Winning the 1960 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw at the age of 18 kicked off an extraordinary career for Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini. His recording of Beethoven’s piano sonatas began in the mid-1970s with an award-winning reading of the late sonatas, and he only completed the cycle (32 in total) in 2014. Pollini is famous for crisp, clear precision, a dazzling technique and lightning speeds, but never to the point of obfuscating the emotional intensity of these magnificent works. He has been accused of clinical intellectual detachment, but even a cursory listen to the Adagio sostenuto movement of the ‘Hammerklavier’ and the opening movement of the ‘Moonlight’ render such assessments ridiculous. Pollini’s ‘Appassionata’ is particularly noteworthy, and I have never recovered from seeing him perform it at Carnegie Hall in 2013, during which I was on the edge of my seat. This is a masterful set that is both an excellent starting point and an essential complement to other core cycles. And priced at $64.95, it’s an absolute steal.

Lisa MacKinney