The latest volume in a critically acclaimed series, presenting modern recordings of Dussek’s exhilaratingly diverse cycle of piano sonatas on instruments of his own time.
This enterprising series has reached the trio of ‘Grand Sonatas’ Op.35, probably first published in 1798, when Dussek dedicated them to Gabrielle Pleyel (wife of the piano manufacturer Ignaz Pleyel) and Muzio Clementi, the composer, publisher and piano manufacturer who developed new, more powerful-sounding and reliable piano actions. Dussek, like Beethoven, seized on such technological innovation and produced music of a new turbulence such as the C minor Sonata Op.35 No.3. The sonata’s opening Allegro bursts with a vitality and violence which becomes all the more vivid when played on a piano from Dussek’s time, straining to containthe music’s expressive reach, as it is here.
The instrument used on this album is a 1798 fortepiano from the firm of Longman-Clementi. Accordingly the touch and sound corresponds more closely than any other piano previously used on recordings of this repertoire. Dussek lived in London during the 1790s, and worked closely with the manufacturer John Broadwood to extend the range of keyboard instruments. The English fortepiano lent itself naturally to the harmonic fullness of Dussek's preferred textures, and in reverse, the instrument's characteristic sound and touch inspired and shaped the development of Dussek's compositional style.
Op.69 No.3 belongs to a collection of sonatas which Dussek composed with an optional violin part. Nos. 1 and 2 in the set have already received historically informed recordings in a separate Brilliant Classics project, with Julia Huber and Miriam Altmann, but this series presents the piano-only version which all the same contains the full argument of the sonata. In partnership with Bart van Oort, Petra Somlai contributed to Volume 9 in this series, which was welcomed in Fanfare magazine with glowing praise: ‘Both musicians have the requisite technique, and their execution of Dussek’s virtuoso writing is impressive… Both artists play with sensitivity and attractive tone. The recorded sound is fine, with admirable warmth and detail.’
- The tenth and final installment of an exciting and substantial project: the recording of the complete piano sonatas by Dussek!
- Johann Ladislaus Dussek (1760-1812) was born in rural Bohemia. He led a restless life, travelling Europe as a keyboard virtuoso and settling in several European capitals, notably Paris and London, where he became a fashionable pianist and teacher.
- Dussek’s style is rich, harmonically expressive and pianistically challenging, Classicism on the brink of Early Romanticism.
- This last recording in the series contains the three sonatas Op. 35 and the sonata Op.69 No.3, played by Hungarian fortepiano player Petra Somlai. She studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and later on in Amsterdam and The Hague, specializing in the playing on period instruments. She gained international attention by winning first prize and the audience award at the prestigious International Fortepiano Competition in Bruges (Belgium).
