Ryan Ross’s Favorites of 2025

Until now I’ve resisted making such a list for Classical Candor. One gets so busy at the end of the year, and I’m always so painfully aware of how many new things I haven’t heard during the previous 12 months. But then I read Karl’s and Bill’s 2025 retrospectives and decided I would no longer let the perfect be the enemy of the fun. So here goes, holes and all!

John Field: Complete Nocturnes. Alice Sara Ott, pianist. Deutsche Grammophon 486 623-8

 

If you’d told me a year ago that a disc of Field nocturnes would top my favorites of 2025 I’d have been skeptical. But like Bill, I came away mightily impressed with the sound and artistry exhibited in this Alice Sara Ott release. As I said on my own blog, she plays these nocturnes with a conviction that makes them punch above their weight. She sets a great example in taking music that is still too under-appreciated and showing what’s possible for it in sympathetic, capable hands. This is healthy for the classical music tradition. I salute her and invite other performers to take notice.

 

Lepo Sumera: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 6. Olari Elts, conductor; Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Ondine ODE 1449-2

 

Whenever I don’t know a composer’s music well before reviewing a disc of it, I always do a lot of homework prior to beginning my write-up. In this way I became acquainted with a fair number of Lepo Sumera’s works over several weeks this past spring. Discovering his sound world has been a joy, and I’ll repeat what I said in June: this First Symphony in particular is a late-20th-century masterpiece and proof that the symphonic tradition was evolving instead of dying. This recording is a sharp testament to the merits of both symphonies included and was a highlight of my reviewing year.

 

Domenico Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas (selection); Kurtág: Selections from Játékok. András Schiff, pianist. Lucerne Festival Historic Performances. Audite 97.838

 

Confession time: I don’t really care for the music of Gyӧrgy Kurtág and consciously left out any mention of his pieces in my November review of this recording. But Schiff’s live performances of these Scarlatti sonatas are (with one slight transgression of my taste) so superlative that they alone propel the whole venture to my 2025 favorites list. To be candid (see what I did there?), more pianists of the first rank need to be recording Scarlatti’s sonatas…and not just the well-trodden ones like K. 380. This release is a major brick laid in what I hope will be a long and storied road in years to come.

 

Domenico Scarlatti: Selected Keyboard Sonatas. Javier Perianes, pianist. Harmonia Mundi HMM902768

 

Speaking of Scarlatti, here’s another beauty that appeared in 2025. It took me a while to become accustomed to Javier Perianes’s vision for these pieces. But once I did I was hooked. This is a full-blooded, lively pianism exhibited across a nice selection of sonatas. Perianes shows just how much interpretive territory is left to stake in even the pieces we think we know so well, let alone the less heard. A case in point is his K. 466; rarely will you hear it so sumptuously presented. It’s now one of my favorite performances. His K. 492 positively brims with color and life. More of this, please!

 

Mieczysław Weinberg: Complete Music for Cello and Orchestra. Nikolay Shugaev, cellist; Yuri Medianik, conductor; Tyumen Philharmonic Orchestra. Naxos 8.574679

 

After writing my review of this release in June, I checked out what other reviewers said about it in Gramophone and elsewhere. Some didn’t seem to be as impressed with the performances. I stand by what I said in admiring their crispness. But to be honest, I was as much reviewing the repertoire and its selection as I was the performances themselves. I’ll restate a recurring theme in my remarks here: Weinberg tends to test my patience with his inconsistency. After wading through long stretches of dreary or middling music, I’m always excited when I can give something of his full-throated praise. Maybe these performances won’t impress everyone, but for the Naxos price they’ll be fine for most listeners. And again, this Cello Concerto and Cello Concertino (two versions of similar material) are ideally presented together. Whichever version you prefer is a winner in an oeuvre of hit-and-miss.

 

Franz Liszt: Complete Piano Music, Volume 67: March Transcriptions. Paul Williamson, pianist. Naxos 8.574717

 

I caught this only at the very end of the year. Assuming the pianist is competent (and Paul Williamson is more than that), I always know I’m going to have a good time listening to Liszt transcriptions…especially ones I didn’t know (or don’t remember having heard) beforehand. I probably did hear most or all of these in Leslie Howard’s impressive cycle for Hyperion. But if so it was a while ago, and I don’t remember the transcription of the Széchényi march that occupies the first track. It is one of several numbers here that I liked so much I listened to them multiple times in a row. Serendipity is one of the great joys of classical music. One other thing: we’re now at Vol. 67 in Naxos’s complete Liszt piano music project. If I remember correctly from years ago in the 90s, they talked about it spanning 70+ (or maybe 75+) discs. If that’s still true, I’m a little wistful about the end approaching.

 

Bonus Pick: Études Mélodiques. Marie Awadis, pianist and composer. Deutsche Grammophon 486-599-2

 

Technically this came out in 2024. But I did not review it here, and missed the chance to include it in an End-of-Year Favorites List last time. So I’ll tack it onto this list with a few short remarks. Simply put, this is among my favorite new music of the decade. It’s fresh, individual, and ACCESSIBLE contemporary fare that has a real chance to catch on with performers and audiences. Awadis has a pleasing personal voice, and I can see a few of these numbers filling program spaces in concerts that tend to go to Glass or Kapustin etudes. At least, they deserve to. Several are on my favorites playlists, but La Forêt Oubliée (No. 6) in particular transfixed me from the very first listen. It is absolutely magical. We should have the courage not only to try new things, but especially to try new things in styles exhibiting a popular touch. I can’t wait to hear more music by this composer.