MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Jan Ladislav DUSSEK (1760–1812)
Piano Sonata in F minor, L’Invocation, op.77 (1809) [27:14]
Piano Sonata in Bb, op.9/1 (1789) [11:27]
Piano Sonata in C, op.9/2 (1789) [17:37]
Piano Sonata in D, op.9/3 (1789) [12:13]
Markus Becker (piano)
rec. 12-13 March 2007, Sendesaal Radio Bremen. DDD
CPO 777 323-2 [69:31]
Experience Classicsonline

The Dussek family – like the Benda family – has a long history as professional musicians, stretching from Jan’s grandfather until the 1970s. Jan’s mother was an harpist and this explains why he wrote so much music for that instrument. He commenced his studies in Bohemia, then moved to the Netherlands and Germany, where he may have studied with CPE Bach. For a time he lived in St Petersburg where he was a favourite of Catherine the Great. He subsequently was music director for Prince Antoni Radziwill in Lithuania and travelled as a virtuoso on both piano and glass harmonica. In France he was favoured by Marie Antoinette and on the outbreak of revolution he escaped to London with the wife of composer Jean–Baptiste Krumpholtz, who was an harpsit, and he drowned himself in the Seine. Dussek continued his career as a virtuoso in the English capital, where he received praise from Haydn,  and set up a publishing form with Domenico Corri which went bankrupt and Dussek dumped Madame Krumpholtz in favour of Corri's young daughter, Sophia, whom he married. Amongst other things, Sophia Dussek was an harpist! After the bankruptcy Dussek retruend to Germany, leaving his family behind and his father-in-law in a debtor's jail.
 
Returning to the concert platform it is said that Dussek was the first pianist to turn the piano sideways on the stage "so that the ladies could admire his handsome profile." He returned to Paris, in 1807, in the employ of Talleyrand, who was widely regarded as one of the most versatile and influential diplomats in European history. Dussek spent the remainder of his life performing, teaching and composing. His personal beauty fading and becaming grossly fat, eventually being unable to reach the piano keyboard, he developed a fondness for strong drink which hastened his death.
 
He wrote 34 Piano Sonatas, a number of Piano Concertos and Violin Sonatas. He loved picturesque titles and his sonata for piano, violin, cello and percussion is called The Naval Battle and Total Defeat of the Dutch by Admiral Duncan (1797). A strange title indeed and the work is also one of the very rare examples of pre–20th century chamber music to include percussion.
 
The huge four movement Sonata in F minor, L’Invocation, is Dussek’s final Piano Sonata. It is a bold and imposing statement, full of virtuoso writing for the keyboard and the language is dramatic and, quite often, forceful, but the end is quite and subdued. This Sonata points the way into the romantic era, still some twenty years hence, and it sounds remarkably modern because of its strength and construction.
 
The three Sonatas from opus 9 are simpler pieces – the first and last in only two movements and the middle one in three. The second Sonata has an hair–raising barnstorming finale which never lets go, once it’s grabbed you by the throat! In his most informative notes in the booklet - although I wish he wouldn’t use the word namely so often - Lorenz Luyken gives the history of these sonatas and their publication in Paris, during Dussek’s first sojourn there, and the change of instrument from clavecin to fortepiano. It’s a fascinating essay and an interesting story in its own right. Whichever instrument they were written for they work perfectly well on a modern concert grand.
 
Markus Becker gives strong and very musical performances of all these works. His use of light and shade is most impressive, colouring the music and aiding the romantic outlook of the music. He makes no concessions for the earlier Sonatas, treating them with the same virtuoso approach as the later work – surely they cannot ever have been given this way in the French parlours of the late 18th century! But his approach suits the music for it is bold and forthright.
 
The recording is bright with the piano well forward and the cover of the booklet displays François Boucher’s Landscape Near Beauvais (1740). This is music well worth investigating and if Dussek is the missing link between the classical and romantic periods we should be looking at him more closely. This disk is a good step in that direction.
 
Bob Briggs
 



 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.