Sophia Dussek

Who was Sophia Dussek?

Sophia Giustina Dussek née Corri, later Moralt was a Scottish singer, pianist, harpist, and composer of Italian descent. She studied voice with her father, composer, music publisher, and impresario Domenico Corri. Her uncle was composer Natale Corri and her cousin was soprano Fanny Corri-Paltoni. She was well known as a soprano and composer of songs.

In 1792, Dussek married the composer Jan Ladislav Dussek. Following Jan's death in 1812, Sophia married the violist John Alvis Moralt. The couple lived in Paddington, where she founded a music school. There have been numerous misattributions of her work, either from ignorance, or refusal to reject received wisdom. The opus 2 sonatas, however, were published in at least 3 editions in the 1790s by the Corri-Dussek company in London as by Madame Dussek, and there is no reason to doubt that the 6 sonatas of opus 2, including the famous C minor sonata published and misattributed by Schott as by JL, are anything but the work of Sophia. Paris editions of opus 2 published by Pleyell only bear the name Dussek, leading Zabaleta to his misattribution, but nobody actually claimed opus 2 as the work of JL rather than Sophia before the mid 20thC.