- Alice Sara Ott, Karina Canellakis, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra: “Beethoven” (Deutsche Grammophon)
- Mark Steven Doss: “Welcome to My World” (Cedille)
- Sphinx Virtuosi: “Songs for Our Times” (Deutsche Grammophon)
“Beethoven”
It’s always fun when an album nearly slips past your radar until it becomes the catalyst for controversy. This isn’t a slight to Alice Sara Ott, whose early recordings of Chopin’s complete waltzes and Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata are among my favorite interpretations. More likely, her Beethoven compendium—including a live performance of the First Piano Concerto with Karina Canellakis and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, the “Moonlight” Sonata, and a grab-bag of piano miniatures—escaped me thanks to an ongoing hangover from 2020’s Beethoven year (and the expectation that many of those thwarted completist concerts of concerti, symphonic, and sonata cycles will be ready to greet us in 2027).