Dittersdorf's Contemporary Born on This Date

[Ralph]

Dittersdorf's well-known and generally respected contemporary, Mozart, was born on this date in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. His music is still performed regularly today.

[jbuck919]

For some reason, the local classical music station that tends to come in best had its Mozart day yesterday. One thing they broadcast was the Prague Symphony done by the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall last year. A very nice performance. All performances of the Prague Symphony are very nice performances. The commentator mentioned that there was an instant standing ovation at the end of this one. Any insight, Ralph?

[Ralph]

For some reason, the local classical music station that tends to come in best had its Mozart day yesterday. One thing they broadcast was the Prague Symphony done by the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall last year. A very nice performance. All performances of the Prague Symphony are very nice performances. The commentator mentioned that there was an instant standing ovation at the end of this one. Any insight, Ralph?

*****

I wasn't there.

[Agnes Selby]

Dittersdorf's well-known and generally respected contemporary, Mozart, was born on this date in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. His music is still performed regularly today.

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Thank you for remembering.

Regards,
Agnes.
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[johnshade]

.
Mozart combines serenity, melancholy, and tragic intensity into one great lyric improvisation. Over it all hovers the greater spirit that is Mozart's — the spirit of compassion, of universal love, even of suffering — a spirit that knows no age, that belongs to all ages.

Leonard Bernstein

[jbuck919]

.
Mozart combines serenity, melancholy, and tragic intensity into one great lyric improvisation. Over it all hovers the greater spirit that is Mozart's — the spirit of compassion, of universal love, even of suffering — a spirit that knows no age, that belongs to all ages.

Leonard Bernstein
________________

I'm awfully glad you made that a quotation from someone else. Now we can still like you.

[jbuck919]

For some reason, the local classical music station that tends to come in best had its Mozart day yesterday. One thing they broadcast was the Prague Symphony done by the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall last year. A very nice performance. All performances of the Prague Symphony are very nice performances. The commentator mentioned that there was an instant standing ovation at the end of this one. Any insight, Ralph?

*****

I wasn't there.

Pity. I thought it might have been written up in the Times. "Berlin discovered to carry around portable seat buzz system."

[johnshade]

.
Dittersdorf`s Moment of Glory
By Joshua Lilly
Fame is a fickle thing; it can burst out like a shooting star and fade away just as quickly. Most composers have enjoyed their moment of fame, but for Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, his was a long and glorious moment indeed. In his hey-day, Dittersdorf`s career even overshadowed Franz Josef Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His was music 'that will live on forever'...but it seems that history has seen to it that this was proven a false prophecy, and the music of Haydn and Mozart probably hammered in the nails that sealed Dittersdorf`s coffin.... Dittersdorf was born in 1739, in Austria, as Karl Ditters, becoming a violinist. He at last became a composer and ranged through several posts, helped along slightly by Christoph Willibald Gluck. Finally, Ditters reached the castle of Count Schaffgotsch, at Johannisberg, in 1769. Ditters and the Count became fast friends, and the Count bestowed upon Ditters the Order of the Golden Spur, and appointed him as Overseer of Forests and Chief Magistrate. With these honours, Ditters became a noble, changing his name to Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf - the name so many love so much was born! ... His music was THE thing to hear in Europe; his symphonies, overtures, masses, operas, oratorios, concerti, and cantatas were the most vogue thing on the continent. Every conductor who was any conductor regularly included Dittersdorf in the repertoire, and he was the envy of every composer around. Dittersdorf had an incredible reputation - even being the personal guest of the emperor Friedrich Wilhelm II in 1789 - but his career suddenly collapsed around him like a shower of broken glass. Relieved of his position with the death of his friend the Count, and finding his music fade from the public ear, Dittersdorf retired with a tiny pension to the castle of Count Still, eeking out his days in deep depression. His music was performed less and less, until finally the publishers would no longer print his music, and it could not be heard anywhere. He finished his autobiography three days before his death in Bohemia, on 24 October, 1799, a broken and sad man. ...

[Agnes Selby]

For some reason, the local classical music station that tends to come in best had its Mozart day yesterday. One thing they broadcast was the Prague Symphony done by the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall last year. A very nice performance. All performances of the Prague Symphony are very nice performances. The commentator mentioned that there was an instant standing ovation at the end of this one. Any insight, Ralph?

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John, Your local music station is working on Australian time.
As I write, it is already the morning of 28th January.

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[Corlyss_D]

Dittersdorf's well-known and generally respected contemporary, Mozart, was born on this date in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. His music is still performed regularly today.

Post of the Day Award to ya, Ralph. You know, you can melt 'em down when they get to clogging up your house.

[johnshade]

Dittersdorf's well-known and generally respected contemporary, Mozart ....

----
I found this quote when I was recently rereading Mozart, A Life by Maynard Solomon:

Dittersdorf: "Mozart is unquestionably one of the greatest original geniuses, and I know of no composer who possesses such an astonishing wealth of ideas. I should wish that he were not so spendthrift with them. He does not allow the listener to breathe, for hardly has one perceived one beautiful idea than another, more splendid, appears on its heels, and this continues without cease until, in the end, one can barely retain all these beauties in memory."

[Ralph]

Dittersdorf's well-known and generally respected contemporary, Mozart ....

----
I found this quote when I was recently rereading Mozart, A Life by Maynard Solomon:

Dittersdorf: "Mozart is unquestionably one of the greatest original geniuses, and I know of no composer who possesses such an astonishing wealth of ideas. I should wish that he were not so spendthrift with them. He does not allow the listener to breathe, for hardly has one perceived one beautiful idea than another, more splendid, appears on its heels, and this continues without cease until, in the end, one can barely retain all these beauties in memory."

*****

Generosity and modesty were two of Dittersdorf's finer qualities.

[jbuck919]

Generosity and modesty were two of Dittersdorf's finer qualities.

Yes, well, as Churchill said of Anthony Eden....