Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812): A Bohemian Composer "en voyage" through Europe ed. by Roberto Illiano and Rohan H. Stewart-MacDonald (review)

Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in the so-called Kleinmeister of the classical era. Neglected for the better part of 150 years among scholars and performers alike, we have substantial books on Mysliveček, Clementi, Pleyel, and now Jan Ladislav Dussek. Dussek was probably the most highly regarded of these during his lifetime, but our knowledge of him prior to this book was limited to a few dissertations (the one dealing with sources is nearly fifty years old) and a variety of master's-level theses. His music has been the beneficiary of numerology: with a 250th birth anniversary in 2010 and a 200th death anniversary in 2012, a burst of new scholarship on him was undertaken in a very short span of time. As will be seen, the present compilation of essays will do much to further our understanding of Dussek's life and music as well as the larger world of late classical and "proto-romantic-era" music outside of the Haydn-Mozart-Beethoven triumvirate. The first half of the book greatly expands our primary-source evidence for the composer's life, works, and reception, while its second half deals with the music directly through analysis and interpretation.

The first essay in the collection, Michaela Freemanová's examination of primary source material in Dussek's native Bo hemia, makes it painfully apparent why so few scholars have attempted to venture into this area of music history; her essay quotes sources at length in five different languages: German, English, French, Latin, and Czech. With no parallel translations to English provided (the exception being one brief translation from Czech, oddly without the original language printed) the book opens with a high intimidation factor. This is unfortunate because Freemanová presents remarkable archival and printed material that has major implications for Dussek's biography. Haydn and Mozart scholars take for granted easy access to basic sources such as those she presents on Dussek, but only now has someone been able to surmount the formidable linguistic barriers. Her essay concludes with numerous avenues for further investigation, all part of a just-beginning effort to clean up two centuries of misinformation and assumption regarding the details of Dussek's life.

The collection's second essay, by Massimiliano Sala, examines newly-discovered letters and concert advertisements relating to Dussek's time in Germany and France, later in life after he left England. Less daunting since it only relies on German and French sources, the author provides a convenient appendix with side-by-side translations of ten previously-unknown letters. Seven of these are to publisher Gottfried Christoph Härtel. Sala examines their implications for the chronology and circumstances of a number of Dussek's later works, including his op. 60 string quartets. The letters demonstrate the extent to which Dussek lived life in a precarious financial state, never able to break away completely from the old courtly patronage system that was fast failing. In a larger context, Sala's study provides an informative example beyond the usual discussions of Mozart and Beethoven on the gradual evolution of the freelance composer.

David Rowland provides us with the first detailed insights into the business side of Dussek's time in London, beginning in 1789. He describes Corri, Dussek, & Co. at length, noting that John Corri was the firm's workhorse on the business side while Dussek was seemingly the musical brains. There is a hint that Dussek's involvement was based solely upon his willingness to publish exclusively with the company. The composer proved incapable of leading the business when Corri died in 1798. The firm failed in 1800, shortly after Dussek turned to Longman, Clementi & Co. for his publishing needs. By then Dussek had also abandoned his wife (Corri's daughter...