The recordings making up this box set were all issued singly, beginning in 2011; pianist Jonathan Biss has characterized the Beethoven sonatas as 32 masterpieces, and he has approached them deliberately and methodically, making a deep dive into each one. Many listeners will have acquired parts of the set, but there's much to be said for making one's own deep dive into the whole thing. Biss' interpretations are individual, but with the whole group, some general trends emerge. First, although Biss is known as an intellectual ...
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The recordings making up this box set were all issued singly, beginning in 2011; pianist Jonathan Biss has characterized the Beethoven sonatas as 32 masterpieces, and he has approached them deliberately and methodically, making a deep dive into each one. Many listeners will have acquired parts of the set, but there's much to be said for making one's own deep dive into the whole thing. Biss' interpretations are individual, but with the whole group, some general trends emerge. First, although Biss is known as an intellectual pianist, and backs up this impression with nerd-chic graphics, the characterization is only partly accurate. Many of his slow movements have a strong emotional tinge, epically so in the king of all the slow movements, that of the Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 ("Hammerklavier"). In the outer movements, Biss' readings achieve an impressive level of detail. Physical box set buyers will get a hefty booklet with notes by Biss explaining some of his decisions; they are...
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