Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (born on November 2, 1739; died on October 24, 1799) was an Austrian composer and violinist. He was a friend of two famous musicians, Haydn and Mozart. His most well-known works include the German singspiel Doktor und Apotheker and several symphonies that tell a story and are inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Life

Johann Carl Dittersdorf was born in the Laimgrube (now Mariahilf) district of Vienna, Austria. His father worked as a military tailor in the Austrian Imperial Army of Charles VI, serving German-speaking regiments. After retiring from the army, his father received royal letters of recommendation and a position with the Imperial Theatre. In 1745, six-year-old August Carl began learning the violin. His father’s stable financial situation allowed him to attend a Jesuit school for general education and receive private lessons in music, violin, French, and religion. After leaving his first teacher, Carl studied violin with J. Ziegler. By 1750, Ziegler helped Carl secure a job as a violinist in the orchestra of the Benedictine church on the Freyung.

Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen noticed young Dittersdorf and hired him for his court orchestra on March 1, 1751. With the prince’s support, Dittersdorf studied violin with Francesco Trani, who recognized Carl’s talent in composition and introduced him to Giuseppe Bonno, who taught him counterpoint and free composition. Later, Prince Joseph disbanded the orchestra because he had to leave Vienna. The Austrian Empress then hired Dittersdorf for her orchestra through Count Durazzo, the Imperial Court’s theatre director. In 1761, Dittersdorf became a violinist in the Imperial Theatre orchestra and its conductor in 1762. During this time, he met Christoph Willibald Gluck, who had recently gained fame for his opera Orfeo ed Euridice in Vienna. In 1763, Dittersdorf traveled to Bologna with Gluck to see the opera Il trionfo di Clelia, a trip that influenced his future compositions. In 1764, he visited Paris, though records of this trip are limited. Returning to Vienna that year, his contract with Count Durazzo ended, but he met Joseph Haydn and became one of Haydn’s close friends.

In 1764, Dittersdorf became Kapellmeister (court musician) at the court of Ádám Patachich, a Hungarian nobleman and bishop of Nagyvárad (Oradea, Romania). The next year, he met Philipp Gotthard von Schaffgotsch, the Prince-Bishop of Breslau, who was creating a cultural center at his court in Château Jánský vrch (Johannesberg) in Javorník (now part of the Czech Republic). In 1771, Dittersdorf accepted the role of Hofkomponist (court composer) at Johannesberg, where most of his music was created. Over the next twenty years, he composed symphonies, string quartets, chamber music, and operas. In 1773, the prince-bishop gave him the title of Amtshauptmann of nearby Jeseník (Freiwaldau) to encourage him to stay at Johannesberg. Since this position required a noble title, Dittersdorf was granted the title of von Dittersdorf in Vienna. His full name became “Ditters von Dittersdorf,” though he was usually called “Dittersdorf.”

Johann Baptist Wanhal was one of Dittersdorf’s most notable students. Around 1785, Haydn, Dittersdorf, Mozart, and Wanhal played string quartets together, with Dittersdorf on first violin, Haydn on second violin, Mozart on viola, and Wanhal on cello. Irish tenor Michael Kelly noted that their performance of Stephen Storace’s String Quartet was good but not outstanding. However, the image of these four great composers playing music together remains a memorable moment from the Classical era (the second half of the eighteenth century).

In 1794, after 24 years at Johannesberg, Dittersdorf was expelled from the palace after a serious disagreement with von Schaffgotsch. Later that year, he was invited by Baron Ignaz von Stillfried to live in the spare château of Červená Lhota in southern Bohemia. His final decade involved overseeing operatic productions and editing his own music for publication.

Dittersdorf died at Nový Dvůr (Neuhof, or “New Court”), where Château Červená Lhota was located, and was buried in the town of Deštná. He completed his autobiography three days before his death.

Style and fame

Ditters' early work helped create the foundation for his later compositions. His symphonic and chamber music focused on melodies from Italy and Austria, rather than the development of musical themes, which was often missing in his works. After writing some early Italian comic operas, he shifted to creating German operas that mix singing and spoken dialogue. One of his most successful works, Der Apotheker und der Doktor (1786, also known today as Doktor und Apotheker), was performed in theaters across Europe and recorded nearly two centuries later. Among his approximately 120 symphonies, twelve were based on stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses, though only six of these have survived and been recorded. He also composed oratorios, cantatas, concertos (including two for double bass and one for viola), string quartets, other chamber music, piano pieces, and various other works. His memoirs, Lebenbeschreibung ("Description of [My] Life"), were published in Leipzig in 1801. Some of his compositions, including the double bass concerto, were published in Leipzig by the Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag.

Works

• Grosses Concert per 11 strum. (1766)
• 18 concertos for Violin
• 3 concertos for 2 Violins
• 5 concertos for Viola
• 1 concerto for Cello
• 2 concertos for Contrabass
• 1 concerto for Viola and Contrabass
• 1 concerto for Piano
• 5 concertos for Oboe
• 1 concerto for Oboe d'Amore
• 5 concertos for Harpsichord
• 2 concertos for Quartet
• 2 concertinos

• Concerto for Oboe (in C major) (MS: Dittersdorf 32; now published by Artaria)
• Concerto for Flute (in e minor) (MS: Dittersdorf 36; now published by Artaria)
• Concerto for 2 Violins (in D major) (MS: mu6402.2532; now published by Artaria)
• Concerto for 2 Violins (in C major) (MS: mu6402.2530; now published by Artaria)

• Concerto for Oboe in G major (Breitkopf & Härtel)
• Concerto for Oboe in C major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Oboe in D major L.25b
• Concerto for Oboe in C major L.39
• Concerto for Oboe in C major L.40a
• Concerto for Oboe in C major L.24
• Concerto for Oboe in G major L.42
• Concerto for Oboe d'Amore in A major L.43b
• Concerto for Flute in e minor (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Cello in D major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Contrabass (Double Bass Concerto) No.1 in E major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Contrabass (Double Bass Concerto) No.2 in D major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Contrabass (Double Bass Concerto) in E flat major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Contrabass, Viola and Orchestra (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Viola and Orchestra in F major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in C major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in G major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Harp, originally for cembalo, in A major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for Cembalo/Harpsichord in B major (The Danish Royal Library)
• Concerto for 2 Violins in D major L.2
• Concerto for 2 Violins in C major L.4
• Concertino for 2 Violins, 2 Violas, 2 Oboes, 2 Horns, Basson and Bass

Dittersdorf composed about 120 symphonies that are clearly his work. Around 90 more symphonies might belong to him, according to a catalog published by Helen Geyer in Torino in 1985. Many manuscripts are labeled "di Carlo de Dittersdorf" or similar, but they are copies of original scores that are now lost.

• Sinfonia nel gusto di cinque nazioni (1766, Grosswardein)
• Arcifanfano, rè de' Matti (1774, Johannisberg; 1776, Eszterházy)
• 25 000 Gulden oder im Dunkeln ist gut munkeln (1785, Vienna)
• Doktor und Apotheker (1786, Vienna) (Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf)
• Betrug durch Aberglauben (1786, Vienna)
• Die Liebe im Narrenhaus (1787, Vienna)
• Das rote Käppchen (1788, Vienna)
• Hieronymus Knicker (1789, Vienna)
• Das Gespenst mit der Trommel (1794, Oels)
• Don Quixote der Zweyte (1795, Oels)
• Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1796, Oels)
• Der Mädchenmarkt (1797)
• Die Opera Buffa (1798)

• Isacco figura del Redentore – in Latin (Grosswardein, 1766)
• Davide penitente – in Italian (Johannisberg, 1770)
• La Liberatrice del Popolo Giudaico nella Persia, o sia l'Esther – in Italian (Vienna, 1773)
• Giobbe – in Italian (Vienna, 1786)

• Auf das… Geburtsfest seiner Majestät des Königs (1781)
• Auf Lichtmess
• 11 other cantatas

• Missa in C major
• Missa a 4 v.
• Missa gratiosa in C major
• Missa in D major
• 12 other masses
• 2 Requiem Masses in C minor (1780/1784)
• 11 offertories
• Antiphony with choir, orchestra and organ
• 8 litanies
• 12 ariae ex canticis Salomonis (Augsburg, 1795)
• 170 other sacred music works: arias, graduals, motets et cetera

Discography

• Sinfonias on Ovid's Metamorphoses, Nos 1–3, Failoni Orchestra, Hanspeter Gmür, 1995, Naxos Nx 8553368
• Sinfonias on Ovid's Metamorphoses, Nos 4–6, Failoni Orchestra, Hanspeter Gmür, 1995, Naxos Nx 8553369 (The numbers for Sinfonias 5 and 6 are mixed up on this disc)
• Sinfonias. Grave d1, Grave F7, Grave g1, Failoni Orchestra, Uwe Grodd, 1996, Naxos Nx 8553974
• Sinfonias. Grave a2, Grave D16, Grave A10, Failoni Orchestra, Uwe Grodd, 1996, Naxos Nx 8553975
• Symphonies. C and D; Concertos. Flute and Double-Bass, Oradea Philharmonic, Miron Rațiu, Olympia OCD 405
• Symphonies. C, D, and a; Serenade. Oradea Philharmonic, Miron Rațiu, Olympia OCD 425
• Symphonies. e, E-flat, E, A, D, Oradea Philharmonic Orchestra, Romeo Rímbu, Olympia, OCD 426
• String Quartets 1 & 3–5, Franz Schubert Quartet, 1989, cpo 999 038-2
• String Quartets 2 & 6, String Quintets in C & G, Franz Schubert Quartet, 1992, cpo 999 122–2
• Geistliche Musik (Requiem, Offertorium zu Ehren des Heiligen Johann von Nepomuk, Lauretanische Litanei), Regensburger Domspatzen, Consortium musicum München, Georg Ratzinger, 1996 + 1987, Freiburger Musikforum / ars musici AM 1158-2
• Sinfonien in D, Es, A, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Alvaro Cassuto, 2006, Naxos
• Double Bass Concertos, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Paul Goodwin, Chi-chi Nwanoku, 2000, hyperion
• Sinfonies Exprimant (Les Metamorphoses D'Ovide) Nos 1–6, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Bohumil Gregor, 1988 Supraphon
• Symphonies after Ovid's Metamorphoses, Nos 1–6, Cantilena, Adrian Shepherd, 1986, Chandos 8564/5