Jonathan Biss (Piano)
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’Annйe, 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.
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