Dittersdorf, Carl Ditters von (1739-1799)

Dittersdorf (1739-1799) was one of the most prolific and versatile of Haydn's and Mozart's Viennese contemporaries. He was a formidable violinist - certainly the foremost virtuoso in Vienna during the early 1760s - and composed a substantial number of concertos for his own use particularly early in his career when he was seeking to establish his reputation as a composer.

In many respects Dittersdorf's violin concertos resemble those of his close contemporaries Haydn, Hofmann and Wanhal.

Structurally, they are fairly typical of the mid-18th-century Viennese concerto and much of their musical language is familiar to us from the works of other composers. They are attractive works and their occasional strange juxtaposition of contrasting melodic ideas was noted by Hiller as early as 1768.

The present work was advertised in Breitkopf's thematic catalogue for 1766 and may have been written in Vienna before his departure for Growardein in 1764.

Allan Badley