Albert Imperato asks Jonathan Biss Twenty (Plus) Questions
Date: 4 Dec, 2009
Since making his New York Philharmonic debut in 2001 when he was 21, Jonathan Biss’s international career has flourished through his orchestral, recital, and chamber music performances in North America, Europe, and Asia, and through his acclaimed EMI Classics recordings. Biss is a former student of Leon Fleisher at The Curtis Institute of Music and the third generation in a family of musicians that includes his grandmother, cellist Raya Garbousova, and his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist Paul Biss. His diverse repertoire ranges from Mozart and Beethoven, through the Romantics to Janáček and Schoenberg as well as works by contemporary composers, including commissions from Leon Kirchner and Lewis Spratlan.
With a reputation for intriguing programs, artistic maturity and versatility, the 28-year-old American pianist has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2005 Leonard Bernstein Award and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. Fresh from a gig at Le Poisson Rouge followed by a debut with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Biss comes to London for an 11 December concert at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony conducted by Robert Spano. Then it's on to Birmingham on 16 December to play Mozart with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
1. A few works of classical music that you adore:
Obviously, far too many to mention, so I’ll just include some recent fixations: Schubert’s Schwanengesan; Haydn’s Creation; Kurtág’s Játékok; Janáček’s Jenufa; Beethoven’s Op. 127.
2. Classical music recordings that you treasure:
Szigeti and Bartók playing Beethoven, Debussy, and Bartók’s own music at the Library of Congress; Schnabel playing Mozart’s A minor Rondo; more or less everything we have of Dinu Lipatti (which is not nearly enough).
3. Favorite non-classical musicians and/or recordings:
Sarah Vaughan; Radiohead; Gabe Kahane; Art Tatum.
4. Music that makes you cry – any genre:
The emergence of major in literally any minor key work of Schubert.
5. Definitely underrated work(s) or composer(s):
Mendelssohn – somehow our age misconstrues his incredible sense of proportion as a lack of passion. Dvorak – I think people have the idea that really great music shouldn’t be that much fun. Five years ago I would have said Janáček, but I think he’s slowly getting his due.
6. Possibly overrated work(s) or composer(s):
Oy, lightning rod. I have a lot of difficulty with Shostakovich – aside from all the complicated political questions, his music has never felt emotionally honest to me. But I’m wary of saying “overrated.” I don’t think that the people who love his music are wrong just because I don’t feel what they feel.
7. Live music performance(s) you attended – any genre – that you’ll never forget:
Leon Fleisher’s Carnegie Hall Recital in 2003 – his first two-handed recital there in over four decades. Aside from all the extra-musical significance, it featured the most remarkable performance of the Schubert B-flat Sonata that I ever hope or expect to hear.
8. A few relatively recent films you love:
Man on Wire; Life is Beautiful; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Being John Malkovich.
9. A few films you consider classics:
A Day at the Races; Raising Arizona; Dr. Strangelove; Love and Death. I like my classics quirky.
10. A few books that are important to you (and why):
Oh, again, too many. Recently, Philip Roth’s The Ghost Writer. I love all the Zuckerman novels, and it was interesting to see him as a young man/artist, negotiating the line between taking his work seriously and taking himself too seriously – a line with which I am familiar! And I just reread Charles Rosen’s The Classical Style, which is probably the only book (not by a composer) to have seriously influenced the way I think about music.
11. Thing(s) about yourself that you’re most proud of:
That I met my deadline for finishing this interview.
12. Thing(s) about yourself that you’re embarrassed by:
The crippling neurosis that makes answering 20 simple questions such a problem. My limitless capacity for sitting in front of a television (quality of programming not relevant).
13. Three things you can’t live without:
Music, family, and Korean food.
14. 'When I want to get away from it all I…'
Turn off all my portable electronic devices even though I’m not on an airplane. Listen to music which a) is not classical, and b) does not include a piano. Go to Marlboro.
15. 'People are surprised to find out that I…'
Love Tchaikovsky. Have an encyclopedic knowledge of tennis trivia. Only learned to use chopsticks at the age of 26.
16. 'My favorite cities are…'
New York, Amsterdam, London, San Francisco.
17. 'I have a secret crush on…'
What sort of secret crush do you advertise on PlaybillArts??
18. 'My most obvious guilty pleasure is…'
Gelato, which I consider to be a perfectly acceptable breakfast (not to mention lunch and/or dinner), and on which I spend the sort of money annually that others spend on automobile maintenance.
19. 'I’d really love to meet…'
Barack Obama. Stunningly unoriginal, but very true nonetheless.
20. 'I never understood why…'
Some people in the United States are so fanatically opposed to the National Endowment for the Arts, when a stick of gum costs more than most people’s tax contribution to it.
BONUS QUESTION:
21. Question you wish someone would ask you (and the answer to that question):
Q: What concerns you most about the state of music in the 21st Century?
A: I’m glad you asked. I worry that young musicians are being asked to adjust to the changing world (good) from a marketing point of view, not an artistic one (very bad). If musicians don’t at least start out from a place of energetic idealism, they are doomed to spend their lives doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons.
Albert Imperato, a music promoter who co-founded 21C Media Group in January 2000, writes frequently about the arts for various publications and blogs. For permission to post or print this interview write to aimperato-at-21cmediagroup-dot-com.