Special offer. Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 9
Jonathan Biss (piano)
It is difficult to imagine faultfinders coming up with very much. Biss is neither idiosyncratic nor dogmatic. His tempos and his way into them, via phrase or motive, are his own but never willfully...
Special offer. Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 9
Jonathan Biss (piano)
Purchase product
It is difficult to imagine faultfinders coming up with very much. Biss is neither idiosyncratic nor dogmatic. His tempos and his way into them, via phrase or motive, are his own but never willfully...
About
Jonathan Biss concludes his nine-year, nine-volume exploration of Beethoven’s piano sonatas with a recording for our times, one that asks profound questions about mankind’s fragile existence. The final album in his critically acclaimed cycle, set for release on Orchid Classics, brings together three works that each stand as the last of a group of three sonatas. The American pianist begins with a masterwork of Beethoven’s early creative period, the Sonata No.7 in D major, Op.10 No.3. Its stop-start finale, punctuated by silences, prefaces a compelling interpretation of the Sonata No.18 in E flat major, Op.31 No.3, a work that blends unsettling introspection and playful high spirits. Biss ends his Beethoven odyssey with the Sonata No.32 in C minor Op.111, the composer’s farewell to the genre.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
Jul/Aug 2020
It is difficult to imagine faultfinders coming up with very much. Biss is neither idiosyncratic nor dogmatic. His tempos and his way into them, via phrase or motive, are his own but never willfully so. Speaking of Brendel, Biss owes a debt to his phrasing and articulation but never sounds just like him, just as he channels Schnabel’s excitement and spontaneity without going over the top.
December 2019
Listening, you’re struck by Biss’s emotional intelligence, his wit, shrewd judgement and open-hearted communicativeness. No sound, no gesture seems greater than what is absolutely necessary to convey Beethoven’s message, naked and unadorned...Rarely are hand, mind and heart united as you’ll hear them here.
March 2020
Even in a crowded marketplace, his proficiency, unfaltering taste and command are admirable.
17th November 2019
There’s a masterly account of the mighty Op 111.
