His ability and interest go for things of transcendence and sublimeness. That made a great impression on me. He took a very healthy road that started with chamber music, both with his mother and then more extensively at places like Ravinia and Marlboro, and he got to be known by the elders in the profession as somebody to look out for.[8]
He has appeared with the foremost U.S. orchestras, including the Los Angeles[12] and New York Philharmonics;[9] the Boston,[13] Chicago,[14] and San Francisco Symphonies;[15] and the Cleveland[16] and Philadelphia Orchestras.[17] Biss is a frequent guest soloist in Europe, where he has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra,[18] the BBC Symphony Orchestra,[19] and the London Symphony Orchestra,[20] as well as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Rotterdam Philharmonic,[21] Oslo Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra,[22] Budapest Festival Orchestra,[23] Staatskapelle Berlin,[24] Staatskapelle Dresden,[25] Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.[26] An enthusiastic performer of chamber music, Biss has appeared with renowned artists such as Uchida,[27] Fleisher, Richard Goode,[28]Midori,[29] and Kim Kashkashian.[30]
In 2010, Biss was appointed to the piano faculty as Neubauer Family Chair at his alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music.[31] As part of his teaching career, Biss became the first classical musician to partner with Coursera. Together they created Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, a free video course on several of Beethoven's most famous sonatas.[32] The course has reached more than 150,000 students in more than 185 countries.[33][34] He will continue to add lectures until he covers all the sonatas.
Throughout his career, Biss has been particularly noted for his immersive focus on single composers. In 2011, on Beethoven's birthday, he released the eBook Beethoven's Shadow, a 19,000-word meditation on the art of performing Beethoven's piano sonatas. Biss was the first classical musician to be commissioned to write a KindleeBook.[35] In January 2012, the record label Onyx released the first of Biss's recordings of Beethoven's piano sonatas. It was the first of nine discs to be released over as many years.[36] Biss dedicated his 2012–13 season to Robert Schumann, declaring himself "a fanatic for every note Schumann wrote."[37] The project was titled "Schumann: Under the Influence" and explored Schumann's influences and his legacy. Biss performed a series of concerts internationally with pieces by Schumann's predecessors such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Purcell, and composers who have been influenced by his music such as Leoš Janáček, Alban Berg and contemporary composers György Kurtág and Timo Andres.[38] As part of the project, Biss wrote the Kindle Single eBook A Pianist Under the Influence. The work explains Biss's lifelong, intense, multi-layered relationship with Schumann's music and was excerpted in Slate.[39][40] Biss also released an album of Schumann and Dvořák with Elias String Quartet.[41]
Biss has begun examining, both in concert and academically, the concept of a composer's "late style", focusing on musicians who went in surprising directions at the ends of their lives. He has put together several programs of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, Elgar, Gesualdo, Kurtág, Mozart, Schubert, and Schumann's later works, which he performed with the Brentano Quartet and Mark Padmore in the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, and across the United States. He also gave masterclasses at Carnegie Hall in connection with the idea of late style and published Coda, a Kindle single on the topic, in 2017.[44]
In 2018, Marlboro Music announced that Biss would assume the role of co-artistic director (with Mitsuko Uchida) of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.[45] Biss has a long connection with Marlboro, where he spent 12 summers as both a junior and senior participant.
Starting in September 2019, in the lead-up to the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in December 2020, Biss performed a whole season focused around Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, with more than 50 recitals worldwide. This included the complete sonatas at the Wigmore Hall and Berkeley, multi-concert-series in Washington, Philadelphia and Seattle, and recitals in Rome, Budapest, New York and Sydney.
In 2020 Biss performed a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR,[46] the United States' National Public Radio. The same year, he released Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven,[47] as part of Audible's Words+Music series. Unquiet was listed as one of the platform's Top Ten Audiobooks the week it was released.[48]
Beethoven/5 Vol. 1: Beethoven ‘Emperor’ Concerto | Brett Dean ‘A Winter’s Journey’, Jonathan Biss, 2024
Complete Piano Sonatas, Jonathan Biss, 2020
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 9 - Nos. 7, 18, 32, Jonathan Biss, 2019
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 8 - Nos. 8 (Pathétique), 10, 22, 31, Jonathan Biss, 2019
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 7 - Nos. 2, 20, 17 (The Tempest), 30, Jonathan Biss, 2018
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 6 – Nos. 9, 13 & 29 (Hammerklavier), Jonathan Biss, 2017
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 5 – Nos. 3, 25, 27 and 28, Jonathan Biss, 2016
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 4 – Nos. 1, 6, 19 and 23 (Appassionata), Jonathan Biss, 2015
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 3 – Nos. 15 (Pastoral), 16 & 21 (Waldstein), Jonathan Biss, Onyx Classics, 2014[54]
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 2 – Nos. 4, 14 (Moonlight) & 24, (A Thérèse), Jonathan Biss, Onyx Classics, 2013[36]
Schumann: Piano Quintet; Dvorak: Piano Quintet No.2, Jonathan Biss and Elias Quartet, Onyx Classics, 2012[41]
Beethoven Sonatas Vol. 1 – Nos. 5, 11, 12 (Funeral March) & 26 (Les Adieux), Jonathan Biss, Onyx Classics, 2012 [55]
Schubert: Piano Sonata in A Major D959; Piano Sonata in C Major 'Reliquie' D840; and two Kurtág Piano Miniatures, Jonathan Biss, Live From Wigmore Hall, WHLive0030, 2009[56]
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 21 & 22, Jonathan Biss and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, EMI Classics, 2008[57]
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Jonathan Biss, EMI Classics, 2007[58]
Schumann Recital – Fantasie, Kreisleriana & Arabeske, Jonathan Biss, EMI Classics, 2007
Beethoven, Schumann: Piano Works, Jonathan Biss, EMI Classics, 2004[59]
Bibliography
Biss, Jonathan (2020). Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven. New York: Audible Originals. ASINB08NWDCMGP.
Biss, Jonathan (2017). Coda. New York: Kindle Singles. ASINB06XD4VP8S.
Biss, Jonathan (2013). A Pianist Under the Unfluence. New York: Audible Studios. ASINB00DEO188C.
Biss, Jonathan (2013). Beethoven's Shadow. New York: Audible Studios. ASINB00DCZLFG8.
^Giovetti, Olivia (January 18, 2011). "Jonathan Biss". Time Out New York. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
^Verney-Elliott, Alex (December 11, 2009). "BBCSO/Spano Jonathan Biss". The Classical Source. Archived from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
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