Dussek: Piano Sonatas opp. 77 & 9, 1-3

Becker, Markus

CPO 777323

During his lifetime Jan Ladislav Dussek was known as a piano and glass harmonica virtuoso, and it was said that he was one of the first to make the pianoforte sing. The present recording, the second volume featuring piano sonatas by this Bohemian composer, derives its special appeal from its joint presentation of an early sonata and the composer's last contribution to this genre. Dussek composed his three Sonatas op. 9 during his years as a traveling piano and glass harmonica virtuoso. It is not a collection put together without rhyme or reason but a carefully constructed cycle. All but two of the movements are obliged to the sonata principle, and as a whole they enthuse us with their manifoldness, contrasts within a brief space within the formal parts, and versicolor virtuosity. Dussek's op. 77, L'invocation, composed more than twenty years later, has four extensive movements, is almost a half hour in length, and impressively documents the rise of the piano sonata genre to the status of an emancipated and individualized single work. As on the first volume, which was awarded FonoForum's Star of the Month 5 / 06, »Markus Becker fills the sonata architecture with a master musician's authority and poetic imagination. «

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

CPO

10-04-2008

761203732326