued developments, though they are not much like Haydn, even less like Mozart. Rather, the main influence is Gluck, whose serene, spacious manner turns up several times, notably in the first of the set (on ''The Four Ages of Mankind'')—and the slow movement of the ''Actaeon'' Symphony (No. 3) echoes in spirit the ''Che puro ciel'' music of Orfeo, while the finale of the ''Andromeda'' one is akin to the dance from his Don Juan that we know better from its later incarnation for the Furies in the French Orphee. Dittersdorf was of course a close friend and colleague of Gluck's. There is a Gluckian nobility, too, though the manner is Dittersdorf's own, to the exceptionally beautiful oboe solo (beautifully played here, too) in the first movement of ''Andromeda'' (No. 4). But the listener will find it frustrating not to know what such obviously graphic pieces of writing as the trumpet fanfares in two of the symphonies and the alternation between eloquent music and fierce music in the ''Lycian Peasants'' Symphony (No. 6) is meant to signify. Dittersdorf aimed in these works to combine a narrative element with the normal musical forms of his time, which demands a good deal of ingenuity. Sometimes he has to change the movement structure, and several times, usually where a minuet in the regular position would have been programmatically inapt, he pops one on to the end. The result is intriguing and individual, often compelling and inspiriting.
The performances are adequate, not ideally polished perhaps, and once or twice not quite perfectly judged in tempo but there is no want of fire, there is (as I have indicated) some excellent solo playing, and certainly too a sense of dedication, which the music repays. The recording serves well. I hope many readers will try it: and I hope, too, that Chandos will consider making available a commentary that relates the stories more closely to what is going on in the music.'
Dittersdorf Symphonies
Dittersdorf Symphonies
Dittersdorf Symphonies
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