Jonathan Biss directs the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra from the piano in:
Mozart Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K467
Mozart Piano Concerto No.22 in E flat, K482
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Click here to watch performance footage and a documentary on the recording process.
Click here to visit Jonathan's personal website dedicated to this disc. You can read Jonathan's insights into the performance of these concertos and listen to audio extracts.
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Click on the link below to hear an extract from the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21 taken from Jonathan's EMI disc:
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Reviews:
“…The result is – in a word – simply formidable. The orchestral sound is brilliant, there are no trivialities or meaningless phrases, and the chamber music qualities of the orchestra are displayed, particularly in the sensitive dialogues between the piano and the winds. This is not simply a soloist sitting in front of an amorphous sound-producing apparatus, but musicians with a common idea making music together. The booklet comments, written by the pianist himself, are intellectually stimulating, informative, and poetic …”
Piano News (magazine, Germany), February 2009
“A thrillingly beautiful CD! The American pianist Jonathan Biss brings a great deal of poetry to the two Mozart concertos, which he presents with wonderfully sparkling playing on this CD. For all his vitality, Biss does not shy away from emotion, which he displays so abundantly that his interpretations are extremely rich in moods, although melancholy and tenderness are among the emotional values that have often been forgotten recently, if not even deliberately avoided by pianists. There is nothing wild here, no stringency, no dryness, but no prettified tone, either. The pianist wrote the text about his interpretation in the booklet (bravo for this achievement as well!) and expressed himself as follows: 'Mozart's music is simply reality, with all its disorder, vitality, and beauty. Music in which every human emotion is expressed in sounds.' Diversity of feelings is also the chief characteristic of these two concertos, which have a great deal to offer the ears!”
Pizzicato (magazine, Luxembourg), February 2009
" … the two infinitely often recorded Piano Concertos No. 21 and 22 … sound incredibly fresh and vigorous – Mozart almost as a young hooligan. Biss simply plays the piano well and has swept all the theories of the early music movement aside – or, expressed more positively, overcome them. Rarely have I heard the Allegro maestoso (No. 21) as modern and "this worldly" in recent years…
The polished Orpheus Chamber Orchestra accompanies and is led by him, and Biss restores long-missed feeling and sensitive melancholy to the Andante of No. 21. … After all the fortepiano anorexia, Mozart's piano concertos are truly great fun again.”
Neue Presse, February 2008
“ … After the recording, Jonathan Biss expressed it as follows: "Mozart's music is simply reality, with all its disorder, vitality, and beauty.
Biss approached the works in this spirit, identified with them, and he was astonishingly successful. One rarely hears a young pianist with such sensitivity and virtually flawless, sparklingly flowing pianism, particularly since both concertos are live recordings.”
www.kulturradio.de, December 2008
“These are altogether exceptionally fine accounts, with well-judged tempos (the famous Andante of K467, for example, with its ‘throbbing’ accompaniment, is languorous and sensual without being unduly slow, while its dazzling finale is taken at a genuine Allegro vivace assai) 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.”
BBC Music Magazine (performance: 5 stars, recording: 5 stars), October 2008
"What Jonathan Biss writes about Mozart in the recording’s booklet is so inspired, so just, that I was biased in his favour before hearing a note.
His performance, as soloist and as the director of the excellent Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, in no way disappoints. These are outstanding interpretations, the interplay of soloist and orchestra that of equals in complete sympathy, the contrasting character of the two concertos and the constant changes of mood within each work felt and communicated with delight and impeccable judgment.
Biss’s cadenzas, too, are well judged, as is his ornamentation — not imposed on the music, but springing naturally out of it. Interestingly, he hardly decorates the C major’s magical andante at all — which, if not “correct”, seems to me absolutely right."
The Sunday Times, October 2008
“The brilliant twenty-something American pianist proclaims his Mozartian credentials in scintillating, beautifully proportioned performances of two of the greatest concertos … With a limpid ‘centred’ tone and crystal-clear articulation, Biss views the C major’s opening movement in terms of a comic opera conspiracy, with the dapper orchestra in close collusion.
The famous andante is cool and chaste … the finale, like that of the E flat, delightfully mischievous …”
The Telegraph, October 2008
"Young, clever, and very nimble, the American Biss is a marvellous Mozart pianist, and the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra play absolutely in synch. In the quixotic games of the Piano Concerto No 21 Biss offers teasing phrasing and filigree magic. The 22nd sounds chunkier, as it should. Recorded in concert, and you can feel the electricity."
The Times, September 2008
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BEETHOVEN SONATAS
No.8 in C minor Op.13 'Pathetique'
No.15 in D Op.28 'Pastoral'
No.27 in E minor Op.90
No.30 in E Op.109
EMI 394422-2 (73')
Released in October 2007
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Click on the link below to hear an extract from the opening movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op.109 taken from Jonathan's EMI disc:
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