Franz Xaver Dussek enjoyed a long and successful career as a composer, pianist and teacher in Prague. Under the patronage of Count Johann Karl Spork he was able to attend the Jesuit Gymnasium at Hradec Králové, undertook further studies in Prague, and completed his training in Vienna with the harpsichord virtuoso and court composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil. Dussek returned to Prague sometime around 1770 where he quickly established his reputation as a keyboard player and teacher. Judging from the extant MS copies of his works, Dussek seems to have had a strong professional association with the orchestras of Counts Pachta and Clam-Gallas, the latter a relative by marriage of his early patron Count Spork. Dussek’s wife Josepha, a former pupil and celebrated soprano, had close family connections with Salzburg and through them the Dusseks became very friendly with Mozart. Leopold Mozart suspected the Dusseks’ hand in Wolfgang’s growing determination to escape from Salzburg.

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