Friday, 10 October 2025

Dittersdorf: Sinfonia in A

Day 283

Dittersdorf: Sinfonia in A Sinfonia nazionale nel gusto di cinque nazioni

Failoni Orchestra

Uwe Grodd

I first came across Dittersdorf when I was a school - I heard the double bass concerto which I remember as quite a fun piece. Since then I have got to know the six sinfonias based on Ovid’s metamorphoses, which I find quite fascinating. This symphony is not quite in that league but it is nevertheless well worth listening to. Each of its five movements is based on the music of different country - Germany, Italy, France, England and Turkey. It hovers between affectionate tribute and outright parody. In particularly the Italian movement is full of cliches and clearly the composer didn’t think much of his Italian contemporaries. The French movement is much more sophisticated and shows a real affection for the style.  The piece could never be more of a curiosity and could never form part of the regular repertoire, but it was quite fun to hear it once.

This is the last in this current series of symphonies. From tomorrow I will be exploring some of the more important composers who have not so far featured in this blog, plus I am also taking the opportunity to listen to some longer pieces that I would not otherwise be likely to have the time to listen to.

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