To the Dittersdorf Specialist, ...

[dulcinea]

... whose name escapes me at this moment:
where can I get music of Dittersdorf other than the symphonies based on episodes of Ovid? Did D von D write religious music, too?

[Wallingford]

Lord, lord, lord. What we wouldn't give to have Ralph back amongst us.

[Chalkperson]

Lord, lord, lord. What we wouldn't give to have Ralph back amongst us.

They invented this thing called Facebook...

[John F]

Dittersdorf wrote other symphonies, including one whose five movements are in the styles of five different nations. The finale alternates between German, Italian, English, French, and inevitably Turkish. It's on an Olympia CD along with four other Dittersdorf symphonies, so you know they're short - none more than 20 minutes, most of them ca. 13 minutes.

His 6 string quartets are also short, averaging about 16 minutes, partly because they're in three movements, and engaging though lightweight. The Franz Schubert Quartet has recorded them along with two string quintets on 2 cpo cds.

And now for something completely different: Dittersdorf's operas. His greatest hit is probably the singspiel "Doktor und Apotheker," recorded with a good German cast on Bayer Records; it's still given an occasional revival in Germany. And then there's the extraordinary entertainment "Arcifanfano, King of Fools, Or, It's Always Too Late to Learn," its libretto transformed from the Goldoni original by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, in a live performance by Clarion Concerts conducted by Newell Jenkins, with Eleanor Steber and Anna Russell heading the cast. That one's on VAI Audio.

[jbuck919]

... whose name escapes me at this moment:
where can I get music of Dittersdorf other than the symphonies based on episodes of Ovid? Did D von D write religious music, too?

Ralph's name escapes you? He was the captain of our soul!

[THEHORN]

Check arkivmusic.com for any CDs of music by Dittersdorf or countless other composers. This website has by far the biggest and widest selection of classical CDs and DVDs on the internet. If arkiv doesn't have it,nobody does!
You can look anything up by either composer or performer,and there's a whole separate section for opera. This website is paradise for CD and DVD collectors !

[ch1525]

Hmm, can someone refresh my memory... where is Ralph?!

[Chalkperson]

Hmm, can someone refresh my memory... where is Ralph?!

Try Facebook, but, Dittersdorf is not listed as one of his Musical Interests...

[jbuck919]

Hmm, can someone refresh my memory... where is Ralph?!

Try Facebook, but, Dittersdorf is not listed as one of his Musical Interests...

Ralph is showing signs of trying to create a new persona on Facebook. For one thing, he seems mainly to be addressing his students (which is why, at the suggestion of his university, he joined Facebook to begin with). I am doing my best occasionally to remind him of his CMG roots. I don't know how appreciative he is of that, but so far he has not asked me to desist.

[Fergus]

... whose name escapes me at this moment:
where can I get music of Dittersdorf other than the symphonies based on episodes of Ovid? Did D von D write religious music, too?

I have these two discs in my collection and I find them very pleasurable so I can recommend them to you

[Donaldopato]

^ I have not heard the disc with the Sinfonias in D, F and G but I second the other disc as quite fun, as are the wonderful "ovid" Sinfonias.

[RebLem]

Another item of Dittersdorf music available is this:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/alb ... _id=259736

Requiem in C minor
Offertory for St. John Nepomuk
Lauretanian Litany in D major

all conducted by Georg Ratzinger. If the conductor's name looks vaguely familiar, maybe its because he's Pope Benedict's brother.

[rogch]

Hyperion has a disc with three double bass concertos by Dittersdorf and one by Vanhal. I haven't heard it, but it really caught my interest. Conductor Roy Goodman is usually reliable.

For some reason, i find only one disc with Concerto Köln playing Dittersdorf. This ensemble has made less famous composers from Mozart's and Haydn's era their speciality. But not Dittersdorf it seems, even though the disc they have recorded probably is worth checking out. This is really a first rate ensmeble in every way, i can really recommend their recordings of other composer from this era: Vanhal, Krauss, Kozeluch and others.