"An artist of probing vision and considerable prowess, Biss proved both expressive and dazzling, displaying razor-sharp technique and finding nuances of color in even the fleetest of passages.”
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by de Billy, Mozart Piano Concerto No 9. The Plain Dealer, November 2009
Biss is fast establishing himself as an artist at the very highest level and in the USA, is also engaged by the Boston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony Los Angeles Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Symphony and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. In Europe, his most recent debut was with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Elder and he is also invited by such orchestras as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Hamburg, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio SO, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Berlin Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin.
Jonathan Biss’s most recent recording, Kurtag and Schubert sonatas was recorded live at the Wigmore Hall and was released earlier this autumn on Wigmore Hall Live; the Guardian wrote, " Such is the strength and conviction of his playing that the music unfolds with a natural-sounding inevitability … There is nothing showy about his piano-playing; everything feels completely natural, innately musical, tightly controlled and deeply felt” BBC Music Magazine, September 2009.
Biss's four recordings for EMI Classics have also earned him plaudits in the North American and European press. His recording of Schumann’s Fantasie, Arabesque and Kreisleriana was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, in the ‘Jeune Talent’ category in November 2007 and his second recording of Beethoven sonatas, released in autumn 2007, received the Edison Award for Best Solo Recital Recording in June 2008.
His recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos 21 & 22 with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with Biss both playing and directing the orchestra, also received widespread critical acclaim. The BBC Music Magazine awarded the disc 5 stars and wrote “These are altogether exceptionally fine accounts, with well-judged tempos … allied with playing that is unfailingly but subtly expressive. No matter how many versions of these great works you already have, you should definitely consider making room in your collection for this one.”
Jonathan Biss is a committed recitalist and chamber musician. He represents the third generation in a family of musicians; his grandmother Raya Garbousova (for whom Samuel Barber composed his Cello Concerto), and together with his mother Miriam Fried, he has appeared in many of the principal chamber music societies in the USA. He is a frequent visitor, too, to the recital halls and festivals in Europe. He has appeared in recital at the Salzburg and the Lucerne Festivals, and will return to the Master Piano Series at the Concertgebouw in 2010. He returns regularly to play in London’s Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, Paris, Brussels, Rotterdam, in the new Mariinsky Concert Hall in St Petersburg and in Salzburg, both in the ‘Kammermusik in Mozarteum’ series and in the Mozartwoche festival with the Kremerata Baltica. In the 2009-10 season, he will also give a series of recitals with the Elias Quartet in Birmingham Town Hall, Antwerp and Copenhagen.
Jonathan Biss has been recognised with numerous awards, including the 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award, Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust. He was the first American chosen to participate in the BBC’s New Generation Artist programme, and in 2005 he received the Leonard Bernstein Award presented to him at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany.
Jonathan Biss is represented by Jessica Ford at Intermusica, jford@intermusica.co.uk.
December 2009 / 598 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Mozart Piano Concerto No.9 K.271
“This was a revelatory dream of a performance, trilling, transforming and transfiguring itself from the first scamper and song to the wonderfully improvisatory fantasia which stops the finale in its tracks.”
Hilary Finch, The Times, December 2009
“Indisputable mastery both of creation and delivery came with Jonathan Biss's account of Mozart's E-flat Piano Concerto K271. This is a miracle of composition … to which Biss responded with clarity of articulation, shapeliness of phrasing, and a constant bright-eyed awareness of the riches he was purveying.”
Christopher Morley, The Birmingham Post, December 2009
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Kurtag Quasi una Fantasia & Mozart Piano Concerto No.9
“Jonathan Biss makes each work he plays sound new-minted, bringing intricacy and delicacy perfectly pitched with the other instrumentalist as if in intimate conversation. Mozart’s E flat Piano Concerto was given a spirited account by Biss, making Mozart’s music sound strikingly modern through revealing dark and dissonant elements whilst being true to the composer’s ornate and flamboyant style.”
Classical Source, December 2009
Cleveland Orchestra / Mozart Piano Concert No 9
“An artist of probing vision and considerable prowess, Biss proved both expressive and dazzling, displaying razor-sharp technique and finding nuances of color in even the fleetest of passages.
Shaping each phrase with tender care, the pianist led listeners on an engrossing rumination.”
The Plain Dealer, November 2009
Schubert and Kurtag (Wigmore Hall Live)
“Undoubtedly, the live recordings from London's Wigmore Hall showcase his beautiful sound, technical and musical fluency, and his deeply moving piano-playing of the highest standard.”
Fono Forum, October 2009
“The young Jewish-American pianist Jonathan Biss also has a new CD from Wigmore Hall Live featuring Kurtág played in a sensitively classical style, like a departed old master.”
The Forward, October 2009
“Jonathan Biss is no ordinary pianist. This young American, whose studies with Leon Fleisher have helped to polish an exceptional talent, plays with a selfless maturity that is exceptional. Biss has all the technique required, yet he unfailingly puts the composer first. Such is the strength and conviction of his playing that the music unfolds with a natural-sounding inevitability … There is nothing showy about his piano-playing; everything feels completely natural, innately musical, tightly controlled and deeply felt.”
BBC Music Magazine, September 2009
“…he plays all three pieces with an exquisite sense of colour and line. Biss delivers the kind of intensely thoughtful playing that seems to gain an extra degree of profundity when heard on disc”
The Guardian, September 2009
“From the very first notes, the American pianist entranced the public by displaying an uncommonly clear, light touch without ever being inconsistent, investing every note with magic, and maintaining a highly coherent interpretation of every phrase of the musical discourse”
Luxemburger Wort, September 2009
Philharmonia Orchestra & Christoph von Dohnányi / Schumann Piano Concerto
“Schumann’s Piano Concerto is anything but neglected but seldom does it receive as completely satisfactory a performance as this one. The youthful Jonathan Biss, son of the violinist Miriam Fried, belied his years with a mellow reading of a restraint and maturity that would have done credit to a pianist three times his age.”
Classical Source, May 2009
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra / Mozart Concerti Nos. 21 & 22
Biss plays and directs On tour in Perugia, Ravenna, Treviso, Berlin, Cologne, Luxembourg, Hannover, Vienna and Ljubljana.
“[Jonathan Biss] was simply electrifying in Mozart's E-flat major Piano Concerto, K. 482, with a delicate but firm touch. … Sparkling runs enhanced the opening Allegro, and in the Andante the marvelous melancholy of a Johannes Brahms made its appearance amid the Viennese Classicism, thanks to the romantic approach.”
Wiener Zeitung, February 2009
“It is a great art to interpret such a theme well, to avoid all cheap showmanship and nevertheless not succumb to capriciousness. The young American Jonathan Biss is proficient at it, as we impressively heard at the Pro Musica concert in the large NDR Studio in Hanover.
Biss interpreted Mozart's Allegro with the necessary combination of playfulness and tenderness. One marveled at the extremely delicate sound effects in the piano and a tone full of intimacy and luminosity in the Andante. The closing Allegro also displayed tonal beauty and a brilliance that never became an end in itself. … The 28-year-old also interpreted this work entirely from the music – full of feeling, intimate, infused with profound seriousness.”
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, February 2009
“From the very first notes, the American pianist entranced the public by displaying an uncommonly clear, light touch without ever being inconsistent, investing every note with magic, and maintaining a highly coherent interpretation of every phrase of the musical discourse. This young American pianist's personality stood out clearly, while blending perfectly with the New York orchestra's playing. Together, they offered us a performance of the KV 482 concerto that was both modern and elegant.
For an encore, Jonathan Biss' personal touch cast a new light on the depth and beauty of the andante of the Sonata in C major KV 545, with this melody, seemingly so simple and basic, casting a spell over the audience, which remained absolutely silent for several long seconds before bursting into resounding applause.”
Luxemburger Wort, February 2009
NDR Hamburg with James Conlon / Beethoven Concerto No.2
“ … [Jonathan Biss] is a creative artist full of heart and soul, to whom – for all the preciseness of his playing – the expression of a phrase and interaction with the orchestra are more important. …From the very first entry, [Biss] understood his solo part as part of a whole.
His touch was refined, every musical idea clearly formulated, and the rhythmic modifications extremely musical. The borrowing of the lovely orchestral cadence in the Allegro assai through the triple response of the piano came off beautifully, and Biss shaped the Andante with feeling.”
Die Welt, December 2008
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Marek Janowski / Mozart Concerto No.22
“Too often, professional pianists play Mozart as if every note were sacred. Even short notes in runs are emphasized. I side with Jonathan Biss, who last night focused on what the notes were trying to achieve.
When the spotlight, as it were, was on the piano part, the young American pianist articulated the notes poetically or with liveliness, depending on the theme. But in between, he almost blurred the notes. In his hands, the concerto spoke through a series of gestures rather than perfect note-on-note counterpoint and harmony. The result was a transporting performance in which some of the more arresting elements of the concerto jumped out -- such as the icy outbursts of the Andante, and the minuet episode of the Rondo.”
Pittsburgh Post Gazette, November 2008
“Young pianist Jonathan Biss was the marvelous soloist in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 with conductor Marek Janowski and a small orchestra before intermission.
Janowski led a well-crafted orchestral introduction, nicely delineated and organic in its unfolding. When Biss entered he seized the musical direction, though always ready to be a supportive colleague when other instrumentalists had the lead. Biss offered a highly nuanced interpretation, at all points as natural as it was individual. That is very rare.”
Pittsburgh Tribune, November 2008
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Michael Güttler / Beethoven Concerto No.2
“The pairing of [Michael Güttler] with the phenomenal pianist Jonathan Biss for Beethoven’s second Piano Concerto was fantastic. Their interaction had an almost intuitive character, the slightest pulling-up of one followed exactly by the other. “
Dagens Nyheter, October 2008
“Jonathan Biss gave a very clear rendition of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, perfectly controlled, combining clarity with softness of touch. The music was keenly sculpted, but with no trace of insensitivity.“
Svenska Dagbladet, October 2008