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 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. His first musical instruction came from his father, who began teaching him piano at 5, and organ at age 9. His voice was also found to be good, so he also sang in the church choir. 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. 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.
Netherlands and Hamburg After these early studies in Bohemia he entered the services of one Captain Männer, an Austrian military man, in 1778. 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. 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. 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. While at the Hague he gave a performance before Kaiser
Joseph II of Austria, who acknowledged Dussek's prowess. By 1782, after leaving Männer's service, he was in Hamburg, where he gave a concert on the "new English fortepiano". He also published his first works, three piano concertos and 3 violin sonatas (C 2–7), all of which were assigned
Opus 1.
Eastern and Central Europe was one of Dussek's patrons. 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. 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. 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. 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. He toured Germany for the next few years as a virtuoso performer on the
piano and on the
glass harmonica, 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". Another reviewer wrote, of a concert in
Kassel, "He entranced all listeners with a slow, harmonic, and studiously modulated prelude and chorale." 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.
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. 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.
London Dussek left France for England in May or June 1789, where he settled in London. 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. 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. 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." 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". His collaboration with Broadwood would continue to bear fruit when, in 1794, he also received the first 6-octave (CC-c4) piano 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.
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. 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. 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. 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. Some of Dussek's compositions included arrangements of operatic and theatrical overtures for piano. He decided to try his hand at opera in 1798; the result was
The Captive of Spilberg, with a libretto by
Prince Hoare. The opera opened at
Drury Lane on 14 November 1798, and the music was well received, with the
European Magazine's critic writing, "the music, by Mr. Dussek, was such as to intitle him to rank with the first composers of the time."
Business failure In 1799, the business venture with Corri, which had never been very successful, ran into financial difficulties. Dussek and Corri managed to convince the librettist
Lorenzo Da Ponte to lend them money to cover their debts. The failure to repay this debt put Corri into
Newgate Prison and caused Dussek to flee. Da Ponte believed that Dussek fled to Paris; in fact he returned to Hamburg. The affair ended up bankrupting both Corri and Da Ponte. Dussek then toured Germany, where he became one of the first "glamour" pianists, preceding
Franz Liszt. According to
Louis Spohr, Dussek was the first to turn the piano sideways on the stage "so that the ladies could admire his handsome profile."
Later years In 1807, despite his earlier affiliation with Marie Antoinette, Dussek returned to Paris in the employ of
Talleyrand, the powerful French foreign minister. and giving the first public performance on their new stirrup-action grand in 1810. He wrote a powerful sonata (Sonata in A-flat major, Op. 64, C 221) called
Le Retour à Paris (The Return to Paris). This imposing sonata also received the nickname
Plus Ultra in heated response to a piano sonata by
Joseph Woelfl, said to be the last word in pianistic difficulties, entitled
Non Plus Ultra. The remainder of his life he spent performing, teaching and composing in
Prussia and France. His personal beauty had faded and he became grossly fat. He also developed a fondness for strong drink which probably hastened his death. Dussek died of
gout on 20 March 1812, in
Saint-Germain-en-Laye. == Style ==