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.

Bill Heck's Favorites of 2025

Readers who have been with us for all of 2025 may have noticed that my contributions this year were pretty skimpy. (Then again, they are free, so….) Fortunately, most that I did review ranged from very good to really excellent. But the ones that I have chosen to mention here are special in different ways, not necessarily being the “greatest” of the year, but rather ones that were particularly welcome for one reason or another.

John Field: Nocturnes. Alice Sara Ott, piano. Deutsche Grammophon 4866239

If you missed my review, you might still think that “nocturnes” became a thing only when Chopin came along. Well, he didn’t invent them: if anyone deserves the title of “inventor”, it was John Field. And although Chopin’s works of that name do, with some justification, overshadow Field’s earlier efforts, the latter’s works are certainly worthy of attention in their own right. These days, I truly welcome hearing less familiar but still musically rewarding works. Alice Sara Ott gives us excellent performances and the DG engineers provide excellent sound, making this one of favorites of the year. 

 

 

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Platero y Yo, Op 190. Niklas Johansen, guitar. OUR Recordings 8.226930-31

Here’s another great release of lesser known but very rewarding works, making this another of my favorites for the year. This time the music is a series of what I referred to as mini- tone poems for guitar – I don’t suppose that’s a great way to refer to them, but I don’t know what else to call them, other than beautiful pieces that you really should hear. Again, great performances in great sound. But in addition, those who invest in the CDs get lovely (and practical!) packaging and a wonderful 72-page booklet. It’s the whole package, and it is truly worth seeking out.

 

 

Beethoven: Symphonies 1 – 9 and Overtures. George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra. Sony Classical  

Yeah, I know: citing a set of recordings made back in the 1960s is quite a stretch for a 2025 favorite. But the key here is that you can now find all of the symphonies (and various overtures), in versions remastered in 2018, as one set. The remastered thing is a big deal, as the old Columbia recordings were, to put it euphemistically, less than ideal. The remasterings are very good indeed, allowing us to hear truly classic performances of these favorite works in not just acceptable but even enjoyable sound. Be aware that these recordings were packaged and repackaged in incredibly confusing varieties, and even now finding this latest set is not the easiest. (You will search in vain for it on Sony's own classical music website. How is that even possible?) It’s worth the effort, though, to hear these performances in much-improved sound.

Anna Clyne: Abstractions. Naxos 8.574620

This one is cheating, I suppose, as it was reviewed by my colleague Karl Nehring, and indeed appears on his Favorites of 2025 list. (See his Favorites article for complete album information.) But I can’t resist mentioning it here as well: as much as I’ve been a fan of Anna Clyne’s work, I found her most recent work not quite as appealing as I had expected: not bad, but not quite as interesting, at least to my ears, as some of her other compositions. This release, though, goes right to my own favorites list. In particular, I’ve been waiting for a proper recording of Within Her Arms for ages; this recording is as moving as the performance that I first heard live so long ago.

John Field: Complete Nocturnes

 by Bill Heck 

Field: Nocturnes. Alice Sara Ott, piano. Deutsche Grammophon 4866239

Utter the word “nocturne“ to a lover of classical music and you are pretty much guaranteed that the name “Chopin” will come back. Indeed, for many of us, nocturnes for solo piano begin and end with Chopin. But it is more accurate to say that, whenever they “end”, nocturnes begin earlier, arguably with John Field.

Field lived from 1782 to 1837, straddling the transition from the Classical to early Romantic periods. Although Irish by birth (one of a relative handful of composers from the Emerald Isle), he spent most of his life elsewhere, first in England and later in Russia. Although he established a reputation as a major virtuoso in his early years, by the time of his death he was perceived as being somewhat out of date. Still, his works, especially those for solo piano and particularly the nocturnes, influenced composers like Schumann, Chopin of course, and even Liszt.

John Field

So what, pray tell, is a nocturne? The name translates roughly as “night piece”, which suggests quiet, gentle sounds; musically nocturnes are expected to be works for solo piano in which the left hand plays (mostly) arpeggiated chords while the right plays a melody. The earliest of Field’s nocturnes fit that pattern, but, as it is common with composers of merit, Field’s compositional techniques evolved so that his latter nocturnes go beyond this simple definition. It will surprise no one to hear that by the time Chopin came along, the definition was stretched to the breaking point, but one can still hear the echoes of those Fieldian beginnings.

Regardless of definitions and comparisons, Field’s nocturnes are more than worth seeking out. No, you won’t confuse Field’s works with those of the true master of the form, Chopin, but they are eminently listenable and enjoyable. While performances have not exactly flooded the market, there have been several recordings of the complete list of 18 that deserve mention, including those of John O’Connor from the 1990s and Tyler Hay from last year (2024). Now we have this very nice set from Alice Sara Ott, one that is right up there with the best.

Alice Sara Ott

Ott, born in Germany in 1988, proved a prodigy, doing well in youth piano competition at age 5 and winning a major German one at 7. An active recording and concert performance career has followed, with this album being, so far as I can tell, her tenth. She announced in 2019 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but thankfully that hardly seems to have affected her career; the list of upcoming engagements on her website makes me feel exhausted just reading it.

I find the playing here a “just right“ blend of straightforwardness and expressivity, bringing out the beauty and ingenuity of the works without engaging in distracting mannerisms or drawing attention to the performer rather than the music itself. It’s certainly not that Ott‘s playing is in any way mechanical, nor is there any lack of technical virtuosity (just listen to the clarity in the zippy, tinkling runs in number 12). But that virtuosity always seems to be in service of the music, sounding quite natural.

It certainly helps Ott’s cause that the DG recording is first-rate. The sound is close, but not too close, with just a bit of room sound, and is fully coherent, meaning it sounds like a real piano in a real place. It’s easy to immerse oneself in sound like this.

When I first ran across this album on my streaming service and heard these charming works, I blushed in mild shame to think that I was so unacquainted with Field’s oeuvre. But I was relieved to find in Ott’s personal but informative liner notes that she, too, knew next to nothing of Field’s nocturnes until she ran across them more or less by chance while searching for uplifting music during the worst of the Covid pandemic. First Ott, then me – and I suggest, dear reader, that you also may wish to become acquainted with these compositions in such excellent performances as found here.

Russian Variations

by Bill Heck

John Field: Variations on a Russian Folk Song; Alexander Glazunov: Theme and Variations, Op. 72; Pytor Tchaikovsky: 6 Pieces, Op. 21; Serge Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22. Piers Lane, piano. Hyperion CDA68428

Now this is the kind of album that I really enjoy reviewing: music that is off – but just barely off – the beaten path but still very much worth hearing, played flawlessly, and nicely recorded. What's not too like?

As quickly becomes apparent upon listening, the title of the album accurately describes the works here, even though the pieces are not all named "variations". Let's start with the short (6:00 minute) piece by John Field, which dates from 1818. The excellent liner notes for this release say that many listeners might think of something between Mozart and Chopin and that's not a bad description at all. Heard here, not only the composition but also Lane's playing straddles that line, with a delicacy of touch that really does sound Mozartian but arrangement of shading and emotion that is indeed Chopinesque.

Our second composer, Alexander Glazunov, unfortunately makes it into the consciousness of many classical music lovers today as the possibly drunken conductor of the disastrous premiere of Rachmaninoff's First Symphony. While conducting wasn't his strong suit, and alcohol was a significant factor in his life, his contemporaries thought highly of him; as these variation show, he was a highly skilled composer.  The theme that Glazunov works with could hardly be simpler, but the variations he produces are quite wide ranging and imaginative within a late romantic context. You won't hear the rhythmic excursions and harmonic dissonances produced by his somewhat younger near-contemporaries such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, but you will hear much beauty without mere sentimentality. Lane's playing provides perfect atmosphere, providing an almost dream-like quality punctuated as appropriate by outbursts of energy.

The six pieces by Tchaikovsky each can stand alone, but they really are built around the same theme, even though the theme is sometimes difficult to find. No matter, though: this is Tchaikovsky at his most imaginative and his most willing to try out various forms. For instance, in the first variation, "Prelude", the jarring use of minor sevenths suggests to my twenty-first century-influenced ears that he was warming up for a blues session. Naturally there's much more here than that, but the brief moment illustrated to me the adventurous road that Tchaikovsky was traveling here. In the next movement, a fugue for four voices, our composer is showing that he too, can write counterpoint, suggesting shades of J S Bach. And so it goes, with wonderful creativity through all six of these surprising works.

Piers Lane

And then there are Rachmaninoff's "Variations on a Theme of Chopin". And yes, as enjoyable as the previous works have been, this is a case of saving the best for last. One of Rachmaninoff's earlier compositions, written as he was finally emerging from the depression that followed the disaster of the First Symphony (see above), this is one of the composer's first really large efforts for solo piano, with the original statement of the theme followed by no fewer than 22 variations, clocking in at nearly 29 minutes. The booklet gives a nice high-level summary; I won't attempt to repeat that, but certainly can say that these variations are truly variable, ranging from slow, almost dirge like meditation to joyous exultation. By the way, Rachmaninoff's trademark Dies Irae shows up, blending remarkably with the main theme. While perhaps not as well-known as Rachmaninoff's later masterworks, this clearly is the effort of a major composer, one that will reward repeated hearings.

I blush to admit that I was not familiar with the recordings of Piers Lane, who has a prodigious output on the Hyperion label both as a soloist and a chamber musician. Many of his recordings are like this one in that “off the beaten path” sense that I mentioned earlier, which I say counts as a service to classical music lovers everywhere. A quick look around the Web reveals a high level of critical acceptance of his work, and there certainly will be no dissent here: his playing is wonderfully adjusted to the shifting moods and requirements of these works, and is, of course, technically sure.

As usual with Hyperion, the recorded sound is excellent. The album is available on CD, in a variety of downloadable formats, and also on major streaming services. Easily recommended.

Field: Piano Concertos Nos. 5 and 6 (CD review)

Benjamin Frith, piano; David Haslam, Northern Sinfonia. Naxos 8.554221.

If you aren't familiar with Irish composer John Field (1782-1837), Naxos makes it easy to become acquainted with him. Pianist Benjamin Frith, together with conductor David Haslam and the Northern Sinfonia, have issued almost all of Field's piano concertos, six of seven I believe, in winning performances and pretty good Naxos sound.

I reviewed the First and Third Concertos from Frith several years before this issue and found them entirely fetching; needless to say, I found this newer, 2002 release of the Fifth and Sixth Concertos equally fine. Of course, if you are new to the man's work, I'd advise starting with No. 1 because it remains his most felicitous (and probably most popular) concerto. Nevertheless, there is much to enjoy in Nos. 5 and 6 as well. The Fifth is especially noteworthy for its depiction of a fire and storm, perhaps some allusion to the war of 1812; it's unclear. I know, however, I had a marginal preference for the greater poetic invention of No. 6. Both concertos sound like pieces from the late Romantic period, but, in fact, they date from 1817 and 1819 respectively, early Romantic.

Benjamin Frith

Field was ahead of his time, and to mark how far ahead, he's the fellow who practically invented the piano nocturne. Odd, then, that these two concertos should have such brief slow movements, No. 2's Adagio lasting a mere two minutes. In each of the concertos, the opening movements last twice as long as the second and third movements combined. Go figure.

The Naxos sound (recorded in 1997, and I don't know why it took them so long to get the disc to market) appears full, warm, and robust when played at a volume approximate to what one might hear from a moderate distance at a live concert. Played back softly, though, the reproduction might disappoint you, because it can sound a bit dull and soggy. The piano seems generally well integrated into the acoustic field, and the occasional loud orchestral outburst will testify to the disc's reasonably wide dynamic range.

Field was once the toast of Europe, but admiration for his work fell off over time. Fortunately, this Naxos series and several Chandos releases among others have helped revive his popularity. It's about time.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here: