A Viennese House Party

The scene: Vienna, 1780s. The city is buzzing to the music of Joseph Haydn and his contemporaries Carl von Dittersdorf and Jan Vanhal, and a younger arrival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Gossip in the gazettes and coffee houses is of the four getting together in a supergroup quartet. Perhaps trying out some of the cutting-edge musical ideas they’d later drop on Vienna’s concert-going public. In time, Dittersdorf and Vanhal slip from the spotlight the...