Dussek: Complete Piano Sonatas Op. 47 & Op. 64, Vol. 7

Composer: Johann Ladislaus Dussek Artists: Zvi Meniker (fortepiano) The Dussek bandwagon rolls on, and collectors of this revelatory series will not hesitate to pick up the penultimate volume, which continues to shed light on this Czech contemporary of Beethoven by playing his most dazzlingly varied music on the kind of instruments he wrote it for. With volume 7 we have reached a pair of opus numbers which offer typical contrasts within Dussek’s idiom. The pair of sonatas belong to the genre of the ‘Sonate facile’ – easy sonatas, uncomplicated technically and musically, much like Beethoven’s , published three years later. The finale of No.1 is a ‘Rondo à la Militaire’ which became a famous hit of the period. Indeed, this was a time whenDussek reached the zenith of his fame as performer and composer, with his works and playing conquering the entire continent from England to Russia, and the Sonatas were first published in London, despite the composer having fled