Alice Sara Ott: Chopin Complete Waltzes

As this year marks the 200th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin's birth, we can expect a flood of new recordings of the Polish composer's work in the months to come. First up is this compilation of his complete waltzes performed by the German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott. Despite already having a loyal following in Japan and Germany, she is only now starting to show up on the international radar. And it's about time. Ott, who will be 22 this year, has been performing all over Europe and Japan since she was 13. Her first international album release, of Liszt's notoriously demanding Transcendental Études when she was 19, was met with incredulity by critics. "The fingers must conjure extraordinary brilliance and the subtlest shading, at lightning speed," said The Times, "yet here is Alice Sara Ott, from Munich, of German-Japanese descent, tossing them off for Deutsche Grammophon with ease and apparent joy." Her performance of Chopin's waltzes, recorded last August at the Emil Berliner Studios, is similarly effortless. Composed over the span of Chopin's life, the waltzes were designed to be heard in aristocratic salons, where the well-educated could appreciate their technical and emotional sophistication. Even at her young age, Ott is able to convey the sadness that lurks beneath the glitter (Chopin's life was blighted by ill health and unrequited love). Her phrasing of the more light-hearted passages is also spot-on. Perhaps it takes one child prodigy to faithfully interpret another.