Sinfonia 'Nazionale nel gusto di cinque nazioni'

Dittersdorf (1739-1799) was one of the most prolific and versatile of Haydn’s and Mozart’s Viennese contemporaries. He wrote fluently and attractively in all genres and his symphonies, of which there are over a hundred, reveal a wealth of novel solutions to the problems of form and a subversive wit that bears comparison only with Haydn’s. Among Dittersdorf’s most original works are his programmatic symphonies and the Sinfonia nazionale nel gusto di cinque nazioni (‘Symphony in the Taste of Five Nations’), an essay in musical criticism as much as satire, is one of the wittiest examples.