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Music
Apart from music for piano solo or duet, Dusík wrote many works for string instrument(s) and piano, chamber music, a mass and 19 piano concertos (one for 2 pianos and orchestra). He is, however, remembered as a pianist and composer for the piano. His piano music includes at least 42 sonatas, 29 of which were published by “Artia” of Prague between 1964 and 1967. Although most, if not all, are well written and individual in style, of particular merit and importance are:
- Op. 44. “The Farewell” (1802?), dedicated to Clementi and written after he left England.
- Op. 61. An “Elégie harmonique” on the death of Prince Louis Ferdinand (1806/1807)
- Op. 70. “Le retour à Paris” (1807), which was published in England under the title “Plus ultra” in response to Woelfl’s sonata “Ne plus ultra”
- Op. 77. “L’Invocation”, written during the last year of his life, and probably not only his greatest, but also possibly the best Czech composition before Smetana.
Life
Dussek’s first musical teacher was his father (Jan Dusík) from whom he began to learn the piano at the age of 5, and the organ at the age of 9. He appears to have lived with his parents in Czáslav until the age of 17. He then moved to Jihlava, and the Jesuit Seminary in Kutná Hora for further studies, and concluded his education in Prague (where he also studied philosophy and theology) in 1778.
1780–1782 he moved to employed as organist and music teacher in Bergen-op-Zoom in the Netherlands, he was in Amsterdam in 1782 and The Hague in 1783. He began his career as a piano virtuoso in Berlin in 1784, Mainz (1785) and St. Petersburg (1786). He left Russia when implicated in a plot against the Empress Catherine II, and went to Paris from 1786 to 1789, apart from a concert tour in Italy. He fled Paris in 1789 for London, where he lived for 10 years. In 1792 he married the daughter of the music publisher and composer Domenico Corri.
The firm became bankrupt and he moved to Hamburg (1800–1802). After a series of concerts in his native country, he entered the service of Prince Louis Ferdinand, until the latter was killed at the Battle of Saalfeld in 1806 during the Franco–Prussian War.
In 1807 he returned to Paris where he remained until his death at the castle in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1812, at the comparatively early age of 52, having been affected during his final years by profound melanchololia and gross obesity.