Dussek

Mr. Bavouzet’s inquisitive look at the musicians who were composing at the same time as their colleague and competitor features Muzio Clementi, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Jan Ladislav Dussek — but it’s the forgotten Joseph Wölfl, who once battled Beethoven in a duel of keyboard skills, who comes out best, in this immaculate, charming sonata.

Clementi, Hummel, Dussek are names, somehow, we know of; they are not played much, but you know of them.

The Dussek and the Clementi have been in my repertoire for a good 25 years or so.

The Dussek was a very strange discovery.

Clementi published Beethoven’s works; Hummel knew Beethoven well enough to visit him on his deathbed; and Beethoven seems to have plagiarized Dussek for the slow movement of his First Piano Concerto.