Topic: Jan Dussek - Piano Virtuoso & Composer!

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Hi PD - just added a pic above for those who may be interested - do not have that specific set, but probably many of the performances on other CDs - thanks for contributing to this thread - Dave

Thanks for the pic.

By the way, I ran across this on youtube (haven't had a chance yet to check your old thread), but am wondering whether or not you have this recording or have heard it before.  The bits that I was able to listen to (before getting interrupted), I did enjoy.  You can listen to it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upaa1ACuBs0

Or has anyone else hear heard it or the piano concerto (not certain how many he had written)?

Best,

PD

[SonicMan46]

By the way, I ran across this on youtube (haven't had a chance yet to check your old thread), but am wondering whether or not you have this recording or have heard it before.  The bits that I was able to listen to (before getting interrupted), I did enjoy.  You can listen to it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upaa1ACuBs0 - Or has anyone else hear heard it or the piano concerto (not certain how many he had written)?

Hi again PD - cannot comment on your YouTube link - but Dussek composed just over a dozen 'verified' Piano Concertos - see list below (Wiki link) - I own the first 2 CDs pictured below and have just ordered the second Shelley disc - I've added the tracks from these 3 discs to the listing, SO about two-thirds of his piano concertos are available on these recordings which are quite good and recommended, if interested - note that Shelley performs on a modern piano and Staier on an 1806 fortepiano, a reason to own both performances.  Hope this helps - Dave

List of Piano Concertos by Dussek:
Op. 1-1 (Craw 2) \ Piano Concerto No. 1 (1783)
Op. 1-2 (Craw 3) \ Piano Concerto No. 2 (1783)
Op. 1-3 (Craw 4) \ Piano Concerto No. 3 (1783) - Shelley I
Op. 3 (Craw 33) \ Piano Concerto No. 4 (1787) - Shelley II
Op. 14 (Craw 77) \ Piano Concerto No. 5 (1791) - Shelly II
Op. 17 (Craw 78) \ Piano Concerto No. 6 (1792)
Op. 22 (Craw 97) \ Piano Concerto No. 7 (1793) - Staier
Op. 27 (Craw 104) \ Piano Concerto No. 8 (1794)
Op. 29 (Craw 125) \ Piano Concerto No. 9 (1795) - Shelley I
Op. 40 (Craw 153) \ Piano Concerto No. 10 (1799)
No opus number (Craw 158) \ Piano Concerto No. 11 (1798?)
Op. 49 (Craw 187) \ Piano Concerto No. 12 (1801) - Staier + Shelley II
Op. 70 (Craw 238) \ Piano Concerto No. 13 (1810) - Shelley I
Piano Concerto Craw 1 (lost)
Piano Concerto Craw D7 (dubious)
Piano Concerto Craw D8 (dubious) (Source)

   

[amw]

Hyperion is recording the piano concerti as part of their Classical Piano Concerto series w Howard Shelley directing. There are a good number (at least 12) but some of those are selections from earlier works republished as a "new" concerto by publishers hoping to capitalise on Dussek's popularity so I'm not sure what the complete set will look like.

Op.49 is the most popular these days and the only one in a minor key—these things are probably related—and has been compared favourably to Beethoven's Op.37 which appeared around the same time. There's no real question of influence though as the two composers were working in different countries at the time. (Dussek's earlier piano sonatas are said to have influenced Beethoven, incl similarities between Op.9 no.2 and Beethoven's Op.2 no.3, and Op.35 no.3 and Beethoven's Op.13, and Op.44 and Beethoven's Op.81a although this seems mostly based on coincidences of key and title.)

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Interesting to hear about his current popularity.  And thanks to both of you gents for the information regarding the new(and 'ish') recordings of his music.

Hadn't heard before that Dussek's music might have influenced Beethoven; is there any correspondence, etc., along the lines suggesting/possibly proving that?

PD

[amw]

Not that I'm aware of—mostly conjecture based on similarities of musical material and style & Dussek's works being widely available at the time. There are some detailed musical analyses but no contextual evidence.

[SonicMan46]

Dussek TTT! - well has been a year - quoted below is a post that I left on the second page of this thread (from 2014!) - well, I re-listened to the Nagasawa-Egarr discs yesterday - in part, would agree w/ Dubins about the recording site of the first one - the second performance sounds much better - attached are reviews on each recording, including Jerry's rants!

Now, looking on Amazon & Spotify, there are plenty of Dussek 'harp recordings' for those interested - last night I listened to the one addition inserted below (third pic - Kyunghee Kim-Sutre) - beautiful performance; several years ago I'd likely buy the recording, at least as an MP3 but I've become quite use to having Spotify play in multiple rooms in my house, so may put together a 'Dussek Harp Playlist'.  Dave

Duo Harp & Fortepiano music of Dussek - I just received V.2 of the performances of these works w/ Masumi Nagasawa on a F.J. Naderman single-action harp (Paris), 1815 & Richard Egarr on a John Broadwood fortepiano, 1804 (same instruments used for both volumes, cover art shown below).

There are few reviews of these recordings but Jerry Dubins gave V.1 the worst review that I've seen written by him, basically calling the production a DISASTER (review attached) - the closing sentence quoted below - now I just re-listened to that disc and the sound can be reverberant, especially in the louder portions of the fortepiano, BUT I'm not sure - Jerry may have been wearing one of those old-time diving helmets - 

Jerry seem to blame 'his comments' on the recording location; NOW, V.2 (recorded elsewhere) received a strong review in MusicWeb HERE - SO, just curious of others' opinions of these works - Dave

This release could have been a valuable addition to the Dussek discography. The instruments are authentic: an 1815 single-action Naderman harp, which has a lovely silvery tone when heard solo in the only redeeming item on the program, the op. 34 solo harp sonata; and the aforementioned Broadwood 1804 Grand, a five-octave plus seven-note model. In no way can either Nagasawa or Egarr be faulted for this recording disaster.   Jerry Dubins

     

[SonicMan46]

Today, exploring Jan Dussek's Piano Concertos in my collection - I have the 4 discs shown below, but not much more available on Amazon USA (Shelley's 2nd Hyperion recording was done in 2017 - nothing else is listed on their website) - there are 13 solo piano concertos w/ one duplication between Staier & Shelley, so half have not been recorded (now, I've not really checked well the ones on some of the other CDs listed on Amazon or elsewhere?) - see quoted list below from an earlier post.  The 'Concerto for Two Pianos' w/ Lubimov is excellent but a mixture w/ chamber works. I decided to 'cull out' the Staier disc because the last piece is a talking/piano 'tribute' to Marie Antoinette - not my thing, I guess.

So, Brilliant has done a great job w/ Dussek's Sonatas on fortepiano - why not a similar series of the Piano Concertos on period instruments?  Dave

ADDENDUM: I contacted Hyperion by email and received an immediate response about whether Howard Shelley will record the remainder of Dussek's Piano Concertos - NO plans in the near future - the ball is thrown in Brilliant's field, as mentioned in the sentence above?

List of Piano Concertos by Dussek:
Op. 1-1 (Craw 2) \ Piano Concerto No. 1 (1783)
Op. 1-2 (Craw 3) \ Piano Concerto No. 2 (1783)
Op. 1-3 (Craw 4) \ Piano Concerto No. 3 (1783) - Shelley I
Op. 3 (Craw 33) \ Piano Concerto No. 4 (1787) - Shelley II
Op. 14 (Craw 77) \ Piano Concerto No. 5 (1791) - Shelly II
Op. 17 (Craw 78) \ Piano Concerto No. 6 (1792)
Op. 22 (Craw 97) \ Piano Concerto No. 7 (1793) - Staier
Op. 27 (Craw 104) \ Piano Concerto No. 8 (1794)
Op. 29 (Craw 125) \ Piano Concerto No. 9 (1795) - Shelley I
Op. 40 (Craw 153) \ Piano Concerto No. 10 (1799)
No opus number (Craw 158) \ Piano Concerto No. 11 (1798?)
Op. 49 (Craw 187) \ Piano Concerto No. 12 (1801) - Staier + Shelley II
Op. 70 (Craw 238) \ Piano Concerto No. 13 (1810) - Shelley I
Piano Concerto Craw 1 (lost)
Piano Concerto Craw D7 (dubious)
Piano Concerto Craw D8 (dubious) (Source)

     

[SonicMan46]

Well, Brilliant has completed its 8-CD series recordings of all of Dussek's keyboard works on a variety of fortepianos using 8 different performers - I have bought 7 volumes - below is a listing of the of the fortepianists for those releases along w/ the instruments used; the first & seventh volumes are shown below; the third pic is the 8th in the series w/ Naruhiko Kawaguchi on fortepiano - may have to add that one too?  Dave

V. 1 - Bart van Oort - Longman Clementi (London, 1798-1799), restored in 2002.
V. 2 - Piet Kuijken - Longman Clementi (London, 1798) - same as used by Oort.
V. 3 - Alexei Lubimov - same fortepiano (FP) as previous volumes.
V. 4 - Tuija Hakkila - Anon. Viennese FP, ca. 1795-1800 restored & copy of Longman Clementi FP (London, 1798) made Chris Maene, 2003.
V. 5 - Wolfgang Brunner - an historic 1804 Broadwood piano.
V. 6 - Viviana Sofronitsky - copy of a Walter pianoforte, made by Paul McNulty.
V. 7 - Zvi Meniker - fortepiano, specifics not known.

 

[Gurn Blanston]

Well, Brilliant has completed its 8-CD series recordings of all of Dussek's keyboard works on a variety of fortepianos using 8 different performers - I have bought 7 volumes - below is a listing of the of the fortepianists for those releases along w/ the instruments used; the first & seventh volumes are shown below; the third pic is the 8th in the series w/ Naruhiko Kawaguchi on fortepiano - may have to add that one too?  Dave

 

Dave,
Yes, the Kawaguchi actually is the first disk of that series (I have the folder named 'Disk 0'). The 3 sonatas of Op 35 don't show up elsewhere, so if you want the complete set, that is your logical recourse. I got it at Amazon back in December pretty cheap. Overall, this is a really nice 8-disk set, glad I have it! 

[Gurn Blanston]

BTW, those 2 Egarr/Nagasawa  disks are very tempting, thanks for pointing them out. Sophie (Corri) Dussek was a big player in Haydn's London Concerts, and eventually became one of his London publishers. I like her music, as did Haydn. She also wrote Scottish Songs...

[JBS]

Anyone know anything about this new recording? Or at least know anything about the performer?
The item page makes no mention of the instrument, so I am assuming it's a modern piano.

[Gurn Blanston]

Anyone know anything about this new recording? Or at least know anything about the performer?
The item page makes no mention of the instrument, so I am assuming it's a modern piano.

According to Presto:

Marek Toporowski (b.1964) is a Polish pianist, harpsichordist, organist and conductor. He is Head of the Department of Early Music at the Academy in Krakow. In 1985 he was the laureate of the First Polish Harpsichord Competition named after Wanda Landowska in Krakow.

Op 23 is not a sonata, per se.  Staier does it also on his disk of 2 concertos with Concerto Köln, where they call it a tableau. His version, probably more like the original, uses a narrator along with the piano. Toporowski apparently forgoes the narrator, as I can't find one in the listings...

[JBS]

According to Presto:
Op 23 is not a sonata, per se.  Staier does it also on his disk of 2 concertos with Concerto Köln, where they call it a tableau. His version, probably more like the original, uses a narrator along with the piano. Toporowski apparently forgoes the narrator, as I can't find one in the listings...

Good...I generally don't like narration inserted into music.

Thanks.

[SonicMan46]

Dave,
Yes, the Kawaguchi actually is the first disk of that series (I have the folder named 'Disk 0'). The 3 sonatas of Op 35 don't show up elsewhere, so if you want the complete set, that is your logical recourse. I got it at Amazon back in December pretty cheap. Overall, this is a really nice 8-disk set, glad I have it! 

Hi Gurn - well, just look on the Brilliant website, the 'V.0' Kawaguchi recording was released in 2015 - the ones labeled w/ volume numbers 1-7 came out in 2018-2019 - assume Brilliant was debating how to approach these Dussek Sonatas, but glad to have the set also - thanks.  Dave

P.S. just bought the MP3 from Amazon, burned to a CD-R and plays fine on my den stereo! 

[SonicMan46]

BTW, those 2 Egarr/Nagasawa  disks are very tempting, thanks for pointing them out. Sophie (Corri) Dussek was a big player in Haydn's London Concerts, and eventually became one of his London publishers. I like her music, as did Haydn. She also wrote Scottish Songs...

The 'harp duos' w/ Egarr & Nagasawa are excellent performances; the second release has the better sound, as discussed above but both are quite good.  As to solo harp, I put together a Spotify playlist w/ the two CDs below - very nice; yep, Jan & Sophie's marital relationship would be the basis for a modern 'soap opera' until he deserted her and his daughter.    Dave

 

[Gurn Blanston]

The 'harp duos' w/ Egarr & Nagasawa are excellent performances; the second release has the better sound, as discussed above but both are quite good.  As to solo harp, I put together a Spotify playlist w/ the two CDs below - very nice; yep, Jan & Sophie's marital relationship would be the basis for a modern 'soap opera' until he deserted her and his daughter.    Dave

 

I suspect I'll pick up at least one of the disks of duos, maybe both if they can be had from BRO, for example. I'll do some research to get the dates the works were composed; I have been recreating some of the London Concerts, so I try to find music written between 1791-95. Dussek wrote quite a lot in that period. Whilst 1803 isn't much help to me, for obvious reasons.

Apparently all the harpists had their soap opera moments: Krumpholz and wife are another fine example. Apparently the harp does something to people! 

[Gurn Blanston]

Hi Gurn - well, just look on the Brilliant website, the 'V.0' Kawaguchi recording was released in 2015 - the ones labeled w/ volume numbers 1-7 came out in 2018-2019 - assume Brilliant was debating how to approach these Dussek Sonatas, but glad to have the set also - thanks.  Dave

P.S. just bought the MP3 from Amazon, burned to a CD-R and plays fine on my den stereo!

No, I didn't mean to imply that they were intended to be a set, but while trying to discover if I had all the disks in the current set, which I had no idea how many there were, I ran across that one on Brilliant's site, looked for Op 35 on my 7 current disks, and then decided they had unintentionally created this as Disk 1 in a sort of ex post facto kind of way. It would have been redundant to publish another disk of the same works when this one was still fresh! 

[SonicMan46]

Earlier today, I left the post below in the 'Listening Thread' and is about to be 'buried' - reposted here for the information provided in the quote and the attachment - the 8-CD offering by Brilliant is excellent, all on fortepiano.  These recordings have been discussed recently in this thread, so if interested take a look.  Dave

Dussek, Jan (1760-1812) - Piano Sonatas on fortepiano - Brilliant has released 7 volumes of these works + another un-numbered volume (first 3 volumes shown below + one w/ Kawaguchi) - these 8 CDs include about 28 keyboard sonatas and are pretty much complete when compared to Howard Craw's listing of Dussek's compositions HERE; quoted below are the contents of each Brilliant disc along w/ the performer - in the attachment are a selection from Craw's list, there seem to be some discrepancies, e.g. Op. 9 & 10 in the Brilliant contents are listed by Craw as 'Piano and Violin' compositions, but according to the liner notes, Dussek wrote these mainly for his own solo performances; another discrepancy is Craw's Op. 14 w/ 3 works listed as 'Piano Sonatas' but not included in the Brilliant set - maybe another release, don't know?  Dave

Jan Dussek (1760-1812) - Piano Sonatas on Fortepiano (Brilliant)
  Vol. 1 w/ Bart van Oort - Op. 10 (Nos. 1-3) & Op. 31 (No. 2)
  Vol. 2 w/ Alexei Lubimov - Op. 44 & Op. 77
  Vol. 3 w/ Piet Kuijken - Op. 25 (No. 2) & Op. 39 (Nos. 1-3)
  Vol. 4 w/ Tuija Hakkila - Op. 5 (No. 3), Op. 24, Op. 43, & Op. 61
  Vol. 5 w/ Wolfgang Brunner - Op. 18 (No. 2) & Op. 45 (Nos. 1-3)
  Vol. 6 w/ Viviana Sofronitsky - Op. 9 (Nos. 1-3) & Op. 75 (No. 3)
  Vol. 7 w/ Zvi Meniker - Op. 47 (Nos. 1,2) & Op. 64
  No Vol. w/ Naruhiko Kawaguchi - Op. 35 (Nos. 1-3) & Lecons