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Piano Sonatas 2

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

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Audio CD, March 12, 2013
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Track Listings

1 I Allegro Molto E Con Brio (Sonata No. 4 in E Flat Op. 7)
2 II Largo, Con Gran Espressione
3 III Allegro
4 IV Rondo: Poco Allegretto E Grazioso
5 I Adagio Sostenuto (Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp minor Op. 27 No. 2 Moonlight)
6 II Allegretto
7 III Presto Agitato
8 Fantasy in G minor Op. 77
9 I Adagio Cantabile-Allegro Ma Non Troppo (Sonata No. 24 in F Sharp Op. 78)
10 II Allegro Vivace

Editorial Reviews

American pianist Jonathan Biss is widely regarded for his artistry and deeply felt interpretations, and has won international recognition for his concerto, recital, and chamber music performances and for his award-winning recordings.

Product details

  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.59 x 4.96 x 0.47 inches; 3.39 ounces
  • Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Onyx Classics
  • Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2013
  • Date First Available ‏ : ‎ January 7, 2013
  • Label ‏ : ‎ Onyx Classics
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009ZWHJXK
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2014
    What a joy it is for this retired piano teacher to hear the clarity and proportion Jonathan Biss achieves in his first three albums of Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas. Biss has immersed himself in studying Beethoven's time, place, scores and personality. With this forethought, he goes for the long melodic lines, the well-balanced harmonies and the driving rhythms that Beethoven employs to express an amazing emotional range: sinister threats, good humor, despair, ardor, joy and serenity (to name just a few). His allegros declare the plot; his adagios dig deep; his prestos scale the heights. I have played several of the sonatas myself and listened to recordings by Schnabel and other artists for over 50 years, but Biss's performances are the truest and most stirring I have heard. In his skilled hands, Beethoven's music touches me deeply and gives me hope. Thank you, Jonathan Biss, for making the world a better place. I look forward to future releases.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2014
    Clearly a virtuoso who has focused (albeit not exclusively) much of his energies Beethoven's Sonatas and the consequence is spellbinding. This is my second cd by Bliss. The first was his Vol 3 of the Sonatas and I'll continue to buy until I have the full collection. It is that good.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2013
    He finds expressions in the Beethoven sonatas that are amazing! Hurry up, Jonathan! Record more! I don't want to grow old waiting to hear the "final four" sonatas from you.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2015
    Wonderful recording of the Beethoven Sonatas. I believe Mr. Biss is currently the most proficient performer of this music.
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2015
    As always, I like Kempf. However, Jonathan is Curtis faculty and over years will change his intrepretation of the sonatas working with his colleagues, all of whom are so talented.
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2013
    At 32, Jonathan Biss is one of the youngest pianists, if not the very youngest, to record the complete Beethoven sonatas, but the evidence so far indicates that his musical maturity matches Paul Lewis's, the acclaimed English pianist whose complete cycle was the last one of note. Lewis played his Beethoven closer to Brendel's detached classicism than Biss, and I wish I could immediately add that Biss is closer to Serkin's passionate commitment, which I find essential in playing Beethoven. But Vol. 1 reminded me of Richard Goode's cultivated good manners instead, and this made me anxious for Vol. 2, in the hope that Biss could ignite a bit more spark.

    The first sonata here, Op. 7 in E-flat Major, begins with promising energy and convincing attack. Biss doesn't diddle or time travel back to Haydn. Richter added stormy interjections in the first movement, but to tell the truth, it's forgivable to play this music as if it were Haydn. The challenge in the Largo is to make the simple, unadorned melodic line sound interesting, and Biss gives his all, adding more expressive gestures than Richter, even. If it isn't heretical to say so, the whole sonata is less than compelling, and Biss gives a strong delivery from beginning to end; even better, he makes every movement sound like Beethoven instead of a forebear.

    The "Moonlight" sonata takes us immediately from the obscure to the thrice-familiar. Perhaps under the influence of the "new Beethoven" school that accepts much faster tempos as genuine, his pacing of the famous first-movement melody is hardly Adagio sostenuto, and it sounds impatient to me, even if the phrasing is musical and sensitive. The Allegretto that follows imitates another hallmark of the new Beethoven - it's careful, polite, and impersonal. Is it forbidden to show that you care about the music you're playing? Similarly, the finale is fast enough to obey the Presto marking, but not much about it is tempestuous enough to obey the second marking, agitato. we are decidedly in the cultivated company of Brendel, Goode, and Lewis.

    As an unusual filler before the third sonata on the program we get a rarity, the 9-minute Fantasy in G minor, Op. 77, which is unfamiliar territory for me, but it sounds like an example of Beethoven writing out an improvisation, since there are interjected bangs and runs wandering far from the original plan-Jane theme. The show of imagination outside the box (of classical variation form) isn't as moving as Mozart's great Fantasies in D minor and C minor, but Biss gives a rousing account that feels freer than the two sonatas so far. He's loosened his necktie.

    In chronological order comes Op. 78, the two-movement Sonata in F-sharp Major, which like several of the accomplished sonatas that never got a name, such as Op. 90, always comes as a welcome surprise. This isn't a sonata that Richter recorded (or played, I suppose), but it shows Beethoven in an unbuttoned mood, its high spirits expressed with one ingenious passage after another. Here Biss comes alive more, and I was ready to say that he found his inner serkin, but checking Serkin's live account from London on BBC Legends, the older master provides more contrast between the two movements, and along the way his playing is more interesting and personal.

    A performer can't be interesting and original at the drop of a hat, and much as I admire Biss's natural musicality, which he has in common with Paul Lewis, neither of them "speaks Beethoven" the way that such a commanding composer demands. I imagine that this CD will be praised, but Biss's interpretations illustrate how the good can be the enemy of the best. We seem headed for Richard Goode lite, not a land I want to explore.
    17 people found this helpful
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  • G. Holt
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 29, 2016
    Great service, no problems, thank you