Viennese Virtuosity: Symphonies by Mozart, Haydn and friends
Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings
Milton Court, 14 November 2024

Wanhal: Symphony in D major, Bryan D17
Mozart: Symphony No 36, Linz
Dittersdorf: Symphony No 4 from Symphonies after Ovid’s Metamorphosis
Haydn: Symphony No 80

The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) and Laurence Cummings continue their Transformation series of 2024/5 concerts with a concert of symphonies by Johann Baptist Wanhal, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Joseph Hadyn. It was based on an occasion around 1784 when they played as a string quartet during a social gathering in Vienna. The story comes from an 1826 publication by a singer friend of Mozart, who noted that “… the players were tolerable, not one of them excelled on the instrument he played; but there was a little science among them, which I dare say will be acknowledged when I name them: The First Violin: HAYDN, Second Violin: BARON DITTERSDORF, Violoncello: VANHALL, Viola: MOZART“.

Continue reading →