Jan Ladislav Dussek (born Jan Václav Dusík, also spelled Duschek or Düssek; February 12, 1760 – March 20, 1812) was a Czech composer and expert pianist from the Classical period. He helped introduce Czech music to audiences in Europe during the late 1700s and early 1800s. Some of his piano compositions included musical ideas that later became common in the Romantic era.

Dussek was among the first pianists to travel widely across Europe. He performed at royal courts and concert halls in places like London, Saint Petersburg, and Milan. He was known for his skill and speed on the piano. During his nearly ten years in London, he helped improve the size of the pianoforte. He received one of the first 6-octave pianos made by John Broadwood, which had a range from CC to c4. Harold Schonberg noted that Dussek was the first pianist to sit at the piano with his face turned toward the audience, a practice that became standard for all pianists after him. Before Ludwig van Beethoven became famous, Dussek was one of the most respected pianists in Europe.

Dussek’s music often included emotional melodies with sudden changes in loudness or softness. In addition to writing piano music, he also composed for the harp. His harp pieces used simple musical scales and avoided complex notes, featuring many varied patterns. His works, especially the Six Sonatas/Sonatinas and the Sonata in C minor, are considered essential for harp students. Though less well-known than some of his Classical period peers, Dussek’s piano music is still highly respected by teachers and occasionally performed. Franz Liszt was influenced by Dussek’s style in his own piano compositions. Dussek’s music remained popular in 19th-century Great Britain and the United States, with some pieces still available in print or online in historical editions.

Life

The Dussek family had a long history as professional musicians. This tradition began at least with Jan Ladislav’s grandfather, Jan Josef Dusík, who was born in 1712. The family’s musical legacy continued in the Moravian branch until at least the 1970s. Jan Ladislav’s mother, Veronika Dusíková (née Štěbetová), played the harp and piano. Her son later wrote many musical pieces for these instruments. His father, Jan Josef, was also a well-known organist and composer. His sister, Kateřina Veronika Anna Dusíkova, was also a musician and composer.

Jan Ladislav was the oldest of three children. He was born on February 12, 1760, in the Bohemian town of Čáslav. His father taught and played the organ there. Jan Ladislav’s first music lessons came from his father, who taught him piano at age 5 and organ at age 9. His voice was also strong, so he sang in the church choir.

He studied music at the Jesuit gymnasium in Jihlava, where he studied with Ladislav Špinar, the 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 an organist at the Santa Barbara Jesuit church. In 1776, he moved to the New City Gymnasium in Prague, where he was again described as a lazy student. In 1777, he enrolled at the University of Prague but left after one semester.

After these early studies in Bohemia, he joined the service of Captain Männer, an Austrian military officer, in 1778. In 1779, he traveled with the captain to what is now Belgium. Some sources say he was appointed organist at St. Rumbold’s cathedral in Mechelen. However, a musicologist named Georges Van Doorslaer studied this claim in 1911 and found no evidence of it. Dussek’s name was not in the city’s expense records, and the position was not vacant at the time. Still, he performed there, giving a harpsichord recital in Kleerkoper’s Hall on December 16, 1779. He later traveled to the Dutch Republic, where a concert in Amsterdam caught the attention of royalty. He was invited to The Hague, where he taught the children of Stadtholder William V. He also performed for Kaiser Joseph II of Austria, who praised his skill.

By 1782, after leaving Captain Männer’s service, Dussek was in Hamburg, where he gave a concert on a new type of piano called the "English fortepiano." While in Hamburg, he may have studied with C. P. E. Bach. He also published his first works: three piano concertos and three violin sonatas (C 2–7), all labeled Opus 1.

From Hamburg, he moved to Saint Petersburg, where he became a favorite of Catherine the Great. There, he met a technician named Hessel, who created a keyboard version of the glass harmonica. Dussek mastered this instrument. He had to leave Russia suddenly when Catherine’s secret police suspected him of being involved in a plot to assassinate her. A story claims he found a ring during his escape, which Catherine later recognized as belonging to a known conspirator.

After leaving Saint Petersburg, Dussek became the music director for Prince Antoni Radziwiłł in Lithuania, where he stayed about a year. He may have left Lithuania because of rumors about an affair with the prince’s wife, Princess of Thurn und Taxis. He then toured Germany as a skilled pianist and glass harmonica player, eventually arriving in Paris in 1786. His German tour was a success. A Berlin concert review said, "He gained great recognition as a pianist and was admired for his glass harmonica playing." Another review of a Kassel concert praised his "slow, harmonic, and carefully modulated prelude and chorale." He may have performed in Ludwigslust in 1786, playing an Easter cantata for the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

In Paris, Dussek became a favorite of Marie Antoinette, who tried to stop him from touring Milan in 1788. However, he went anyway to visit his brother Franz. His Milan performances were very successful. He returned to Paris, where he stayed until shortly before the French Revolution began in 1789. There, he published violin sonatas (C 27–29) dedicated to Eugénie de Beaumarchais, daughter of writer Pierre Beaumarchais.

Dussek left France for England in May or June 1789, settling in London. Some claimed he took the harpist wife of composer Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz with him, but this is likely untrue, as Anne-Marie Krumpholtz arrived in London in 1788. It is unclear whether he left Paris because of the approaching revolution or by chance. He had a concert engagement in London in early June 1789, which required him to leave Paris before major events in the revolution.

Dussek made London his home until 1799. By 1790, he was a well-known performer and teacher. He was in high demand, with lessons being highly sought after and paid at a rate that was rare at the time. He also worked with pianomaker John Broadwood, receiving one of the first 5½ octave pianos (FF-c4). Broadwood noted in his journal that Dussek liked the piano, and later, Cramer junior also received one. Their partnership continued when Dussek received the first 6-octave (CC-c4) piano in 1794.

In the spring of 1791, Dussek performed in concerts that featured Sophia, the daughter of music publisher Domenico Corri. At a concert on June 15, 1791, the pair played a piano duet together. They married in September 1792. Sophia Corri was a singer, pianist, and harpist who became well-known in her own right. They had a daughter named Olivia, but their marriage was not happy, as both had affairs.

Some concerts in 1791 and 1792 included both Dussek and Joseph Haydn. Haydn wrote favorably about Dussek in a letter to his father after a 1792 concert. Other highlights of 1792 included starting a music publishing business with Sophia’s father, Domenico Corri. This business was initially successful but later failed, leading Dussek to leave London in 1799 and leaving Corri in debtors’ prison.

Dus

Style

Dussek was an important composer who came before the Romantic era musicians for piano, such as Chopin, Schumann, and Mendelssohn. His music often had styles that were very different from the late Classical style of other composers like Beethoven, Hummel, and Schubert. The way Dussek's piano music evolved shows that he developed his own unique path, one that prepared the way for, but did not directly influence, the early Romantic style.

Dussek wrote many notable pieces, including large solo piano works, piano sonatas, several piano concertos, sonatas for violin and piano, a musical drama, and various chamber music compositions. These include a Trio for piano, horn, and violin, and a rare sonata for piano, violin, cello, and percussion titled The Naval Battle and Total Defeat of the Dutch by Admiral Duncan (1797, C 152). This piece is one of the few examples from before the 20th century of chamber music that includes percussion.

Dussek was among several foreign-born composers, such as Muzio Clementi and John Field, who helped shape a distinct "London" school of pianoforte music. This was partly because of the special features of English-made pianos. For example, Joseph Haydn wrote his famous E-flat sonata after playing a piano with a larger range that Dussek lent him. Many of Dussek's piano compositions used the improved tonal qualities and wider keyboard range of English pianos, which allowed him to create new musical styles.

Dussek wrote many solo piano works, including 34 piano sonatas and several programmatic pieces. One example is The Sufferings of the Queen of France (1793, C 98), which tells the story of Marie Antoinette through music and includes texts about her hardships, such as her sadness at being separated from her children and her final moments before the guillotine.

Along with Clementi, Dussek may have influenced Beethoven. Beethoven built upon the musical ideas of the London school, which helped his own keyboard works become widely known. Similarities in style, melody, dynamics, and structure have been noticed between Beethoven’s Sonata Opus 10, No. 3 and Dussek’s Sonatas Opus 31, No. 2 and Opus 35, No. 2. The opening of Beethoven’s Sonata Opus 10, No. 1 also directly quotes a passage from Dussek’s Sonata Opus 39, No. 3.

Beethoven’s famous Sonata Opus 81a, les Adieux may also have been influenced by Dussek’s The Farewell, Opus 44, as both the story and musical style share similarities.

Between 1779 and 1810, Dussek composed many piano concertos, 18 of which survive today. He introduced a new idea to the piano concerto form. Unlike the classical style seen in Mozart’s concertos, Dussek removed the soloist’s cadenza in the opening movement of all his concertos written after 1792. Other unique features include his Concerto in C major, Op. 29 (1795), which begins with a solemn Larghetto in 8 time, a style not commonly used in classical concertos. His final surviving concerto, Opus 70 in E-flat major, had an unusually long opening movement of 570 measures. This length was much longer than his previous works and foreshadowed later practices seen in the concertos of Chopin and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, as well as Beethoven’s Fifth Concerto.

Innovations to the piano

Dussek is important in music history not only for his own compositions but also because of his relationship with John Broadwood, who created the "English Action" piano. His music required more strength and a wider range than the pianos of that time could provide, so he worked with Broadwood to improve the instrument's range and sound quality. A Broadwood piano with Dussek's improvements was later sent to Beethoven.

Dussek was also the first composer to include instructions for using piano pedals in his music.

Works list

Most of Dussek's music includes the piano or harp. He wrote 35 sonatas for piano and 11 for two pianos, along with many other pieces for these instruments. His chamber music includes 65 violin sonatas, 24 piano or harp trios, and many works for harp, harp and piano, or harp alone. Some sonatas had trio parts added by J. B. Cramer. His orchestral works were limited to concertos, which include 16 for piano (one is missing, and two are uncertain in authorship), six for harp (three are missing), and one for two pianos. He wrote a small number of vocal works, including 12 songs, a cantata, a mass, and one opera titled The Captive of Spilberg. His compositions also included arrangements of other works, especially opera overtures, for piano.

Cataloging Dussek's compositions has its own history. His works have been difficult to organize because many publishers originally released his music, and some works were published by more than one publisher. Some pieces published by multiple publishers received different opus numbers, and sometimes different works were given the same opus number by different publishers. Dussek made this more complicated by arranging works for different instrument combinations.

The Artaria Company created an incomplete list of his works, which led Howard Craw to develop a new list in 1964. Works are numbered in the order they were written, with "C" or "Craw" as a prefix. Works with uncertain origins are listed in a separate section with "Craw D" as a prefix.

Theoretical works

• Dussek's Instructions on the Art of Playing the Pianoforte or Harpsichord (London, Corri, around 1796)
• A Theoretical and Practical Keyboard School by Pleyel, Dussek, and Cramer (Vienna, Haslinger, undated)
• Piano Method Covering the Basic Principles of Finger Technique, 24 Easy and Graduated Lessons on Progressive Exercises and Difficult Passages, Ending with a Fantasy and Fugue Composed by I.L. Dussek (Paris, undated)
• Twelve Progressive Lessons with Characteristic Arias from Different Nations (original manuscript in the library of the Conservatory in Florence)

Selected discography

• J. L. Dussek: Violin Sonatas Volume 1, 2, 3, performed by Julia Huber (violin) and Miriam Altmann (fortepiano), published by Brilliant Classics (to be continued).
• Dussek, Jan Ladislav & Sophia: Harp Sonatas by Kyunghee Kim-Sutre, released by Sonarti Records in 2013 (catalog number RT01).
• J.L. Dussek: Sonatas for Harp and Fortepiano, performed by Kyunghee Kim-Sutre and Laure Colladant, published by Mandala in 1995 (catalog number MAN4854).