DITTERS, INC.

At another series of Adelaide Proms, English double bass virtuoso, Rodney Slatford, was soloist in a Concerto by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, a work which was unlikely to be in the audience’s “top 40”. I was at my wit’s end as to how to sell this work to the audience, but remembered Adelaide’s long-established company, Ditters. So it was decided that in my introduction, I’d concoct a story that the widely respected local musicologist, Prof. Andrew McCredie, had discovered a connection between the composer and the founder of Ditters in Adelaide. Ever inventive Concert Publicist, Fred Sanderson, had had the bright idea of dispensing dozens of packets of Ditters’ nuts from the platform. This duly happened and went down extremely well with the audience, as did the Bass Concerto. The atmosphere and general carryings-on at those annual Adelaide Prom seasons were fantastic - as good as anywhere, and the diversity of material the ASO was able to pull together in the obligatory three rehearsals was also amazing.

-Patrick Thomas