Dussek, Franz Xaver: Symphony in G major (Altner G4) (AE098)

Dussek, Franz Xaver (1731-1799)

Unlike the majority of Dussek's symphonies the present work can be dated with some accuracy. The wrapper of the sole-surviving set of parts, formerly belonging to Count Pachta and now in the possession of the Narodn Muzeum in Prague (shelfmark Pachta XXII C 159) is dated 1763: "? 5 I763 (incipit) / in G / Sinfonia / a / Due Violini / Due Corni / Due oboe obl: / Due Violle obl: / e / Basso / di Francesco Duschek". The parts are unattractive, cramped and very sloppily copied. There are numerous careless slips, inconsistencies and desperate corrections; they do not look like the work of a professional copyist. The symphony G4 may represent a relatively early work. It is cast in three movements and in its use of pairs of obbligato oboes and violas betrays strong Viennese influences. In the absence of the autograph score and an authentic set of parts the edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in this source. The style and notation of articulation and dynamic markings have been standardised throughout, and, where missing from the source, markings reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets. Like most eighteenth-century sources, the present manuscript is very inconsistent in its notation of appoggiature; these too have been standardised to minimise confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been corrected without comment; editorial emendations with no authority from the source are placed within brackets. Allan Badley