1760–1812 · Classical
Jan Ladislav Dussek was a Czech composer and pianist who lived from 1760 to 1812. He was among the first virtuoso pianists to perform across Europe, from London to Saint Petersburg and Milan. For a player he is of interest as the author of piano works in which traits of the coming Romantic era can be heard.
Jan Ladislav Dussek was born on 12 February 1760 in the Czech town of Čáslav, the eldest of three children. The family's musical roots went back to his grandfather, the professional musician Jan Josef Dusík. His father, also called Jan Josef, was a well-known organist and composer who taught and played the organ in Čáslav.
His mother, Veronika Dusíková (née Štěbetová), was a harpist; the son would later write plenty for the harp as well as for the piano. A sister, Kateřina Veronika Anna Dusíková, was likewise a musician and composer.
The boy received his first music lessons from his father, who started him on the piano at the age of five and on the organ at nine. His voice was good too, and he sang in a church choir.
Dussek's music studies took place at the Jesuit school in Jihlava (Iglau), under the choir director Ladislav Špinar. Between 1774 and 1776 he was a pupil at the Jesuit grammar school in Kutná Hora, where he also played the organ at the Jesuit Church of Saint Barbara.
Prague's New City Gymnasium was his next school, in 1776, and again he was described as a lazy pupil. The following year, 1777, he entered the university in that city, yet stayed for just one semester.
Once his Bohemian schooling was over, Dussek took a job in 1778 with Captain Männer, an Austrian soldier. The following year, 1779, he went with the captain to the area that is now Belgium. On 16 December 1779 he played a harpsichord concert in Mechelen, in the Kleerkoper's Hall.
Next he went to the Dutch Republic. A well-received concert in Amsterdam led to an invitation to The Hague, where Dussek taught the three children of Stadtholder William V. There he also played before the Emperor Joseph II, who recognised his skill.
Having parted from Männer, Dussek was living in Hamburg by 1782 and played a concert there on a "new English fortepiano". It is possible that he took lessons from C. P. E. Bach in the city. His first publications came out at this point: three piano concertos and three violin sonatas, each given the opus number 1.
From Hamburg Dussek went to Saint Petersburg, where he enjoyed the favour of Catherine the Great. There he met a craftsman named Hessel, who had built a keyboard version of the glass harmonica, and Dussek later mastered that instrument. He had to leave Russia very abruptly, as he was suspected of involvement in a plot to assassinate the empress.
A tale of doubtful reliability is linked with his departure: on his way to play for the empress, Dussek found a ring and put it on, and Catherine recognised it as the ring of a known conspirator.
For about a year he then served as music director to Prince Antoni Radziwiłł in Lithuania. For the next few years Dussek toured Germany as a virtuoso on the piano and the glass harmonica, and the tour was a great success. In 1786 he arrived in Paris.
In Paris Dussek became a favourite of Marie Antoinette. In 1788 he planned a concert tour to Milan; the queen tried to talk him out of it but did not succeed, since his brother František lived in Milan and he wanted to see him. The Milan trip went very well.
He came back to Paris and remained until just before the Revolution broke out in 1789. There he put out a set of violin sonatas, dedicated to Eugénie de Beaumarchais, whose father was the writer Pierre Beaumarchais.
Dussek moved from France to England in May or June 1789 and settled in London. London was his home until 1799. By 1790 he had firmly made his name as a performer and teacher. Each year he organised a concert series, frequently presenting new works, and a few pieces proved popular enough to be played again.
He became a friend of the piano maker John Broadwood. Dussek took delivery of one of Broadwood's first grand pianos with five and a half octaves, and in 1794 he received one of the first with six octaves. His music demanded a strength and range that the pianos of the day did not offer, and he pushed Broadwood to extend the range and tone of the instrument.
Dussek's concerts in spring 1791 included appearances by young Sophia, daughter of the music publisher Domenico Corri. They performed a piano duet together on 15 June of that year, and they married in September 1792. Sophia was a singer, pianist and harpist. A daughter, Olivia, was born, yet the marriage was unhappy, and in 1796 it ran into serious difficulty.
Joseph Haydn also appeared with Dussek at concerts in 1791 and 1792, and after one of the 1792 concerts Haydn wrote favourably of him in a letter to Dussek's father. In 1792 Dussek and Domenico Corri began a music publishing business together.
Dussek turned to opera in 1798, producing The Captive of Spilberg with words by Prince Hoare. The first night was on 14 November 1798 at Drury Lane, and the score was liked.
In 1799 the business with Corri ran into financial difficulties. The librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte agreed, at their urging, to lend them funds. As the debt stayed unpaid, Corri was imprisoned in Newgate and Dussek fled. Da Ponte thought Dussek had gone to Paris, yet he had actually gone back to Hamburg.
After that he gave concerts across Germany and was among the earliest "glamour" pianists, a forerunner of Liszt in this respect. He soon entered the service of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who saw in him a friend and fellow musician rather than a hired hand. When the prince fell at the Battle of Saalfeld, Dussek composed the Elégie harmonique, a sonata in F sharp minor, Opus 61.
Dussek went back to Paris in 1807, working for Talleyrand, the powerful French foreign minister. He was closely involved with the piano-making Érard brothers. He signed an Érard grand of 1808 that can still be seen at Talleyrand's château in Valençay, and in 1810 he gave the first public performance on the brothers' new grand piano.
His powerful Sonata in A-flat major, Opus 64, is called Le Retour à Paris. The sonata is also known as Plus Ultra, a name given in answer to Joseph Woelfl's Non Plus Ultra, a sonata said to represent the ultimate in difficulty for pianists. For the remaining years Dussek played, taught and composed in Prussia and France.
Dussek died of gout on 20 March 1812. He was buried near Paris, but the exact place is not known.
Dussek anticipated the Romantic composers for piano, above all Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn. A good many of his pieces sit oddly beside the late Classical manner typical of his time. Lyrical melody in his music is cut across by abrupt shifts in volume. He followed his own line of development, which looked ahead to early Romanticism but is not thought to have shaped it.
Dussek, alongside Clementi, could have inspired Beethoven stylistically. Commentators have spotted likenesses in manner, melody, dynamics and even form linking Beethoven's Sonata Opus 10 No. 3 with two sonatas by Dussek, Opus 31 No. 2 and Opus 35 No. 2.
Dussek belonged to a group of foreign-born composers, Muzio Clementi and John Field among them, who played a major part in shaping the so-called "London" school of piano writing. English instruments offered a broader compass and a stronger tone, and much of Dussek's keyboard style relied on them. He is credited as the first composer to put pedal markings in the score. He also authored several treatises on playing the piano or harpsichord, printed in England, Austria, Denmark, Italy and Russia.
Piano and harp feature in most of Dussek's output. Among his best-known works are substantial solo works for piano, sonatas for the piano, a large number of piano concertos, violin sonatas with piano, a musical drama and chamber music, such as a trio for piano, horn and violin. He also wrote programmatic pieces: The Sufferings of the Queen of France, from 1793, tells of Marie Antoinette's misfortunes.
In his piano concertos Dussek made a notable change: in every concerto written after 1792 he dropped the soloist's cadenza from the first movement. His last surviving concerto, Opus 70 in E-flat major, was among the first to make the opening movement much longer than usual. Dussek is known to have written concertos from 1779 to 1810.
Harpists treat his music as core repertoire, the six sonatas or sonatinas and the Sonata in C minor above all. The Naval Battle (1797) is also out of the ordinary: a sonata scored for piano, violin, cello and percussion, which is a very uncommon case of percussion in chamber music written before the twentieth century.
Many teachers value Dussek's piano music highly, and it is not unusual to see it programmed. The site offers six easy sonatas, Six sonates faciles pour le Piano Forte, Opus 46: the first and sixth are marked at the "Intermediate" level, and the second to fifth at "Intermediate+". You can start with the first and sixth, then move on to the third and the rest.