Two Concerts: Biss plays Beethoven

Jonathan Biss began his lifelong love affair with Beethoven at age eleven.  The 39-year-old international piano star shared a memory on our phone interview, “I heard a recording with Rudolf Serkin playing the Beethoven “Appassionata” (No. 23) piano sonata and that was it for me",  he said in a phone interview,

“First, Serkin and Beethoven were such a match.  In the performance you felt the sheer force of Beethoven’s personality in his music.  It was like a tidal wave.  And Serkin had such an intensity in his playing – such a need to communicate.”

Two years later, the 13-year-old Biss soloed with the Indianapolis Symphony. And his career hasn’t stopped surging.

It seems that each year the classical offerings at Wharton Center are diminishing.  This season I only count four such concertd, but pianist Jonathan Biss stands at the top – he is touring internationally, has recorded 14 CDs, wrote three books and teaches at the Curtis Institute.

One thing that makes his Wharton visit special is that Biss will be playing not one, but two recitals in the same week (January 8 and January 10). I don’t remember any previous artist doing a double concert at Wharton.

Since his first brush with Beethoven, the great German composer, as a preteen he has remained obsessed with him.  In fact, his Wharton recitals will be nothing BUT Beethoven. He will be performing nine Beethoven sonatas. Last November, the final CD was released in his recording set of all 32 Beethoven Sonatas.  Over the last nine years, Biss has recorded one Beethoven Sonata disc per year.

“I wanted time to totally immerse myself in the music.  A recording is out there forever,” said the soloist.

Biss will be playing the sonatas all year in concert.  “Since I’m playing all 32 sonatas this year, I practice about 4-5 hours per day.  It’s a huge amount of music and when you are performing them, it’s all you – the joy of playing a recital.”

When I asked him if he prefers recital playing, chamber music, or playing concertos with orchestras, he responded, “I’m greedy.  I love the variety.  I don’t want to choose.”

But as we chatted, he showed his preference for recital playing. “Being on the stage for two hours is an intense activity.  For me, playing music is an act of generosity.  I’m giving a gift to my audience.  I write books and teach and lecture a lot, but when I’m on stage, I don’t talk.  Playing and talking take a different mental energy and I want to keep my focus.”

Biss paces himself very carefully.  “I brought myself down to 80 concerts per year.  Any more is too much.  Every time on the stage, it’s an event.  Playing piano is so strenuous on the body.”

Both of his parents are musicians: his father Paul is a violinist and violist and has been a professor at Indiana University and his mother Miriam Fried, is a noted violinist. 

“I always knew that music was going to be my life, but after I played the Mendelssohn concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony back when I was 13, nothing else I had ever done had the capacity to make me feel that way.  I found that great music is inevitably interesting.”

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