"In 1764 Count Durazzo resigned his position, compelled to do so by the hostile intrigues of Reutter and others associated with the court, and was appointed ambassador to Venice, a position he held for some twenty years. Ditters found difficulty in working under Durazzo's successor and resigned in order to take up an appointment as Kapellmeister to the Bishop of Grosswardein, where he succeeded Michael Haydn, younger brother of Joseph Haydn. When the musical establishment was disbanded in 1769, he found employment as Kapellmeister to the Prince-Bishop of Breslau, Count Schaffgotsch, at Johannisberg, coupling this position with that of Forstmeister (forestry superindendent) in the Neisse region. In 1773 he was ennobled by the Empress, taking the additional title of von Dittersdorf. This enabled him to become Amtshauptmann, chief official, of Freiwaldau, retaining this position and his work at Johannisberg in spite of an apparent suggestion that he become court composer in Vienna, in succession to Gassmann, who had died in 1774. The war of the Bavarian succession brought difficulties for his patron and consequently for Dittersdorf, who spent the years after the Prince-Bishop's death in 1795 in retirement. He had been able, in 1793, to provide a series of Singspiel for Friedrich-August of Brunswick-Öls, continuing a form of composition in which he had long been distinguished, but which were now impossible at Johannisberg. He died in 1799 at Neuhof in Bohemia, where he had settled at the invitation of Baron Ignaz von Stillfried.
"Dittersdorf was prolific as a composer, winning a reputation for his dramatic works, notable in the form of Singspiel, and his instrumental music, the later including some 120 symphonies, a series of concertos and a quantity of chamber music. His vocal and choral music included four successful oratorios. The Irish tenor Michael Kelly, the first Don Basilio in Mozart's 'Le nozza di Figaro', reports having heard Dittersdorf in a quartet at the house of his friend Stephen Storace, with Haydn playing first violin, Dittersdorf second, Mozart viola and the composer Vanhal cello. Dittersdorf as a respected figure in the musical circles of the time, welcomed and engaged in conversation by the Emperor himself, as he recounted to his son.
"Six of the twelve 'Symphonies after the Metamorphoses of Ovid' survive in their original form. These were written in 1783 and introduced to the public in Vienna three years later, when Dittersdorf had occasion to visit the city for the first performance of his oratorio 'Giobbe' (Job). He related in his autobiography how, by special permission of the Emperor, he had arranged to have six of the symphonies performed in the Augarten, an event for which Baron van Swieten, arbiter of musical taste at court and patron of Mozart and Haydn, had taken a hundred tickets. Bad weather led him to try to postpone the concert, but difficulties arose when he sought permission from the police, since a new decision of the cabinet was needed for any such change of plan. Dittersdorf was obliged to seek out a court official to authorise the postponement and in doing so found himself in conversation with the Emperor himself, an even that he recounts in some detail.
"The 'Metamorphoses' of the Roman poet Ovid contains, in its fifteen books, a compendium of Greek and Roman mythology and legend. In spite of the title, this is not simple a book of changes in Latin hexameters, but an inspired and episodic narrative, in which stories are only loosely connected one to the other. Opening with Chaos, Ovid soon moved on to the four ages of the world, the subject of the first of Dittersdorf's symphonies, the 'Sinfonia in C major, Die vier Weltalter'. Scored for flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets and timpani, with strings, the first movement introduces the peace of the golden age - 'aurea prima sata est aetas', the golden age was first established, an age in which men kept faith without any compulsion. The movement is dominated by its tranquil opening theme and is followed by an evocation of the silver age - 'subiit argentea proles auro deterior', there followed the silver race, lesser than gold, more precious than tawny bronze, now with its four season. The music is livelier in a tripartite sonata-form movement. This leads to the 'Minuetto con garbo', a graceful minuet, to represent the age of bronze - 'teria post illas successit aëna proles', third after those followed the bronze race, more savage in spirit and prompter to make war. The A minor minuet is angular in theme, with a trio section of greater suavity. The symphony ends with the age of iron - 'de duro est ultima ferro', the last is of hard iron, an age when all wickedness is let loose. A descending chromatic figure opens the movement in increasingly rapid note values, continuing with a military fanfare and music of greater excitement which eventually subsides, leading a final 'Allegretto' that is gracious enough at first, but ends with the agitation of an age of violence.
"The second of the set, the 'Symphony in D major, Der Sturz Phaëtons', with similar instrumentation but no timpani, deals with Ovid's version of the legend of Phaëthon, son of Helios (the Sun) and Clymene, a mortal. Phaëthon sought out his father, who offered him one gift, whatever he should ask. Phaëthon asked to drive his father's chariot for one day and, in spite of his father's warning, attempted this feat. The horses of the Sun bolted and brought danger of fire to the earth, until Zeus, the king of the gods, hurled a thunderbolt at him. Phaëthon fell into the river Eridanus, where he died. Dittersdorf's first movement reflects the first line of Ovid's narrative - 'Regia Solis erat sublimibus alta columnis', the royal seat of the Sun was on high with lofty columns, bright with shining gold and gilded bronze like flames. Syncopation lends a feeling of impending doom to the music, with its scintillating ornamentation and, in the 'Allegro', contrasts of dynamics. The narrative continues in the 'Andante' - 'deposuit radios propiusque accedere iussit', the Sun laid aside the shining rays about his head and ordered the boy to come nearer, accepting him as his son. Here the bassoon doubles the first violin at the octave, accompanied by a descending accompanying figure in the other strings, with music that again offers the dynamic contrast of divine father and mortal son. 'Paenituit iurasse patrem', his father was sorry to have sworn to grant Phaëthon's wish, for this is the one thing he would have denied him. The story and symphony end with the final catastrophe - 'Intonat, et dextra libratum fulmen ab aure / misit in aurigam pariterque animaque rotisque / expulit et saevis compescuit ignibus ignes', Zeus thunders and hurled his thunderbolt at the charioteer, expelling him from life and from his chariot and curbed fire with savage fire. Opening in B minor, with syncopation again suggesting what is to come, the music gives a dramatic representation of the fall of Phaëthon, ending in hushed tones, the solar eclipse that took place as the Sun mourned his loss.
"The 'Symphony in G major, Verwandlung Aktäons in einen Hirsch', now also without trumpets, is a true tale of metamorphosis, taken from the following, third book of Ovid's poem. Dittersdorf chooses only a short phrase as superscription - 'per devia lustra vagantes', wandering through out-of-the-way woods, as the young men end their hunting. The music brings suggestions of the hunt in its ascending fanfare arpeggios and its haloos, but is followed by a gentler pastoral 'Adagio', with a flute solo over the traditional figuration for murmuring streams of breezes. The quotation from Ovid at the head of the movmement declares that 'hic dea silvarum venatu fessa solebat / virgineos artus liquido perfundere rore', here the goddess of the woods, tired from hunting, was wont to bathe her virgin limbs in dew. A minuet introduces Actaeon, grandson of Cadmus - 'Ecce nepos Cadmi' - who strays in the grove where the goddess is. The finale sees the goddess take her revenge. Actaeon is changed into a stag and torn apart by his own dogs - 'dilacerant falsi dominum sub imagine cervi', the dogs tear their master apart under the false appearances of a stag. Once again the agitation of the music subsides, as the story comes to an end." (Keith Anderson. From the liner notes.)
Performers: Failoni Orchestra, Hanspeter Gmür
1. Sinfonia No. 1 In C Major 'The Four Ages Of The World': I. Larghetto
2. Sinfonia No. 1 In C Major 'The Four Ages Of The World': II. Allegro E Vivace
3. Sinfonia No. 1 In C Major 'The Four Ages Of The World': III. Minuetto Con Garbo
4. Sinfonia No. 1 In C Major 'The Four Ages Of The World': IV. Finale. Prestissimo - Allegretto
5. Sinfonia No. 2 In D Minor 'The Fall Of Phaëton': I. Adagio Non Molto - Allegro
6. Sinfonia No. 2 In D Minor 'The Fall Of Phaëton': II. Andante
7. Sinfonia No. 2 In D Minor 'The Fall Of Phaëton': III. Tempo Di Minuetto
8. Sinfonia No. 2 In D Minor 'The Fall Of Phaëton': IV. Finale. Vivace Ma Non Troppo Presto - Andantino
9. Sinfonia No. 3 In G Major 'Transformation Of Actaeon Into A Stag': I. Allegro
10. Sinfonia No. 3 In G Major 'Transformation Of Actaeon Into A Stag': II. Adagio (Più Tosto Andantino)
11. Sinfonia No. 3 In G Major 'Transformation Of Actaeon Into A Stag': III. Tempo Di Minuetto
12. Sinfonia No. 3 In G Major 'Transformation Of Actaeon Into A Stag': IV. Finale. Vivace
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