Browse: Presto Recordings of the Year, Beethoven (composer)

Her Diabelli Variations are a triumph of wit and character…Yet it's in her handling of the profundity lying beneath that Uchida makes her *Diabellis* stand out. Underneath the constantly changing... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2022, 5 out of 5 stars More…

The pulse of the Scherzo is rigorously even, but it has explosive energy; the sheer precisions of the articulation in the finale is a pleasure, as he takes us boldly through its labyrinth of... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2018, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Never for a moment does she over-reach herself or force pace and sonority...Few pianists have ever been more true to their own lights and it is hardly surprising that her many performances of... — Gramophone Magazine, October 2014 More…

It is appropriate that the peak of Beethoven’s orchestral artistry should be scaled by two musicians also at the height of their powers: these performances are as near-definitive as I ever expect... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2021, 5 out of 5 stars More…

What you will get is a new sense of the sheer physicality of the music…What’s fascinating about Levit’s whole cycle is the crazy tempos at which he takes the first Allegros and Prestos…Where... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2019, 4 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 5 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

Melnikov works wonders with his 1828 Graff piano, managing to make it less clattery and more piano-like than in most other fortepiano recordings. — BBC Music Magazine, April 2014, 5 out of 5 stars More…

This disc serves to remind us how much marvellous music Beethoven wrote where there isn’t a scowl in sight…Throughout, Paul Lewis plays with the most natural, relaxed but concentrated enjoyment,... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2020 More…

I find these performances utterly fascinating, though it would be next to impossible to offer a comprehensive catalogue of the various colourful twists and turns that characterise Fischer’s performances... — Gramophone Magazine, December 2019 More…

Dueñas’s performance favours the Concerto’s abundant lyrical qualities. In the magical Larghetto she combines unaffected simplicity with rich sentiment while her account of the ‘Rondo’ is certainly... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2023, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Reiss manages coloratura passages with ease, her tone bright and clear, her voice firm throughout its considerable range and she is always wonderfully in tune…The Academy of Ancient Music gives... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2020, 4 out of 5 stars More…