Jonathan Biss - Schubert: Piano Sonatas (Wigmore Hall Live) (2009)

In this Wigmore Hall recital (recorded 12 May 2009, Biss chose to preface two of Schubert’s piano sonatas with five studies from the collection Játékok (Games) by the contemporary Hungarian composer György Kurtág, who had been the subject of an 80th-birthday tribute series at the Hall in Autumn 2006.

Biss, already established as a recording artist with prizewinning Schumann and Beethoven recitals for EMI Classics, was the first American to become a BBC New Generation Artist (2002-4)

Among his many career awards are an Avery Fisher Career Grant, support from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award

In addition to UK appearances with the BBC Symphony and BBC Philharmonic, he has twice appeared in the Southbank Centre’s International Piano Series and at Wigmore Hall in 2008 gave a series of recitals as part of a trio with Midori and Johannes Moser.

“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)