Printable bio and reviews - Michael Dussek Concert Pianist

Contact details:

Telephone: 0044-0208-958-6983

Biography:

Michael Dussek is widely recognised as an exceptionally versatile and accomplished pianist. His performances and recordings have consistently received the highest critical praise. He has been described as “an outstanding artist” (BBC Music Magazine) and a “hugely respected pianist” (Classic FM Magazine”). International Record Review wrote that he is “clearly equally at home whether as a chamber musician or as a flamboyant concerto soloist.” Michael’s recording of York Bowen’s 1st Piano Concerto with Vernon Handley and the BBC Concert Orchestra was selected for Fanfare Magazine’s illustrious Hall of Fame of top classical recordings, joining British pianists Sir Clifford Curzon, Dame Myra Hess, Solomon and Stephen Hough.

Michael made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1980, where he was described as “a real find”. In 1981 his duos with his wife, cellist Margaret Powell and oboist Douglas Boyd were both winners of the Greater London Arts Association. Subsequently, as a member of three chamber ensembles, the Dussek Piano Trio, Endymion and Primavera, Michael has been privileged to work with many of Britain's finest instrumentalists, performing regularly in concert venues and festivals throughout the country and broadcasting frequently for BBC Radio 3. Recently he has collaborated with violinist Levon Chilingirian, violist Garfield Jackson, and with cellist Gemma Rosefield and violinist Leoš Čepický in Wigmore Hall recitals and at major festivals internationally, including the Prague Proms.

Michael has performed in many of the world's major concert halls, including London’s Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall, St John’s, Smith Square and Royal Opera House. As a member of Endymion he gave the opening recitals in Kings Place. Further afield he has played in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, Osaka’s Symphony Hall, Seoul Arts Centre, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and major venues in Beijing, Bergen, Bonn, Brussels, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Paris, Prague, Sydney, Taipei, Toronto and Vienna. From 1985-1999 he toured extensively with cellist Ofra Harnoy, giving more than 80 recitals in Japan alone. He has also partnered leading violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers, Kurt Nikkanen, Gil Shaham, Antje Weithaas and Xue Wei. Singers Michael has partnered include Bernada Fink, Christopher Maltman, Ian Partridge, Jean Rigby and Vassily Savenko. In 2006 he undertook a 13-recital tour of Japan with violinist Ryu Goto, including two recitals in Tokyo's Suntory Hall, recorded live for CD and DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. A repeat tour and recording took place in 2009.

Michael's discography is extensive and has been highly praised. It includes more than twenty recordings in Dutton Epoch's acclaimed survey of neglected British music from the 20th century: York Bowen's first three Piano Concertos; Bax songs with Ian Partridge and Jean Rigby; Rubbra's complete works for solo piano, and his chamber music, including a disc of the Violin Sonatas with Krysia Osostowicz, which was nominated for a Gramophone Award; also previously unrecorded chamber works by Bantock, Bowen, Dale, Dunhill, Coleridge-Taylor, Hurlstone, Jacob, Leighton and Parry.

His Hyperion disc of Britten's music for Oboe (Sarah Francis) and Solo Piano was described by Fanfare Magazine as "one of the most magical discs of Britten yet made". With the Dussek Piano Trio he has recorded works by Arensky (a top recommendation in both Gramophone and International Record Review), Brahms, Bridge, Haydn and Hurlstone. His recordings on RCA with Ofra Harnoy include sonatas by Prokofiev and Schubert (winner of a Canadian Juno Award) and Beethoven, and works by Dvorak. With violinist Xue Wei he made the first classical CD recorded by EMI in China. Michael’s recording of solo piano music by his friend and colleague, the late Clifford Benson, was enthusiastically received and was a Classic Album Recommendation on Classic FM.

Whilst still a student at the Royal Academy of Music Michael was invited to act as resident pianist for Jacqueline du Pré's Masterclasses at Aldeburgh. Other legendary artists with whom he collaborated include cellists Pierre Fournier and William Pleeth, violinist Sandor Vegh, violist Bruno Giurrana, and clarinettist Karl Leister. In recent years he joined actress Prunella Scales and tenor Ian Partridge for performances of "An Evening with Queen Victoria" in Britain and the U.S.A. He acted as official accompanist for the Benson and Hedges Gold Award Singing Competition, and the Carl Flesch and Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competitions. He has performed with the soloists of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Fidelio Piano Quartet and the Schubert Ensemble.

Michael is a dedicated teacher and his students are now prominent in the music profession as piano soloists, accompanists, chamber musicians and conductors. He has given masterclasses in Berlin, Hannover and St Petersburg. In 2009 he was Piano Consultant on Sir Thomas Allen’s English Song Course at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, and he has coached on the Tunnell Trust Course in Blair Atholl, Scotland, with William Bennett, Neil Black, Richard Deakin and Charles Tunnell. He has acted as a jury member on the St Petersburg Three Centuries of Classic Romance International Song Competition.

Michael is a Fellow of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he is also Senior Tutor in Ensemble Piano. If a shorter biography is required, please contact Michael Dussek at michaeldussek@aol.com

Reviews:

York Bowen Piano Concerto Nos 2 and 3; Symphonic Fantasia
Michael Dussek (piano), BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Vernon Handley. Dutton Epoch CDLX 7187

"All this is superbly performed by Vernon Handley while Michael Dussek (who teaches at Bowen's alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music) plays with brilliant facility and the warmest musical commitment."
Bryce Morrison, Gramophone November 2007

"Michael Dussek is clearly equally at home whether as a chamber musician or as a flamboyant concerto concerto soloist... The piano-writing is immensley demanding but it is also highly pianistic and for the most part even the most challenging of passagework lies under the fingers. Dussek (the pianist on no fewer than 21 CDs in Dutton's Epoch Series!) performs both concertos with real panache and elan, revelling in the stunning array of figurations and textures while coaxing out the most gorgeous extended melodic lines."
International Record Review

"That indefatigable champion of British music, Vernon Handley, here presents a strong case for one of the 20th century's semi-forgotten figures, enhanced by the pianistic panache of Michael Dussek. The music of York Bowen (1884-1961) is firmly rooted in the 19th century, both from the point of view of its harmonic palette and in the broad romantic sweep and bravura of the piano writing. Its combination of succulence, brilliance and strong melodic threads, coupled with the sensitivity and spirit of these performances, ought to win new admirers for two imaginative concertos and a Symphonic Fantasia of Straussian lyricism and verve."
The Daily Telegraph

York Bowen Piano Concerto No. 1, Violin Concerto Michael Dussek (piano),Lorraine McAslan (violin), BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Vernon Handley. Dutton Epoch 7169

"Michael Dussek negotiates the note splattered Scharwenkian terrain with infectious bravado and sensitivity, and "Tod" Handley directs with all his customary sympathy and understanding." BBC Music Magazine, 5-star recording."This performance is outstanding, with Michael Dussek admirably stylish and Handley offering the most malleable support.
The Watford Town Hall production marries amplitude and warmth to realistic balance,making this a peach of a disc." Classical Good CD Guide."Dussek's performance is brilliant and sensitive by turns - he is a pianist who, on this showing, certainly deserves to make many more records."
International Record Review

"Michael Dussek displays scintillating tone and a fine technique"
Fanfare Magazine

Benjamin Britten Holiday Diary, 5 Waltzes, Notturno (Night Piece) Temporal Variations, Two Insect Pieces, with Sarah Francis, Oboe Hyperion CDA 66776

"One of the most magical discs of Britten yet made"
Fanfare

"Michael Dussek s'y montre remarquable, notamment dans Holiday Diary, qui marie humour, tendresse, truculence, reffinement avec une vivacité, une plénitude, une liquidité de toucher d'une lumière extraordinaire, en une rare affinité poétique avec l'oeuvre, culminant dans les résonances immobiles, le chatoiement sensuel de Night, où l'on admire un jeu de pédale d'une clarté et d'une fluidité miraculeuses. Dans lesValses, schubertiennes d'inspiration, Dussek deploié un superb cantabile, nuancé de demi teintes flottantes, remarquablement inspirées (variations de la Cinquieme), au gré d'un discours très ferme qui donne puissance et corps à des pages facilement évanescents."
Répertoire

"Michael Dussek proves a magnetic interpreter of the solo piano music,bringing out the sparkle of the boyhood walztes (or "Walztes" as the boy Britten called them) and the Holiday Diary. He then finds intense poetry and magic in the Night Piece."
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs

Edmund Rubbra: Complete music for piano solo, with Rachel Dussek, piano. Dutton CDLX 7112

"Here is an example of a record company getting everything right. An outstanding artist playing worthy yet neglected repertoire in beautifully recorded sound... It would be hard to imagine a more congenial, sensitive and perceptive advocate of this music than Michael Dussek, whose innate musicality and instrumental command are evident from first note to last. Everything is natural, nothing is forced, and the blend of lyricism,contrapuntal clarity and the underlying harmonic rhythm is exemplary.And the recorded sound is so perfectly matched to the spirit and texture of the music that it must be counted as an act of interpretation in itself."
BBC Music Magazine

"Michael Dussek,whose father studied with Rubbra at Worcester College Oxford,performs his usual selfless and flawless mission in facilitating access to works by deserving British composers."
Piano Journal

Recommended in The Good C.D. Guide

Arensky Piano Trios The Dussek Piano Trio Meridian CDE 84398"

A new coupling of Arensy's two piano trios to set alongside the very best - and the competition is pretty fierce, too. The Dussek's are highly accomplished and sensitive players."
Gramophone

"This new account from the Dussek Piano Trio has the required sense of motoric urgency and a touching lyric sensitivity, too... Dussek relishes the Chopinesque challenges of Arensky's keyboard passagework."
BBC Music Magazine

Haydn Trio in C major Hob. XV, 27; Trio in E major Hob. XV, 28; Trio in G major Hob. XV, 25 "The Gypsy"; Trio in E flat major Hob. XV, 29. Meridian CDE 84242 .

This recording has been played on radio stations internationally, including BBC Radio 3.

Brahms Trio in B major op.8; Trio in C major op.87; Trio in C minor op.101; Horn Trio in Eb Op.40. Dussek Piano Trio with Stephen Stirling, Horn. Meridian CDE 84227/8

"Faithful and sympathetic Brahmsian understanding...crisp attack and sharp dynamic contrasts...plenty to enjoy".
Gramophone

Bridge Piano Trios Dussek Piano Trio Meridian CDE 84290

"This disc's three totally different works for piano trio symbolise the different facets of Bridge's output and will certainly help in the learning process, especially as the highly committed performances by the Dussek Piano Trio would convert almost anyone to this composer's cause."
The Strad

"This disc is recommended to anyone wishing to investigate this composer further."
BBC Music Magazine

Bax Songs

"It helps that all three of the artists on this recording are so obviously deeply committed to Bax's music. No-one has done more than Ian Partridge to rescue early twentieth century music from the muddy end of the meadow. For her part Jean Rigby is in sumptuos voice. Would any other mezzo have been willing to tackle "At the Last" with a tessiture so low that it seems to be scraping along the gravelly bottom of the stream? But it's Michael Dussek who deserves the lion's share of the honours, for making you take Bax's demanding piano writing at much more than face value."
International Record Review

Edmund Rubbra Violin Sonatas, with Krysia Osostowicz, violin
Dutton CDLX 7101

"Osostowicz and Dussek make out the strongest imaginable case for Rubbra's neglected violin works. Their empathetic ensemble generates performances of flawless integrity and insight,and one wonders why Rubbra's superb Third Sonata, particularly, hasn't secured a niche in the repertoire. Recommended."
BBC Music Magazine 5-star recommendation

The Third Sonata "is a simply wondrous piece... fully deserving of the exalted advocacy it receives on this enterprising anthology.Indeed Osostowicz and Dussek form an outstandingly sympathetic partnership and they are handsomely served by impeccably balanced sound. An invaluable and enormously rewarding release, in sum, enthusiastically recommended."
Gramophone. Short-listed for Gramophone Award.

"The Second Violin Sonata, with Albert Sammons and Gerald Moore, was the first Rubbra work to reach the gramophone. Although Frederick Grinke and the composer himself recorded it for Decca in the early days of the LP, there has been no decent modern recording. Krysia Osostowicz and Michael Dussek are worth waiting for, since not only the recording but also, surprisingly, the performance eclipses both its distinguished predecessors."
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs Recommended in The Good C.D. Guide

York Bowen Flute Sonata, Clarinet Sonata, Oboe Sonata, Horn Sonata. Endymion Ensemble. Dutton Epoch CDLX 7120

"These musicians play Bowen with dedication and enthusiasm. I particularly commend the pianist, whose warmth of tone and virtuosity reflect the fact that Bowen was himself a pianist. These three works are all major additions to our knowledge of this composer, strong statements from three periods of his compositional life, of consistently high quality, beautifully played."
American Record Guide"

Michael Dussek revels in some Rachmaninov-like virtuoso figuration."
BBC Music Magazine

"The rehabilitation of York Bowen continues apace with this appealing triptych of chamber works, passionately performed by members of the Endymion Ensemble."
Gramophone

York Bowen 2 Piano Trios, Horn Quintet Endymion Ensemble Dutton CDLX 7115
"Superb performances"
Guardian 5-star recording

"Admirably played - a feast of romantic chamber music rewarding to explore."
Gramophone

Edmund Rubbra Piano Trios nos. 1 and 2; Oboe Sonata etc. Endymion Ensemble. Dutton CDLX 7106

"A peach of a disc."
Gramophone

"An outstanding issue."
Record Review

Recommended in The Good C.D. Guide

Edmund Rubbra Cello Sonata with Pierre Doumange, cello. Also Rubbra String Quartets nos. 1 and 3 played by the Dante Quartet
Dutton CDLX 7123

"Pierre Doumange teams up with pianist Michael Dussek for a cogent and impassioned account of the 1946 Cello Sonata, more convincing than either comparative rival."
Gramophone

"An urgent,profoundly expressive reading of the Cello Sonata, slightly preferable even to Raphael Wallfisch and John York's account."
BBC Music Magazine, 5-star recommendation

Dunhill Chamber Music Endymion Ensemble Dutton Epoch 7152

"This is a fine disc indeed of some magnificent chamber music, beautifully performed by the gifted members of the Endymion Ensemble."
International Record Review

"The performances are excellent, spontaneous,committed and always at home in the locality of the writing. Excellent recording, too. If you love music that breathes the English countrside, you will find it in Dunhill's chamber music; the Endymion players create just this evocation" Gramophone

L. Berkeley Chamber Music, Endymion Ensemble Dutton Epoch CDLX 7100

"An auspicious start to the Endymion's planned series of British music, with incisive, sympathetic performances of a varied sequence of solo and ensemble pieces by Lennox Berkeley." BBC Music Magazine"Fine new recordings of Lennox Berkeley's elegantly fashioned music...the Endymion Ensemble do it proud."
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs

Kenneth Leighton Piano Trio, Partita for cello and piano, Metamorphoses for violin and piano, with Andrew Fuller, cello and Lorraine McAslan violin Dutton CDLX 7108

"The performances (by three superb musicians) are magnificent - pure, nuanced, expressive, even exalted. Dutton's sonics are wonderful: full, vivid, natural, immediate. On every level - music, performance, recording - this is one of the best recordings of modern chamber music you will ever hear."
American Record Guide

"This most impressive disc... is an ideal introduction to this important, but still underrated composer.He is not underrated by these artists,however, who play with passionate conviction and splendid risk-taking attack: they are admirably recorded."
Gramophone

"There are committed and powerful performances from all three artists, who are completely inside this fine music. This is a first-rate recording, and the recorded sound is in the top flight."
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs

Hurlstone, Parry Cello Sonatas, Harty Romance and Scherzo, Waldesstille, Schmetterling Andrew Fuller cello, Michael Dussek piano Dutton Epoch CDLX 7102

"Andrew Fuller and Michael Dussek's performances are accomplished,committed and exceptionally well prepared and Dutton's excellent recorded sound beautifully complements the superb ambience of the Henry Wood Hall."
Gramophone

"A splendid performance and recording".
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs

Songs by Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov Vassily Savenko Bass- Baritone and Michael Dussek Piano Meridian

"Savenko's smooth and attractrive voice is well suited to this repertoire...Michael Dussek is an excellent accompanist".
American Record Guide

Dvorak Works for cello. Ofra Harnoy, cello, with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras, Michael Dussek Piano RCA Dig 09026 68186-2

"Michael Dussek proves a fresh and alert accompanist in all three of his items."
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs

Coleridge-Taylor Music for Violin and Piano. David Juritz violin and Michael Dussek piano
Dutton Epoch 7127

"David Juritz and Michael Dussek play this charming music beautifully and tastefully." American Record Guide"Well worth a listen, especially as David Juritz and Michael Dussek sound as if they have been playing the music for many moons."
Gramophone

"The performances here are excellent".
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs