Artist Spotlight: Jonathan Biss

World-renowned pianist Jonathan Biss, a teacher at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, will deliver a master class at Harvard on Oct. 30. Biss is a pioneer of online music—he established an unprecedented course on Coursera entitled “Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas.” Biss’s masterclass will take place in the Kirkland Junior Common Room.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON: Both of your parents are violinists teaching at the New England Conservatory. What’s it like coming from such a musically talented family?

JONATHAN BISS: Music seemed like language from the very beginning of my life. It wasn’t just something people did—it was something people used to express themselves to one another. To this day, that’s still how I think of it, and I’m sure this is rooted in having musician parents and a musical environment for literally as long as I can remember. Being comfortable with classical music results from exposure, and my exposure was constant from the very beginning. It was a wonderful way to grow up…. By the time I was very, very young, I was going to operas, orchestra concerts, chamber music, solo recitals—I can’t really imagine a better environment in which to grow up.

THC: How did you end up being attached to piano instead of the violin?

JB: [Acclaimed pianist Artur] Schnabel said about the piano that it probably had the least interesting sound of all the instruments, but it can imitate all of the rest of them. The piano, in a way, is the most limited instrument of all, when you consider what you can do with one note, but it has the most unbelievable breadth of possibilities—range, dynamics, color, how many different things you can do at once.

THC: In the past, you’ve devoted yourself entirely to just one composer for long periods of time, including Beethoven and Schumann. What have your experiences with those journeys been, and what do you see for the future?

JB: What I found in common between the two of them—Beethoven and Schumann—is that they were very intense personalities, but in very different ways. Living with them would be very overwhelming. In the case of Beethoven, it’s because of the force of his personality. Every artist has the need to self-express, but Beethoven’s was just that much stronger. When you’re playing his music, you feel the sense of responsibility so palpably. The music is so all-encompassing that you have to access every ounce of yourself. It’s amazing to live in that world, but it’s also overwhelming.

With Schumann, the part of it that’s intense is how unflinchingly he explores darkness. Schumann was more open than any other composer in his music in what pained him and isolated him. It’s an unbelievable gift, but it makes his music very raw. You’re exposing yourself in a way that does not in any way feel comfortable. The year when I played mostly Schumann, I felt like I was living more intensely. It was wonderful, but it was not easy either.

THC: It’s well-established that Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas are a cornerstone of classical music repertoire. But what makes them so special to you?

JB: First of all—I know this is an uninteresting answer—but the quality is so extraordinary. 32 pieces is a lot, and there is no dip in quality from beginning to end. The variety is also so extreme. If you look at the first three sonatas, in Op. 2, they’re so different in nature and in the way they work psychologically. You hear those remarkable early pieces—they show a personality that’s already fully formed—and then you see Beethoven transform himself time and time again over the course of a few decades. That’s perhaps the most unfathomable thing of all: how he could continue to find new and all the more radical ways of exploring. With most composers, you sense that there is a limit to their means. Beethoven’s means are infinite.

THC: As a musician and a teacher, you’ve set some technological firsts—most impressively with your online course on the Beethoven sonatas. What was creating that course like? And what do you see in the future of the integration of music and technology?

JB: If we’re talking about teaching in the sense of the teacher-student relationship, I’m very skeptical; the relationship between student and teacher is so delicate and requires a trust and understanding that can only be built in person. I don’t ever see distance learning replacing the conservatory. But in terms of bringing close examination of music to a wide audience, I think that the Coursera course is an unbelievable tool.

Making the class was terrific. It was challenging, certainly, because of the diversity of the student body. I had to find a way to address people with vastly different spheres of experience with Beethoven, as not to bore or exclude anyone. That was hard work. But it was an amazing experience because it was, like the rest of my teaching, incredibly clarifying for me. When you’re forced to teach, you really have to define for yourself what’s most important because you can’t say everything—there’s far too much to be said. I really learned what aspects of music were the credible things. So I think all of us learned something.