DUSSEK, JAN LADISLAV (1761-1812), Bohemian pian ist and composer, was born at Caslar, Bohemia, on Feb. 9, 1761, the son of the cathedral organist. He played in public at the age of 6, became a choir boy, and then studied theology at Prague. He found a pattern in Count Manner, whom he accompanied to Malines, Belgium. He was organist there for some time, then at Bergen-op-Zoom. He then spent some time at Amsterdam and the Hague, and attained a great reputation as a pianist. He had already written a large number of sonatas for the pianoforte with string accompaniments, when he went to Hamburg about 1783 to study under Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Dussek found a patron in Prince Radziwill and in Paris in Marie Antoinette. He spent twelve years in London from 1792 onwards, marrying in that year a singer, the daughter of Domenico Conj. Later he en tered into partnership with Corri in a music shop, which failed. He left England in I Boo for Hamburg. His later patrons were Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, the prince of Ysenburg and finally Talleyrand. In Talleyrand's household, where he lived from 1809 until his death at St. Germain-en-Laye (Nov. 20, 1812) he was a great and honoured figure. A complete list of Dussek's works will be found in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. It includes a large number of pianoforte works and a considerable amount of chamber music. His sonatas for the pianoforte repre sent him at his best.
See L. Schiffer, J. L. Dussek (1915).