Jan Ladislav Dussek was baptised Jan Václav Dusík and born on 12 February 1760 at Čáslav in Bohemia, into a family of professional musicians going back at least to his grandfather: his father an organist and composer who taught in the town, his mother a harpist, his sister a musician and composer. His father started him on the piano at five and the organ at nine, and his voice was good enough for the church choir. He studied at the Jesuit gymnasium in Jihlava under the choir director Ladislav Špinar, then at Kutná Hora from 1774 to 1776, where he was organist of the Jesuit church of St Barbara, and from 1776 in Prague — reported at each stage to be a poor and lazy student. He died on 20 March 1812.

He was among the first piano virtuosos to tour Europe widely, playing at courts and concert rooms from London to Milan to Saint Petersburg, and was one of the most highly regarded pianists on the continent before Beethoven. During nearly ten years in London he pressed for a larger instrument and received one of John Broadwood’s first six-octave pianos; Harold Schonberg credited him with being the first pianist to sit in profile to the audience, which earned him the name le beau visage and which every pianist has done since. His piano writing — lyrical, broken by sudden dynamic contrast — anticipates Romantic practice, and Liszt has been called his indirect successor. His harp music, largely diatonic and rich in figuration, remains standard repertoire for the instrument, especially the Six Sonatas and the Sonata in C minor.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Ladislav_Dussek
• https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q357172