Markus Becker - Jan Ladislav Dussek: 3 Piano Sonatas (2006)

Investigate the music of Beethoven's contemporaries who were well enough known to be called his rivals, and the idea of Beethoven as fist-shaking revolutionary comes in for some serious revision. Jan Ladislav Dussek, Bohemian-born, became famous all over Europe for piano music that was daring in every way. The three sonatas on this disc date from the very beginning of the nineteenth century. They have Beethovenian dimensions and conventions -- the Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat major, Op. 44, is a "Farewell" sonata -- and their harmonic schemes, at both movement-wide and local levels, are ambitious. Listen to Dussek, or Hummel, and Beethoven begins to seem like the composer who brought their innovations back within the confines of classical frameworks. The clear outlines of Beethoven's movements are missing in these works, which are occasionally dull -- the incessant motor action of the first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 24 in F sharp minor, Op. 61, is enough to make you want to leave the room for a sandwich and a beer, or to wish for the opening movement of the "Moonlight" sonata. But in the main these are expansive works with much to tell us about the music Beethoven was hearing and reacting to. Pianist Markus Becker delivers fine readings, with sensitivity to the rhetorical gestures of the music and an admirable refusal to pile more passion onto these works than they can comfortably handle. -- James Manheim