Pianist delivers a masterful touch to 2 Schubert sonatas

JONATHAN BISS, PIANO; Schubert/Kurtag (Wigmore Hall Live) ★★★★

This is a live recording that pianist Jonathan Biss made earlier this year in London's Wigmore Hall.

At that concert he played a program that was quite demanding, in part because of the scope of the two Schubert sonatas and the emotional intensity of the Kurtag pieces, and also because of what these works require of the listeners — the pianist not only needs to get them absorbed into the music, but also bring them into the unique worlds these works create.

And the 29-year-old pianist succeeds at this well beyond expectations.

The Sonata in C major, D. 840 ("Reliquie"), and the Sonata in A major, D. 959, are the two Schubert works Biss plays on this program. Both have an otherworldly character, and any conventional sense of space and time is altered as Schubert slowly explores his themes and develops them.

Biss captures this immensity more than convincingly. He shows beyond any doubt that despite his young age, he is a master of Schubert's music.

In his articulation, dynamics, nuances and expression Biss opens up a wonderful palette of ever changing colors. This is Schubert played the way his music deserves to be played.

The two short Kurtag pieces ("Birthday Elegy for Judith" and "Hommage ?Schubert," both from the collection "Jatekok") are given a wonderfully thoughtful perusal. Kurtag can say a lot in a few measures, and Biss understands this. His playing is emotionally driven, profoundly sensitive and thoroughly engrossing.

e-mail: ereichel@desnews.com