Beethoven: Sonatas Op 101 & 106, Mitsuko Uchida

Uchida has followed her recordings of Beethoven's last three piano sonatas (Opp 109, 110 and 111) with the two that preceded them, and come up with something totally exceptional. If the elusive A major Sonata Op 101 would seem to be the perfect match to her rigorous, lyrical pianism, it is her account of the Hammerklavier that is so overwhelming, and perhaps the finest to appear on disc since Emil Gilels' 25 years ago. Uchida makes no attempt to disguise the sheer technical and physical difficulties of the work - the sense of strain in the immense final fugue is palpable - but, at the same time, she fastens on to the emotional and intellectual core of the sonata in a way that is totally compelling. She places the expressive weight firmly on the great slow movement, conceived in vast, hymn-like paragraphs and leaving the heroics to the theatre of the opening Allegro and the huge finale, so making her performance as much an intellectual triumph as a pianistic one. In a year that has been blessed with a number of outstanding discs of piano music, this has to be one of the very finest.