Karl Ditters von Ditersdorf’s 'Ester'

Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799), the Viennese contemporary of Haydn and Mozart, was one of the most popular musicians of his age. Owing to his success as a performer – he was a feted virtuoso violinist of aristocratic and court orchestras in Vienna – he began composing on a regular basis at a relatively late age, in the late 1760s. However, thanks to his fantastically fast rate of work, this technical accomplishment and diligence he still left behind an exceptionally rich life-work – we know of some 100 symphonies, 34 operas, 30 concertos and divertimentos as well as a large number of chamber and vocal works. His natural, carefree, almost routine method of composition was accompanied by a stylistic ideal that set as its aim the basic rules of social music fashionable both with the aristocracy and the general public – good taste, elegance of form and adherence to tradition. As a result of a visit to Vienna in 1772, after his work Isacco written in 1766, he once again embarked on composing oratorios which are nor intended for the stage.

The oratorio, which bears the title La liberatrice del popolo giudaico ossia L’Ester (The Rescuer of the Jewish People, or Esther) is based on parts three and four of the Book of Esther, or more exactly, if uses the motifs of these sections. The writer of the Metastasianic libretto Salvator Ignaz Pintus, renounces the requirement of presenting the whole story, and indeed, he even renounces following the dramatic thread which was usual in the earlier baroque oratorios, as for example, in Handel’s Esther Oratorio. Instead of adhering to the logic inherent in the pilot, the poet places tableaux and scenes depicting emotions which were arrived at by magnifying certain episodes, side by side, often in an arbitrary manner, without any interrelationship. The original story relates how, at the time of their Babylonian captivity, the Jewish people, with the help of Esther, escape being massacred. Esther, the lovely wife of King Ahasverus (Xerxes) undertook, at the risk of her life, to plead with the king for mercy for her people, to save them from the wrath of the Persians. At Dittersdorf’s request, it was really the mass scenes that received emphasis in the libretto. With the exception of the duet of Ahasverus and Esther, only the choral sections refer directly to the biblical story. In the introduction of the various characters the librettist distorts the essence, and reduces characterization to the love relationship. The texts of the solos, recitatives and arias refer in such symbolical and abstract manner to the imaginary background of the plot that often we can only surmise which biblical character corresponds to the relevant role.

Yet from a musical standpoint the aria texts are of immeasurable value: by means of a detailed, pliant introduction of the various emotional states and situations they created conditions for the realisation of more complex musical forms, arias of sonata form or of several sections. In other words they helped the development of baroque da capo arias into multi subject classical forms. Under the influence of the heritage of Carissimi’s and Handel’s choral oratorios. Dittersdorf’s choral movements evoke the memory of the old, more severe, restricted style. The recitative accompagnatos and arias are already unambiguous classical vocal forms, characters and intonations.

Márta Grabócz