Dussek: Three Sinfonias

Description

Franz Xaver Dussek (1731-1799)Three SymphoniesFranz Xaver Dussek was the most prominent composer of instrumental music in Prague during his lifetime. In addition to being a successful composer he was also a highly respected pianist and teacher. Like his compatriot VaÀhal, he was the son of a peasant. He revealed his musical gifts at a very early age and through the patronage of Count Johann Spork was able to attend the Jesuit Gymnasium at Hradec Králové. He undertook further musical studies in Prague with Habermann and completed his training in Vienna with the harpsichord virtuoso and court composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil. Wagenseil was an influential figure in Viennese music and numbered among his pupils Leopold Hofmann and Joseph Anton Steffan, both of whom enjoyed highly successful professional careers. Dussek would have profited enormously from his time with Wagenseil not only as a keyboard player and composer but also, through his teacher’s good offices, by developing a network of influential contacts in aristocratic society, many of whom maintained large establishments in Prague as well as in Vienna. Judging from the current distribution of manuscript copies of his works Dussek seems to have had a close professional association with the orchestras of Counts Pachta and Clam Gallas, the latter a relation by marriage of his early patron Count Spork, and also, on the evidence of his music library, a possible patron of both VaÀhal and Hofmann. Dussek’s wife Josepha, a former pupil and famous soprano, had close family connections with Salzburg and through them the Dusseks became very friendly with Mozart. Leopold Mozart suspected their influence in Wolfgang’s growing determination to escape from the narrow, stifling musical and intellectual environment of Salzburg. Dussek’s obvious success as a freelance virtuoso, composer and teacher working in Prague and Vienna must have made a strong impression on him. The Dusseks were probably instrumental in persuading Mozart to visit Prague to witness the phenomenal success of the local production of Le nozze di Figaro. In October 1787 he completed the composition of Don Giovanni in the charming Villa Bertramka at Smíchov, the Dusseks’ summer residence, and he probably wrote much of La clemenza di Tito there in September 1791. Dussek’s home was an important centre of musical activity and the composer himself, according to his obituary in the Leipziger Allgemeine Zeitung, afforded visiting virtuosi a warm welcome and used his influence to introduce them to leading members of the nobility. Like most composers of his generation Dussek wrote the majority of his symphonies during the 1760s and 1770s. The middle decades of the eighteenth century was a period of enormous economic vitality in the Habsburg dominions and wealthy aristocratic families, many of whom maintained sizeable musical establishments, vied with each other to present conc