Album

Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf is easy to peg as a standard bearer for conventional classical style; the better part of his enormous output is relatively consistent with the notion of the late eighteenth-century classic as a confectionary, cookie-cutter mode of music with little to distinguish it artistically, yet wholly suitable to match the taste of the soon-to-be deposed aristocracy that paid Ditters' bills. However, one fly in that ointment is that Ditters never held more than a regional post as kapellmeister, and his popularity in Vienna—along with the welter of eighteenth-century prints of Ditters' music to follow—was based, like that of Franz Joseph Haydn, upon his periodic visits to the city. Another fly is that exceptions to this rule may be found among several of Ditters' 120 or so symphonies, such as "The Delirium of Composers" and his set of six symphonies based on Ovid's "Metamorphoses." While the vast majority of Ditters' work is instrumental in nature, he was required to compose sacred music within the terms of his employ as kapellmeister to the Bishop Grosswardein, a position Ditters inherited from Michael Haydn and worked in from 1762 to 1769; sacred music of Ditters may be found from that period and after up until his death. The exact date, and possible occasion, of Ditters' Requiem hasn't been established, and a proposed date of "circa 1780" unconvincingly falls into a brief period of unemployment for Ditters, owing to the protracted aftermath of the War of the Bavarian Secession.

Ditters' C minor Requiem, heard here as performed by the Regensburger Domspatzen under George Ratzinger with the Consortium Musicum München and soloists Hanna Farinelli, Birgit Calm, Heiner Hopfner, and Nikolaus Hillebrand, is of such extraordinary relation in regard to Ditters' work as a whole that in the 1950s some musicologists challenged the very attribution of the work to him. Nevertheless, as time wore on the discovery of eighteenth-century correspondence mentioning this work managed to win this one for the Ditters. The score, specifically mentioned in the eighteenth-century correspondence, has long disappeared, and the music was pieced together from a set of parts and not published until 1990. So far this 1986 recording is the only one made of Ditters' Requiem and its appearance on Ars Musici with the snappy, white cover design is actually its third release; the first being in 1987 on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label, followed in 1996 by its first release on Ars Musici. The Requiem is a very deep and emotional work that brings to mind Wolfgang Mozart's work on the same liturgical theme, though Ditters' setting strikes a considerably lower key and is more restrained. Nevertheless, it is utterly serious, substantive, and unpredictable, qualities that not generally associated with Ditters, whose modus operandi usually gravitates toward light, spirited, and sweet.

The Offertorium zu Ehren des Heiligen Johann von Nepomuk was composed during a sojourn to Breslau in 1788 and is a little more in Ditters' expected style, although it is an excellent, solo cantata-like piece for the bass voice, admirably handled here by soloist Nikolaus Hillebrand; alto Birgit Calm, likewise, is a standout among the soloists. Ratzinger and the Regensburger Domspatzen turn in their usual, excellent performance, but sound a bit unsteady at a couple of spots in the concluding Lauretanische Litanei in D major, another likely-to-be-late sacred entry in Ditters' worklist. As in some spots Ditters attempts to make the voices perform the same kind of alternatim interaction common in his instrumental music, which is tough on the singers and does not result in something that sounds especially impressive. Overall, the Lauretanische Litanei is attractive, much as Ditters' other work is; if you want to hear him thinking outside the box for once, then Ars Musici's Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf: Requiem is one of the finest examples of that on disc.

© Uncle Dave Lewis , All Music Guide

CD 1
Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf Composer Requiem in C-, for voice, chorus and orchestra Work 29:02 Heiner Hopfner Tenor, Regensburg Cathedral Choir Chorus/Choir, Birgit Calm Alto, Munich Consortium Musicum Ensemble, Georg Ratzinger Conductor, Hanna Farinelli Soprano, Nikolaus Hillebrand Bass
1	1.Requiem aeternam	1:58			$0.99
2	2.Te decet hymnus	1:06			$0.99
3	3.Requiem (da capo)	1:56			$0.99
4	4.Kyrie	1:33			$0.99
5	5.Dies irae	9:30			$1.49
6	6.Domine Jesu Christe	3:53			$0.99
7	7.Sanctus	1:22			$0.99
8	8.Benedictus	3:06			$0.99
9	9.Agnus Dei	2:38			$0.99
10	10.Requiem	2:00			$0.99
Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf Composer Motetto pro Offertorio in honorem St. Joanis Nepomuceni, for voice, chorus and orchestra Work 10:39 Regensburg Cathedral Choir Chorus/Choir, Munich Consortium Musicum Ensemble, Georg Ratzinger Conductor, Nikolaus Hillebrand Bass
11	Recitative and Aria: Eja Amoene, Et Flammae	6:41			$0.99
12	Chorus: Vos Ergo	3:58			$0.99
Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf Composer Litaniae laurentanae in D, for voice, chorus and orchestra Work 22:27 Heiner Hopfner Tenor, Regensburg Cathedral Choir Chorus/Choir, Birgit Calm Alto, Munich Consortium Musicum Ensemble, Georg Ratzinger Conductor, Hanna Farinelli Soprano, Nikolaus Hillebrand Bass
13	1.Kyrie (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, Chorus)	3:08			$0.99
14	2.Sancta Maria (Soprano, Alto, tenor)	2:40			$0.99
15	3.Rosa Mystica (Soprano)	3:53			$0.99
16	4.Salus Infirmorum (Tenor)	5:34			$0.99
17	5.Regina Anelorum (Bass, Chorus)	4:42			$0.99
18	6.Agnus Dei (Chorus)	2:30			$0.99