ABSTRACT
In his autobiography, Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799) wrote of the Sachsen-Hildburghausen Kapelle in which he served as a violinist in his youth that its Friday-evening performances were recognized in all of Vienna as the best. This chapter provides an overview of the Sachsen-Hildburghausen Kapelle and closely examines a little known group of works connected with the chapel, the symphonies of Christoph Willibald Gluck. The Sachsen-Hildburghausen Kapelle has been regarded as the product of a single aristocrat's overriding passion for the arts, particularly by nineteenth-century critics. The emphasis on solo performance also manifested itself in the orchestral works performed by the Kapelle, as will become evident in the discussion below of the symphonies of Gluck. Many of Gluck's fourteen symphonies may constitute missing opera overtures, but several manifestly do not. The latter group belongs instead to an emerging tradition in Austria of independent orchestral compositions.
