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Jan Ladislas Dussek (1760-1812) Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 44 (“The Farewell”) Malcolm Bilson, pianoforte (Maene after Longman & Clementi) BRIDGE 9263 [62 mins] This replica piano of the particular English style c. 1830 was revelatory to Malcom Bilson 'far beyond what I could have imagined'. It has changed his manner of playing, brilliant with starker dynamics encouraging higher romantic intensity playing in distinction to what is appropriate for the lighter Viennese Walters instruments. The Dussek is passionate and witty too, with a plethora of dynamic markings, illustrated in helpful musical examples (with track and timings references) which make this so valuable a release (if you only download the music, you'll miss a lot !). The Cramer is more urbane, charming, conservatively elegant. The great Eb Haydn sonata is the one which makes this disc so strong a recommendation. Bilson tells us that the Haydn recording here, with stronger contrasts, completely supercedes his old Nonesuch recording. An important recording, and one that identifies and demonstrates the very different music making in London as against the Viennese scene. Attention is properly drawn to Bilson's educational DVD Knowing the Score which questions tradition in reading the "old masters'. The days of the classics on modern Steinways are surely numbered? Peter Grahame Woolf
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Haydn, Dussek and Cramer 