Jonathan Biss, Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Wigmore Hall, 28 September 2019 - 25 June 2020
Starting in September 2019, in the lead-up to the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in December 2020, Jonathan will perform all Beethoven's piano sonatas at the Wigmore Hall and, celebrate the release of his box set of Beethoven's complete piano sonatas. Each of his seven Wigmore Hall concerts will be preceded by a Coursera meet-up and followed by post-concert talks with speakers including Brett Dean and Sally Beamish, two of five composers he commissioned for Beethoven/5, the Belcea Quartet, Jan Swafford and Mitsuko Uchida.
Asked why he recorded all of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, Jonathan explains:
"Because he takes my breath away. Because he does so frequently, and in a way no other musical or life experience can replicate. Because he can do so through so many different heightened emotional states: despair in the slow movement of the Hammerklavier Sonata; warm-bloodedness in the second movement of the Sonata Op. 90; rage in the Appassionata Sonata; sheer transcendence in the G Major Piano Concerto and most everything else he wrote. Because I can see no better way of losing myself than in these wonders. Because I have to."