Jan Ladislav Dussek (baptised Jan Václav Dusík,Černušák, p. 271 with surname also written as Duschek or Düssek; 12 February 1760 – 20 March 1812) was a Czech classical period composer and virtuoso pianist. He was an important representative of Czech music abroad in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Some of his more forward-looking piano works have traits often associated with Romanticism.Dusík (1984), p. xxiii
Dussek was one of the first piano virtuosos to travel widely throughout Europe. He performed at courts and concert venues from London to Saint Petersburg to Milan, and was celebrated for his technical prowess. During a nearly ten-year stay in London, he was instrumental (sic) in extending the size of the pianoforte, and was the recipient of one of John Broadwood's first 6-octave pianos, CC-c4. Harold Schonberg wrote that he was the first pianist to sit at the piano with his profile to the audience, earning him the appellation "le beau visage." All subsequent pianists have sat on stage in this manner. He was one of the best-regarded pianists in Europe before Beethoven's rise to prominence.
His music is marked by lyricism interrupted by sudden dynamic contrasts. As well as his many compositions for the piano, he also composed for the harp: his music for that instrument contains a great variety of figuration within a largely diatonic harmony, avoids chromatic passages. His music is considered standard repertoire for all harpists, particularly his Six Sonatas/Sonatinas and especially the Sonata in C minor. Less well known to the general public than that of his more renowned Classical period contemporaries, his piano music is highly valued by many teachers and not infrequently programmed. Franz Liszt has been called an indirect successor of Dussek in the composition and performance of virtuoso piano music. His music remained popular to some degree in 19th-century Great Britain and the USA, some still in print, with more available in period editions online.
Life
Early years The Dussek family had a long history as professional musicians, starting at least as early as Jan Ladislav's grandfather Jan Josef Dusík (b. 1712), and lasting in the Moravian branch of the family at least into the 1970s. Jan Ladislav's mother, Veronika Dusíková (née Štěbetová), played the harp, an instrument, along with the piano, for which her son went on to write much music. His father, Jan Josef, was also a well-known organist and composer.Craw, p. 12 His sister, Kateřina Veronika Anna Dusíkova, was also a musician and composer.
Jan Ladislav, the oldest of three children, was born on 12 February 1760 in the Bohemian town of Čáslav, where his father taught and played the organ.Craw, pp. 13–14 His first musical instruction came from his father, who began teaching him piano at 5, and organ at age 9.Craw, p. 18 His voice was also found to be good, so he also sang in the church choir.Craw, p. 19
He studied music at the Jesuit gymnasium in Jihlava, where he studied with Ladislav Špinar, its choir director; his grades were reported to be poor. From 1774 to 1776 he studied at the Jesuit gymnasium in Kutná Hora, where he also served as organist in the Santa Barbara Jesuit church.Craw, p. 20 In 1776 he went to the New City Gymnasium in Prague, where he was again reported to be a lazy student. In 1777 he enrolled in the University of Prague, where he lasted one semester.Craw, pp. 21–22
Netherlands and Hamburg After these early studies in Bohemia he entered the services of one Captain Männer, an Austrian military man, in 1778.Craw, p. 23 Dussek traveled with the Captain to what has since become Belgium in 1779, where he was - by some sources - appointed organist at St. Rumbold's cathedral in Mechelen. Georges Van Doorslaer, a well acclaimed musicologist from Mechelen, studied the question in 1911 and refutes that claim:Annales du XXII® Congrès (Malines, 1911), Fédération Archéologique & Historique, II, 736. Dusseks name is never mentioned in the city's expense records (i.e. he did not receive payment for the commission), and the position at St. Rumbold's was not vacant at the time of Dusseks stay in Mechelen. However, he did perform there: he gave a harpsichord recital in the Kleerkoper's Hall (Botermarkt) on December 16, 1779.Wekeliiks Bericht van Mechelen, December 1779,
p. 507. He then travelled to the Dutch Republic, where a well-received concert in Amsterdam brought him to the royalty's attention. He was invited to The Hague, where he gave lessons to the three children of Stadtholder William V.Craw, p. 26 While at the Hague he gave a performance before Kaiser Joseph II of Austria, who acknowledged Dussek's prowess.Craw, p. 27
By 1782, after leaving Männer's service, he was in Hamburg, where he gave a concert on the "new English fortepiano". While in Hamburg, he may have studied with C. P. E. Bach.Encyclopædia Britannica, Dussek He also published his first works, three piano concertos and 3 violin sonatas (C 2–7), all of which were assigned Opus 1.Craw, p. 28
Eastern and Central Europe
From Hamburg he moved to Saint Petersburg, where he was a favorite of Catherine the Great. While there he was introduced to a technician named Hessel, who had developed a keyboard version of the glass harmonica, an instrument Dussek went on to master.Craw, pp. 29–30Pohl, p. 14 Dussek was forced to leave Russia quite abruptly, just ahead of Catherine's secret police, amid suspicions of his involvement in a plot to assassinate Catherine.Dusík (1984), p. xxiv In a possibly apocryphal tale surrounding his departure, he was en route to play for Catherine when he found a ring, which he put on. Catherine recognized the ring as belonging to a known conspirator, raising her suspicions about Dussek.Craw, p. 30
After Dussek left Saint Petersburg, he took a position as music director for Prince Antoni Radziwiłł in Lithuania, where he stayed about a year. His departure from Lithuania may have been prompted by an affair he was rumored to have with the Prince's wife, the Princess of Thurn und Taxis.Craw, p. 31 He toured Germany for the next few years as a virtuoso performer on the piano and on the glass harmonica, eventually arriving in Paris in 1786.Craw, p. 34 The German tour was a significant success for him. One review of a Berlin concert said, "He obtained great distinction as a pianist, and was little less admired for his playing on the [glass] harmonica ... some critics pretend to trace to his skill upon this instrument many of his specialities of style both as a pianist and composer".Craw, pp. 34–35 Another reviewer wrote, of a concert in Kassel, "He entranced all listeners with a slow, harmonic, and studiously modulated prelude and chorale."Craw, pp. 35–36 He may also have been in Ludwigslust in 1786, where he would have performed his Extract from an Easter Canata (C 26) for the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.Craw, p. 40
France and Italy In Paris Dussek became a favorite of Marie Antoinette, who tried to dissuade him from going on a performing tour to Milan in 1788. However, she was unsuccessful, as Dussek wanted to visit his brother František in Milan. Dussek's trip to Milan was quite successful; his performances "produce[d] quite a sensation".Craw, p. 44 He returned to Paris, where he stayed until shortly before the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789. There he published a series of violin sonatas (C 27–29) dedicated to Eugénie de Beaumarchais, daughter of writer Pierre Beaumarchais.Craw, pp. 42–44
London
Dussek left France for England in May or June 1789, where he settled in London. It is sometimes alleged that he took with him the harpist wife of the composer Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz, who drowned himself in the Seine as a consequence; however, this is likely untrue, as Anne-Marie Krumpholtz went to London in 1788.Greene, p. 376Flood, p. 135 It is also uncertain whether he left Paris because of the looming crisis in France, or if it was merely coincidental. Early biographers have generally claimed that he left because of the impending revolution.Grove (1880), p. 474 He is reported to have had a concert engagement in London in early June 1789; this would have required his departure from Paris before some of the critical steps early in the Revolution.Craw, p. 49
Dussek made London his home until 1799. By 1790 he was well established as a performer and teacher. He was in such demand that Davison, in an 1860 biographic sketch, noted that "he became one of the most fashionable professors of the day, and his lessons were both sought with avidity and remunerated at a rate of payment which knew no precedent except in the instance of John Cramer."Davison, quoted in Craw, p. 51 He had also established a relationship with pianomaker John Broadwood, taking delivery of one of the first 5½ octave pianos (FF-c4): Broadwood noted in his business journal for 13 November 1793: "We have made some 5 ½ octave grands these three years past, the first to please Dussek, which being liked, Cramer junior had one".Craw, p. 53 His collaboration with Broadwood would continue to bear fruit when, in 1794, he also received the first 6-octave (CC-c4) pianoCraw, p. 75
In the spring of 1791, Dussek appeared in a series of concerts, a number of which featured Sophia, the young daughter of music publisher Domenico Corri. In a concert on 15 June that year, the pair played a piano duet together; they were married in September 1792.Craw, pp. 58–60 Sophia Corri was a singer, pianist, and harpist who became known in her own right. They had a daughter, Olivia, but the marriage was not happy, involving liaisons by both parties.Craw, pp. 67, 87–89
Some of the concerts in 1791 and 1792 featured both Dussek and Joseph Haydn; the older Haydn wrote quite favorably of Dussek in a letter to the latter's father following one of the 1792 concerts. The other highlights of 1792 (above and beyond his marriage to Sophia) included the beginning of a music publishing venture with Sophia's father Domenico. This business, while successful at first, fared poorly in later years, and the circumstances of its failure spurred Dussek to leave London in 1799, leaving Corri in debtors' prison.Craw, pp. 73, 103
Dussek's business venture apparently had little impact on his performing and composing while in London. Every year, he performed in a series of concerts, at least some of which also featured Sophia, and which frequently featured new works. Some works were so successful they were repeated at later concerts in the series. Of one work, a reviewer wrote in 1798, "Dussek's Military Concerto was repeated. We think it very deserving of encomium." The concerto (C 153), which the reviewer reported as having been a repeat performance, was played again the following week.Craw, p. 93
In 1796, Dussek and his wife began having serious marital troubles. In an account of uncertain veracity, it was reported that Sophia, who had fallen in love with another man, asked Dussek for money to repair her harp. She then used the money to leave the house, removing her belongings in her harp case, and claiming to have left for dinner with a female friend. A suspicious Dussek went with his father-in-law to the man's house, where Sophia locked herself in. She and Dussek argued, and she cursed him, claiming to be pregnant by the other man. Dussek, relenting, promised her freedom to do what she wanted; this led to a reconciliation of sorts. It seems unlikely that Dussek ever saw Sophia and his daughter Olivia after he left London in 1799; Sophia had to wait until she knew Dussek had died before she could remarry, which she did in 1812.Craw, pp. 87–89, 104