For as long as he can remember, Jonathan Biss has been playing the piano. At the same time, he has been passionate about the piano compositions of Beethoven. Over the years, he has been establishing himself as a leading performer of the composer’s entire piano repertoire.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of German Conductor Gunther Herbig, welcomes Biss to Strathmore for the performance of Beethoven’s highly emotional Piano Concerto No. 3 on Thursday.
“What’s really wonderful about [Beethoven’s] five concertos is the enormous variety among them — they’re so different from one another,” Biss, who has performed all five, explained. “Every time I play the third, the drama is so on the surface. It’s so raw, and the experience is always a vivid one.”
| Onstage |
| BSO Classical Concert: Mozart and Beethoven |
| » Where: Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda |
| » When: 8 p.m. Thursday |
| » Info: $38 to $98; 410-783-8000; bsomusic.org |
At its most basic, the concerto is a study in contrasting moods. Its opening movement is highly dramatic, its slow movement magnificently lyrical and its finale a comic masterpiece, and they all imbue the piece with just the right amount of musical meat to satisfy Biss’s dramatic and technical appetite.
“I think the thing that drives me, that leads me to work every day and that gets me onstage is the passion for the music that I play,” Biss noted. “The reason that I look forward to these concerts is because my life without [Beethoven’s] concertos is not really something I can even imagine. I feel I have to share that with the audience.”
And sharing the spotlight with Beethoven’s piano concerto are two more compositions by Austro-Germanic powerhouses — Mozart and Schubert.
Herbig will open the evening’s performance with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor. Musicologist Alfred Einstein referred to the first and last movements of the composition as “plunges into the abyss of the soul.” While little more than supposition arises over this and the other two of Mozart’s final works, it is a safe bet to assume these provided a catharsis for his troubled soul.
Schubert, who was highly influenced by the works of Mozart, composed his Symphony No. 6 in lyrical fashion, with a nod to Viennese symphonic music.
Just as Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 rests in the unquestionably talented hands of Jonathan Biss, so too are all three pieces with the BSO at the baton of Herbig.
