Biss delivers a grand final statement
Michael Church welcomes the last instalment of Jonathan Biss’s superb cycle
Beethoven
Piano Sonatas Opp 13, 14, 54 & 110
Jonathan Biss (piano)
Meyer Media MM 19040 63:42 mins
This recording brings Jonathan Biss’s nine-disc survey of Beethoven’s sonatas to a triumphant close. ★e’s grouped them according to ‘themes’, and the theme here is the merging of disparate elements in a single work. All the regular elements of his pianistic style are here – the noble sound, the immaculate precision, the instinctive authority – and if there’s a surprise, it’s what he does with the modest little G major Sonata of Op. 14. But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised – nobody else in my experience has matched the delicate magic which this American pianist brings to the skeletal and exuberant Allegro of Op. 79.
★ere the opening movement of Op. 14 No. 2 becomes a ravishing interplay of moods and textures punctuated by furious little storms which pass like summer lightning, and the effect is endearing and tender; the fleeting contours of the Scherzo are finely etched. The passage-work in the first movement of the Pathétique is spring-heeled and light as a feather, the emotion of the Adagio is unusually restrained, and the concluding Rondo has Mozartian decorum. The concentrated doubleoctave gunfire of the first movement of Op. 54 comes over as another pretend-storm, and its moto perpetuo is thrillingly dramatic.
As Biss points out in his linernote, Op. 110 is phenomenally compact, cramming a universe of thought and feeling into just 19 minutes. After a serene Moderato and a quicksilver Allegro molto he manages to give the remainder of this work a lovely coherence, as the recitatives, ariosos, and fugues build to their ecstatic climax. Rarely is pianistic virtuosity put to the service of such refined artistry. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Rarely is pianistic virtuosity put to the service of such artistry