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Jonathan Biss

Beethoven Piano Sonatas Volume 4

Orchid Classics
Release Date: January 27, 2015

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Conversation: Pianist Jonathan Biss
At the Piano with Jonathan Biss and Caroline Shaw / Seattle Symphony
1 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 1 - Allegro
2 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 1 - Adagio
3 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 1 - Menuetto - Trio
4 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 1 - Prestissimo
5 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 10 No. 2 - Allegro
6 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 10 No. 2 - Allegretto
7 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 10 No. 2 - Presto
8 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 49 No. 1 - Andante
9 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 49 No. 1 - Rondo / Allegro
10 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 57 - Allegro assai
11 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 57 - Andante con moto
12 Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 57 - Allegro ma non troppo (attacca)
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Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas relaunches on January 5 - Jonathan Biss's Volume 4 of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas releases on January 27

This season, Jonathan Biss engages with Beethoven as a concert pianist, a teacher, and a recording artist. Biss has undertaken a nine-year, nine-disc recording project of the entire Beethoven sonata cycle. The fourth volume of sonatas, including Op. 2, no. 1, the first Beethoven sonata; Op. 10, no. 2; Op. 49, no. 1, and Op. 57, the "Appassionata," will be released on January 27, 2015. This recording brings Biss together with DFTBA (founded by John Green, author of The Fault In Our Stars, and his brother and video blog collaborator Hank Green) and Meyer Media (founded by producer Andreas Meyer). The new partnership provides a flexible platform to integrate Biss's varied recording, writing and teaching activities.

Four sonatas, including the first and the "Appassionata," will feature on Biss's recital programs across the United States and Europe. Biss's exceptional online course, Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, will relaunch on January 5, 2015 on Coursera in a new format, allowing students to watch all the video lessons at once or progress at their own pace. As part of the massive open online course (MOOC) experience, they will be able to explore music through a fresh presentation of quizzes, supplementary materials, and a global online conversation in forums.

A second part of the course on additional sonatas will launch in Spring 2015. Filmed at the Curtis Institute of Music, where Biss is a member of the piano faculty, the online lectures will eventually include all of the sonatas and are designed to help both musical novices and experts understand Beethoven's piano music. This season's Curtis courses are sponsored by Linda Richardson in loving memory of her husband, Dr. Paul Richardson. As part of his exploration of Beethoven, Biss also published Beethoven's Shadow on Amazon Kindle in 2011. This was the first-ever Single written by a classical musician and spent many weeks on the Kindle Singles bestseller lists.

  • Thoughtful Jonathan Biss offers sensitive interpretations at Singapore International Piano Festival / THE STRAIGHTS TIMES
    Posted At: June 14, 2023
    Jonathan Biss was born in 1980; his professional debut preceded this event by several months, when he performed, prenatally, the Mozart A Major Violin Concerto at Carnegie Hall, with the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Lorin Maazel.1 Subsequent violin performances have shown greater independence, though they have also been more likely to send listeners running in the opposite direction, wildly se...

  • For this pandemic all Beethoven - NPR: Tiny Desk concert, Jonathan Biss chose music that explores the composer's own isolation, brought on by deafness and an uncompromising personality
    Posted At: December 14, 2020

    The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit - stripped-down sets, an intimate setting - just a different space. The pandemic has sidelined many big Beethoven birthday plans. Jonathan Biss was slated to play concerts around the globe in cel...

  • Five questions with Caroline Shaw & Jonathan Biss
    Posted At: May 9, 2019

    Jonathan Biss brings his masterful artistry to one of Beethoven's most touching works, the Piano Concerto No. 3. Hear it back-to-back with the brand-new work it inspired-Watermark by North Carolina native and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, co-commissioned by the Symphony. The program includes; Beethoven: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 Caroline Shaw: ...

  • Jonathan Biss will join Mitsuko Uchida in the artistic leadership of Marlboro Music / Philly.com
    Posted At: August 6, 2018

    Jonathan Biss, the highly regarded Philadelphia pianist, has been named to help lead the Marlboro Music School and Festival. He will join pianist Mitsuko Uchida, who has been sole artistic director since 2014, and both will hold the title of co-artistic director, said Marlboro board chair and president Christopher Serkin in an announcement. "Marlboro is a place I've been going to for 21 years, which...

  • Miriam Fried and Jonathan Biss duo 3B's at The Phillips Collection / WETA
    Posted At: February 3, 2018

    Born in Romania, brought up in Israel, and now in the US, Miriam Fried came to early prominence when she won the 1968 Paganini Competition. She followed this success in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in 1971. A violinist in the great tradition-her teachers included Josef Gingold and Ivan Galamian-Fried has been praised in Musical America for her "fiery intensity and emotional depth." Her recital p...

  • Jonathan Biss brings his mission for Beethoven to the Aspen Music Festival / The Aspen Times
    Posted At: August 8, 2017

    Jonathan Biss is on a mission for Beethoven. The acclaimed American pianist, 36, has spent the past six years immersed in the composer's vaunted sonatas, attempting to perform and record the complete sonata cycle. Biss is in the middle of a three-summer residency at the Aspen Music Festival, during which he will perform all 32 of Beethoven's sonatas. He will play five tonight Tuesday night Aug 8 ...

  • The RSNO & Jonathan Biss play Edinburgh's Usher Hall / The Scotsman
    Posted At: April 11, 2017

    Jonathan Biss' Beethoven/5 project to commission five contemporary composers to write a piano concerto based on one of Beethoven's is a fascinating exercise. Inspired by the first piano concerto, Sally Beamish's Piano Concerto No.3 City Stanzas subjects the music to the challenges of modern urban living. Biss played with the RSNO at Usher Hall, Edinburgh  READ THE FULL Scot...

  • Biss & Schiff explore late Schubert at Zankel Hall / New York Times
    Posted At: March 14, 2017

    New Yorkers had a rich opportunity to contemplate Schubert this last week at Carnegie Hall, where the pianist Andras Schiff played in the Stern Auditorium on Thursday and the pianist Jonathan Biss and the tenor Mark Padmore performed in Zankel Hall on Friday. The Friday concert was the last of three in which Mr. Biss concentrated on "late style" - or "leave-taking," as he calls it - in Schubert and o...

  • Brentano and Biss alternate pieces JHU - Shriver Hall Concert Series / Washington Classical Review
    Posted At: February 27, 2017

    Jonathan Biss and the Brentano String Quartet shared a program Sunday evening at the Shriver Hall Concert Series at Johns Hopkins University. Biss and the quartet have been performing throughout the U.S. and Europe this season. Yet rather than performing together, their programs consist of Brentano and Biss alternating pieces, creating an interesting middle ground between a chamber concert and a solo rec...

  • Mother & son deliver flawless Schumann and Bartok at Gardner Museum / The Boston Musical Intelligencer
    Posted At: January 16, 2017

    Miriam Fried, violin, and her son Jonathan Biss, piano delivered flawless Schumann and Bartók in a Sunday recital at Calderwood Hall that complemented the one they offered last weekend. p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} Biss has recorded a number of different works by Robert Schumann, whose work he cherishes deeply, thus it was especi...

  • Jonathan Biss and his mother, Miriam Fried, set for 2 concerts at the Gardner Museum / The Boston Globe
    Posted At: January 13, 2017

    On Jan. 15 at the Gardner Museum, pianist Jonathan Biss and his mother, violinist Miriam Fried, perform the second of two concerts pairing works of Robert Schumann and Bela Bartók. Biss will open the program with "Gesänge der Frühe" ("Songs of Dawn"), the last work Schumann completed before suffering a catastrophic mental breakdown. The work, rarely performed, has often been interpretive...

  • 30 something Jonathan Biss returns to UW's Meany Center for 'late-in-life' solo recital / Seattle Times
    Posted At: December 5, 2016

    At the advanced age of 36, Jonathan Biss finds himself fascinated by "late style" - the manner of expression an artist adopts as the end of life approaches. It's not such a paradox when you consider the pianist has distinguished himself as a deeply reflective interpreter who seems wise beyond his years. Biss' attitude represents the polar opposite of impatient consumerism, of art-as-sensationalizing-clic...

  • Jonathan Biss set for The Barbican / Q&A with theguardian
    Posted At: October 23, 2016

    Jonathan Biss: ‘Performing can be inspiring, or the thing that eats you'. The American pianist on composers and mortality, having two violinist parents, and his lack of coordination in all things not piano-related In his Late Style series, which he is playing across the US, Italy, the Netherlands and in London – at Milton Court, Barbican on 8 November, returning next year – the Ame...

  • Jonathan Biss kicks off his 3 year cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas at Ravinia / Chicago Tribune
    Posted At: August 16, 2016

    For concert pianists of every generation, climbing the Everest that is the Beethoven piano sonatas represents a rite of passage, an artistic statement that risks odious comparisons with the interpretations of many revered predecessors. It's a challenge at once daunting and irresistible. An intrepid handful go the full monty and present full cycles of the 32 sonatas. For those pianists, grappling with...

  • Tanglewood - Andris Nelsons leads BSO, collaborating with Jonathan Biss / The Boston Musical Intelligencer
    Posted At: July 30, 2016

    There is every temptation to describe the music at Tanglewood on Friday as autumnal. Contained within the prelude concert and the main event were works by musical giants (Schubert, Mozart, Mahler) -three from the ends of the composers' lives. Yet with one notable exception, the performances possessed such merit and promise that one left with a spring-like optimism rather than resignation. The soloist at ...

  • Jonathan Biss makes 7th Caramoor appearance with Beethoven / The New York Times
    Posted At: July 11, 2016

    As an 18-year-old student at the Curtis Institute of Music, Jonathan Biss had little professional experience when he took part in the rising-star residency for instrumentalists at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah in 1998. But those who recall the tall, dark pianist during his residency say he radiated self-assurance beyond his years. "I remember Jonathan as a very confident young man...

  • Jonathan Biss returns to SFP with multi-concert project / examiner.com
    Posted At: June 27, 2016

    One of the more interesting series of concerts that was presented during the 2012–2013 season of San Francisco Performances (SFP) was a project that grew out of a conversation that SFP Founder Ruth Felt and pianist Jonathan Biss. The result was Schumann: Under the Influence, an imaginative approach to programming a series of four concerts to explore the life and works of Robert Schumann and the inf...

  • Why record all 32 Beethoven Sonatas - Jonathan Biss? / Philly.com
    Posted At: June 9, 2016

    There's a spot near the end of the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 3 when Jonathan Biss suspends time. Rests, duration of notes, the speed of phrases - they bear only the most general resemblance to what's written. Biss isn't one to take a lot of liberties, so when he does, you pay attention. Meaning is heightened. The pianist, who teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music, finds more than...

  • Jonathan Biss plays Wigmore Hall / The Independent review
    Posted At: December 11, 2015

    The American pianist Jonathan Biss is putting his passion for Beethoven to intriguing uses: following his intellectually-provocative eBook Beethoven's Shadow he's launched an online course on Beethoven's sonatas which has reached 100,000 people, and he's commissioned concertos from five composers to act as counter-weights to Beethoven's five. But his Wigmore Hall recital was devoted ...

  • Jonathan Biss plays Wolftrap Barns Chamber Celebration / Washington Post
    Posted At: October 26, 2015

    At first, it sounded as if Jonathan Biss had more technique than poetry in his arsenal. The pianist opened his recital at the Barns at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., on Friday with a performance of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457, that was very fast, very determined and not very shapely - the sort of reading one could expect from someone much younger and inexperienced. But what he followed up ...

  • Jonathan Biss teaches about Schumann and Beethoven on KUHA: Classical Classroom
    Posted At: June 30, 2015

    Every good Beethoven deserves a fanboy, and Robert Schumann was that guy. Who was Schumann, and how was his work shaped by the influence of Beethoven? Pianist, professor, and writer Jonathan Biss explains all - including his own (extremely cool) fanboy-esque immersion in the works of Schumann and Beethoven. From his CD "Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Vol. 4" - Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1...

  • On the Bench With Jonathan Biss / San Francisco Classical Voice interview
    Posted At: June 17, 2015

    Jonathan Biss doesn't do things halfway. As a pianist, teacher, and writer, he tends toward an obsessive, full-immersion approach to any project that commands his attention. Currently, his attention is focused on a massive, multi-year exploration of Beethoven's piano music. He is in the middle of recording the complete Beethoven Sonatas; he teaches the hugely popular online Coursera course Exploring...

  • Jonathan Biss - Beethoven Piano Sonatas, vol. 4 / New Classical Tracks
    Posted At: May 20, 2015

    New Classical Tracks is a Syndicated Feature airing Nationally on Classical 24 & Statewide on Minnesota Public Radio. Listen to Julie Amacher's Feature with Jonathan Biss. READ THE TRANSCRIPT - "I‘ve been obsessed with Beethoven just about all my life," pianist Jonathan Biss admits. "There‘s hardly been a day in the last 20 years when I didn‘t work on some Beethoven. But now...

  • Jonathan Biss - Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 4 / Sinfini Music
    Posted At: May 8, 2015

    The fourth volume of Jonathan Biss's complete cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas might even improve on the excellent first three, says Jeremy Nicholas, who finds thrilling details and unequalled joie de vivre. The clever programming of Jonathan Biss's fourth volume in his ongoing cycle of all Beethoven's 32 Sonatas begins with the very first of these; it shares its key (F minor) with the master...

  • Jonathan Biss - Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 4 / KDFC 'Download of the Week'
    Posted At: March 31, 2015

    Each week KDFC: San Francisco members can download a free mp3 from some of the biggest releases in the world of Classical music. The latest CD from rising star pianist, Jonathan Biss, is the fourth volume of a nine-disc survey of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas. This season, Biss engages with Beethoven as a concert pianist, a teacher, and a recording artist. Biss has undertaken a nine-year,...

  • Jonathan Biss shares his musical inspirations / theguardian
    Posted At: March 24, 2015

    This season, Jonathan Biss engages with Beethoven as a concert pianist, a teacher, and a recording artist. Biss has undertaken a nine-year, nine-disc recording project of the entire Beethoven sonata cycle. The fourth volume of sonatas, including Op. 2, no. 1, the first Beethoven sonata; Op. 10, no. 2; Op. 49, no. 1, and Op. 57, the "Appassionata," was released on January 27. The disc brings Biss together...

  • Jonathan Biss - Beethoven Sonatas VOL. 4 / The Guardian review
    Posted At: March 2, 2015

    In Jonathan Biss's ongoing cycle of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas, the works are grouped according to character and connection, rather than exact chronology. Only now, in Volume 4, has he included the first written, Op 2 No 1, Haydn-esque but with hints of anarchy. Alongside are two other early works: Op 10 No 2 with its crazed, contrapuntal presto finale, and Op 49 No 1, a favourite with intermediate lev...

  • Jonathan Biss new Beethoven disc is WFMT: New Release Of the Week.
    Posted At: March 1, 2015

    Jonathan Biss engages with Beethoven as a concert pianist, a teacher and a recording artist. Biss has undertaken a nine-disc recording project of the entire Beethoven sonata cycle. The fourth volume includes the Sonatas Nos 1, 6, 19 and 23 (Appassionata). This year, Biss will relaunch his popular online course ‘Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas,' designed to help both novices and experts ...

  • Jonathan Biss plays Rice University's Stude Hall / Houston Chronicle
    Posted At: February 14, 2015

    On his way to becoming a concert pianist, Jonathan Biss managed to defy a lot of stereotypes. He wasn't a child prodigy. He didn't win any major competitions. Although he came from a family of professional musicians, his parents didn't push him into a music career. Today, at 34, Biss is one of the leading American pianists of his generation. Based in New York, he's playing about 70 co...

  • Jonathan Biss plays Akron's Tuesday Musical Association - WCLV Interview
    Posted At: January 21, 2015

    American pianist Jonathan Biss appears tonight at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall in Akron, presented by the Tuesday Musical Association. Widely regarded for his artistry, musical intelligence and deeply felt interpretations, winning international recognition for his orchestral, recital, and chamber music performances and for his award-winning recordings, Mr. Biss performs a diverse repertoire rangi...

  • Pianist Jonathan Biss brings out the Romantic extremes at Broward Center
    Posted At: January 19, 2015

    There was excitement and storytelling spanning the gamut of German Romanticism from Jonathan Biss Friday night at South Florida's Broward Center for the Performing Arts - Amaturo Theater. At 34, Biss is a well-established performer and writer, with a following from his online course on the Beethoven piano sonatas. A musical risk-taker, Biss underlined every note with substantial body langua...

  • Jonathan Biss plays Philadelphia Chamber Music Society@Kimmel Center / 6ABC Loves The Arts
    Posted At: January 6, 2015

    The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society has made it its mission to present exceptional musicians from around the world at prices low enough that virtually everyone can afford. Later this month, it's Jonathan Biss, one of the world's most celebrated classical pianists, and he's coming to Philadelphia for a one night only show.  At 34 years old, Biss has already created a name for hims...

  • Artist Spotlight on Jonathan Biss / Harvard Crimson interview
    Posted At: October 27, 2014

    World-renowned pianist Jonathan Biss, a teacher at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, will deliver a master class at Harvard on Oct. 30th. Biss is a pioneer of online music-he established an unprecedented course on Coursera entitled "Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas." Biss's masterclass will take place in the Kirkland Junior Common Room. Harvard Crimson chats with Biss about his musical be...

  • Jonathan Biss plays Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Seattle Symphony / Seattle Times review
    Posted At: June 13, 2014

    The Seattle Symphony has moved its focus from France to Vienna in the current subscription program, featuring three composers with close ties to the land of waltzes and Sachertorte and serialism. Music director Ludovic Morlot was on the podium and (briefly) behind the microphone for Thursday's opening performance. Following a graceful account of Johann Strauss Jr.'s familiar, lilting Emperor Waltzes ...

  • Jonathan Biss plays free concert for Providence RI - 'Community MusicWorks?
    Posted At: April 17, 2014

    Pianist Jonathan Biss performs music by Beethoven and Chopin Friday at the RISD Museum, with proceeds going to benefit Community MusicWorks' free programming for youngsters in West End and South Side neighborhoods of Providence. Biss, who has gone on to wide acclaim since his New York Philharmonic debut in 2001 will perform at 8 p.m. in the museum's Chace Center. Community MusicWorks, founded in 1997, pr...

  • Jonathan Biss completes his survey of Beethoven piano sonatas / Audiophile Audition review
    Posted At: February 24, 2014

    Jonathan Biss continues his survey of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas with two of the 1801 "new path" works Beethoven had announced to his confident Czerny. The piano sonata as a medium served Beethoven as an experimental laboratory for the application of novel forms, structures and textures. READ THE FULL Audiophile Audition Review....
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