J. L. Dussek – Sonata in A-flat Major "Le Retour à Paris", Op. 64/70 (Becker)

0:00 – 1. Allegro non troppo ed espressivo 12:44 – 2. Molto adagio con anima ed espressione – dolcissimo 20:39 – 3. Tempo di minuetto. Scherzo quasi allegro – piano e legatissimo 24:46 – 4. Finale. Scherzo – Allegro con spirito Dussek’s penultimate sonata is his most talkative one (it is one of the longest classical era sonatas in general), but is simply exploding with ideas. An example is the exposition of the first movement, which has about 5 memorable themes, changes of momentum, bonkers virtuosity with arpeggios spanning the entire keyboard and broken octaves, but at the same time not forgetting about sonorous quality of the piano – the narrative power of the last motif before the repeat is especially moving. The second movement makes one hard to believe that it was composed three years before Chopin was born: the polyphonic character of the main theme, E major tonality, middle register of the keyboard and plain understanding for the beauty of tone make it too similar to Chopin’s