Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf

He was born in Laimgrube (now Vienna) in 1739 and at the age of 7 began to learn to play the violin, quickly gaining the patronage of Prince Joseph Friedrich von Sachsen-Hildburghausen, thanks to whom he was able to continue his studies on the instrument under Francesco Trani and began studying composition with Giuseppe Bonno.

At the age of 26, he succeeded Michael Haydn as conductor of the orchestra in Grosswardein and began to gain recognition for his creativity. It was then that his first vocal and instrumental works began to emerge, but it was these first works that brought him the greatest success at that time. Four years after starting his collaboration with the orchestra in Grosswardein, Empress Maria Theresa disbanded the orchestra, and the composer moved to Wrocław, where he became the conductor of the orchestra of Prince Bishop Philipp Gotthard von Schaffgotsch. In the same year, he was granted the title of Knight, and two years later, the noble title von Dittersdorf.

In 1786, he created his remarkable opera 'Doktor und Apotheker', which was even compared to 'The Marriage of Figaro' and reached the stages of all of Europe. He also composed many programmatic symphonies, 12 of which are based on some of the books of Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'. It may be surprising that neither Haydn nor Mozart decided to compose such works.

After spending 24 years in Wrocław, Carl Ditters had to leave the city after a sharp dispute with the prince bishop and moved to the Czech Republic, where he died in poverty in 1799 at the castle of a certain patron near Neuhof.

4th Symphony Orchestra. Baroque from The Hague, New Dutch Academy, conductor Simon Murphy and soloists: Caroline Copeland - baroque dance and choreography and Amy Power - oboe.