Dittersdorf: Symphonies after Ovid's Metamorphoses

Scaglione, Case, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn

CPO 555429

The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid were not always merely the nightmare of classical philology students. On the contrary: the great work on the transformations of figures of ancient mythology by scornful, amorous or grateful gods have been handed down to us in innumerable paintings, stories, theatre pieces and operas. The symphonies written by Joseph Haydn's colleague and friend Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf in the 1780s occupy a special place among the purely instrumental reflections of these events. Anything but programmatic in the Romantic sense, it plays with sophisticated associations that can only be discovered by those who listen attentively and can supplement the allusions with their own imagination – a rewarding endeavour, especially when sparks fly out of the classical symmetry of the gods as they do here.

Works:

•Dittersdorf: Symphony No. 1 "The Four Ages of the World" in C Major
•Dittersdorf: Symphony No. 2 "The Fall of Phaeton" in D Major
•Dittersdorf: Symphony No. 3 "The Metamorphosis of Actaeon into a Stag" in G Major
•Dittersdorf: Symphony No. 4 "The Rescue of Andromeda by Perseus" in F Major
•Dittersdorf: Symphony No. 5 "The Transformation of the Lycian Peasants into Frogs" in A Major
•Dittersdorf: Symphony No. 6 "The Petrification of Phineus and his Friend" in D Major

CD x 2

CPO

4/30/24

761203542925