Elizabeth Mooney (soprano)
Philharmonic String Quartet:
Charles Bye (violin) ; James Soutter (violin) ; Horace Ayckbourn (viola) ;
Frederick Alexander (violoncello)
Haydn and Dittersdorf were on very intimate terms, for, as the latter tells us in his memoirs, ' whenever we heard a new piece, we went through it carefully together, doing justice to all that was good and criticising what was bad in it '. It is interesting to note that Stephen Storace , the English opera composer, once gave a musical evening while on a visit to Vienna, and one of the chief items was a performance of a quartet of strings which consisted of Haydn (first violin), Dittersdorf , Mozart (viola), and Wanhal
('cello).
-Of Dittersdorf's numerous string quartets, six were re-issued in 1866. No. 1, in E flat, is a bright, vivacious little work and very characteristic of the composer's style.