Album: Alice Sara Ott, Tchaikovsky, Liszt: First Piano Concertos (Deutsche Grammophon)

Having demonstrated her command of the delicate intimacies and melodious melancholy of Chopin on this year's recording of his Complete Waltzes, Alice Sara Ott here goes to the opposite extreme, hammering out the melodramatic opening chords of Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No 1 in B flat minor", then riding its waves of emotion with a firm hand as it sails through the bittersweet Andantino semplice into the wistful but rousing final movement.

It was a cornerstone of Ott's youthful development, and she follows it here with another, Liszt's "Piano Concerto No 1 in E flat major". Though one suspects it took much further practice before she could unveil the crepuscular charm of the second movement's emotional tides as ably as she does here.

DOWNLOAD THIS Piano Concerto No 1 in B flat minor