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Classical Piano Concerto 5 on CD

The Classical Piano Concerto - Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812) - Piano Concertos Opp 3, 14 & 49 Howard Shelley (piano), Ulster Orchestra, Howard Shelley (conductor)

Howard Shelley’s earlier release of Dussek concertos was described as ‘a real find’ (BBC Music Magazine). This successor is, if anything, even more impressive, culminating in one of the finest unknown piano concertos from the early nineteenth century.

At the turn of the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, composers of piano concertos exploited the paradigms laid down by Haydn and Mozart. Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812) composed almost twenty concertos over a thirty-year span, the earliest of these largely mirroring the formal plans of his illustrious predecessors, while several later efforts reflect and manifest new directions and priorities. This second instalment of Dussek’s piano concertos offers a further trio of examples from different points in his career: one of his earliest efforts (Op 3 in E flat major, published in 1787), another from a few years later (Op 14 in F major, from around 1791), and finally Dussek’s solitary effort in the minor mode (Op 49 in G minor, published in 1801).

Born in Čáslav, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), Dussek left home before the age of twenty, migrating via northern Europe to St Petersburg, and subsequently becoming Kapellmeister to Prince Radziwill in Lithuania. In 1784, he began a long, itinerant concert tour, arriving in Paris two years later, where he remained until 1789. Fleeing the French Revolution, he spent the next decade in London, before returning to his Bohemian home at the turn of the century. In 1804, he became Kapellmeister to the Prussian Prince Louis Ferdinand, then returned to Paris two years later, where he remained until his death in 1812.

Dussek’s concertos (his only orchestral works) are mostly cast in the standard three movements. The first movements fall into the so-called ‘double exposition’ concerto form codified by Mozart at the end of the eighteenth century. This is typically followed by a lyrical slow movement (usually in a ternary design) in a closely related key, and capped by a rousing rondo in the key of the first movement. As one might expect, they make ever-increasing virtuosic demands on the soloist. One of the most salient features of Dussek’s later concertos is the absence of the cadenza, which Mozart had considered one of the staples of the form. Dussek dispensed with this traditional gesture quite early in his career: the latest to include one is the Op 14 concerto featured on this recording, from around 1791. He seems to have been the first important composer to omit the cadenza, although most others would later follow suit.

The Piano Concerto in E flat major, Op 3, is light in character and manifests a classical conception of the form, in line with the Mozartian paradigm of its time. In the first movement of Op 3 there is no harmonic digression after the secondary theme, and the thematic material of the exposition is used exclusively throughout. However, more progressive design elements include Dussek’s rather abrupt, Haydnesque shift from G major to A flat major in the development section, the omission of a recapitulation of the primary thematic material, and the lack of a cadenza. The second movement is a lovely ternary setting in the relative minor contrasted in selected places by forceful unison writing between the strings and piano, not unlike passages in Mozart’s D minor concerto, K466, composed a couple of years before the publication of Dussek’s Op 3 in 1787. A contrasting section in the parallel major (C major) follows, capped by a return to the original minor mode. As per usual, a rousing, Haydn-tinged rondo in E flat major closes the concerto with much passing of thematic material back and forth between the soloist and tutti, and several ‘false reprises’ in various distant keys.

Composed approximately four years later, around 1791 (the year of Mozart’s death), the more expansive Piano Concerto in F major, Op 14, shows considerable growth on the part of the composer. While it is equally in line with Mozart’s model of the concerto, its design is more self-assured, revealing fewer ‘seams’ in the formal outline than his earlier work. Thematic inspiration seems stronger, and the harmonic digression within the transition section of the first movement, coupled with the introduction of new thematic material in the development, is indicative of a more progressive approach. This assurance is also evident in the greater scale of the movement, which at almost thirteen minutes is nearly half as long again as the corresponding opening of the Op 3 concerto, and features masterful concertante scoring for the winds, brass, and strings in turn. Virtuosity meets harmonic innovation in the ‘multiple approach’ to the big second tutti, where the solo piano’s semiquaver passagework leads to trills over the local dominant, preparing the ground to cadence in the new key of C major (in a very similar manner to the corresponding section in the Op 3 concerto), before the entire cadential passage is repeated to increase the tension and expectation. The second movement of Op 14 is a beautiful pastoral adagio in B flat major, with fetching pizzicato strings accompanying the piano. This movement is capped by a marvellous improvised cadenza of Shelley’s own devising (the only one on this recording). The concerto closes with a highly virtuosic rondo finale.

As if to announce the beginning of a new era in his approach to the composition of a concerto, Dussek’s Piano Concerto in G minor, Op 49, his first in the nineteenth century, differs strikingly from its predecessors in his oeuvre. Published as Op 49 (and, by virtue of Dussek selling the same piece to multiple publishers, also as Op 50), it dates from 1801, around the same time as Beethoven’s first three piano concertos. It is his only concerto in the minor mode, and reflects a darker and more romantically oriented mood, sombre and filled with gravitas where in the previous two concertos presented here classical lightness and gaiety prevail. The second movement is an E flat major adagio, and the third the obligatory rondo, cast, like the first movement, in G minor.

Subtle and interesting formal innovations abound in the first movement of Op 49, especially regarding the treatment of themes. The first ritornello uses its primary theme for both the secondary (in the relative major) and closing (back in the tonic) themes, as well as the initial theme of the second and third ritornellos. The soloist offers a completely fresh trinity of themes (primary, secondary, and closing), each of which returns in the tonic in the recapitulation. The orchestra’s primary theme is never uttered by the soloist, and vice versa. This disposition of themes goes one step beyond Dussek’s usual thematic treatment, which allows separate primary, transition, and closing themes for the orchestra and soloist, but with a shared second theme. In the G minor concerto, Dussek seems to define a totally discrete, isolated world for the soloist, far removed from that of the orchestra. The development contains elaborate harmonic sequential patterns, unlike the development of any previous Dussek concerto. It would seem that subsequent romantic composers—Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Wieck, Liszt, and many others—were paying attention, as their later concertos would eventually manifest many of these qualities.

The gorgeous second movement, in E flat major, begins with a wonderfully scored tutti which features octave French horn doublings. The fantastic dissonant sonority near the final cadence tinges the lovely conclusion with an element of pathos. The concluding rondo has an alla Turca (or alla Hongroise) sort of feel, with a jaunty, rhythmic lilt. The rhythmic energy is counterbalanced by the darker tonality, as Dussek writes in the minor mode throughout, a daring departure from his previous minor-key slow movements which marks a further harmonic innovation for the new century. It nonetheless rounds off the concerto with marvellous, inventive scoring, whimsical detours, and a very satisfying conclusion.

The Classical Piano Concerto