Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Jonathan Biss opened and closed his recital with two of the Beethoven sonatas – No 5 in C Minor, Op 10 No 1 and No 26 in E Flat "Les Adieux" – that feature on his latest album, the first volume of a full cycle, scheduled for release over the next decade. The project has already caused something of a stir, and on this showing, it's easy to understand why.
This is no-frills Beethoven, uncompromisingly direct and a reminder of how much the music itself flouts convention. The ricocheting opening of Sonata No 5 had something of the compressed, titanic energy we associate primarily with the Fifth and Seventh symphonies. The full tone Biss deployed here was replaced in Les Adieux by sinewy textures, wonderfully suited to its mix of desolation and turbulent complexity. A couple of wrong notes in the last movement didn't detract unduly from the exhilaration of it all.
Les Adieux came at the end of a programme that demanded huge reserves of emotion, as well as technical finesse. The Beethoven sonatas were separated by music by Janácek and Chopin. Biss was revelatory in the Janácek, wringing every shred of intensity from In the Mists and the desolate Sonata October 1, 1905 (Street Scene), which records and mourns the suppression of a student demonstration in Brno.
Chopin, meanwhile, was represented the E Major Nocturne, Op 62, No 2 and the Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat Op 61. Biss's impressionistic, ruminative way with this music might not be to everyone's taste. But both performances reminded us of the astonishing range of Chopin's harmonic palette, which sounds years ahead of its time, particularly when placed beside Janácek.