Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Cello album review – Watkins and Bax have a shared impulse to deliver eloquence

Cellist Watkins’ career-long immersion in the composer pays dividends in his pairing with Alessio Bax’s unfussy virtuosity

Víkingur Ólafsson: Opus 109 album review – pianist’s concept album opens up transcendent vistas

Olafsson’s account of Beethoven’s Op 109 is one of the most beautiful on record, the centrepiece of a recording that links the composer to Bach and Schubert

Fidelio review – Kratzer’s iconoclastic take turns Beethoven into something it’s not

Directorial tweaks weaken the opera’s fervour and idealism, but Jennifer Davis’s Leonore and Christina Gansch’s Marzelline both impressed and in the pit, Alexander Soddy keeps things brisk

Prom 42: Beethoven’s Ninth by Heart review – music and emotion made electrifyingly visual

Prefaced by a semi-dramatised introduction to Beethoven’s creative process, Aurora Orchestra’s performance was superb

Beethoven: String Quartets album review – Chiaroscuro Quartet’s versions are unforced and striking

The period-instrument quartets recording of Beethoven’s Ops 74 and 130 offers many rewards

Mitsuko Uchida review – bringing Mozartean finesse to Beethoven

Uchida’s playing of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas avoided bombast but neither did she shirk from the climactic moments

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Opp 101 & 106, review – a reminder of the power of Pollini

The pianist’s severe, analytical style engages with two of the most challenging works in the repertoire to produce a disc of compelling, muscular authority

Beethoven and Stravinsky Violin Concertos review – Frang and Kuusisto create sweetness, swagger and exhilaration

In his first recording as conductor, Pekka Kuusisto is insightful and in control, and Vilde Frang brings electricity to both concertos

Prom 61: Chineke!/Edusei review – the choral symphony gleams and teems with detail

The young orchestra brought lightness and an appealing new directness to their Proms performance of George Walker’s Lilacs and Beethoven’s 9th

Elizabeth Leonskaja review – passion, power and purpose

The pianist was in foreful and majestic form as she performed the final three of Beethoven’s sonatas

Alim Beisembayev review – mature and intelligent playing from a future piano star

With a programme of Haydn, Beethoven and Liszt, the Kazakhstan-born winner of last year’s Leeds Piano Competition confirmed that he is a musician to watch

Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra review – tears and roars of delight for new national ensemble

Giving only their second ever performance, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra was highly impressive and deeply moving in a programme of Silvestrov, Chopin, Beethoven and Brahms

Conrad Tao review – full-blooded piano playing with a dash of quirk

Tao’s programme exploited his talents to the full, including a ‘pandemic repertoire’ of Beethoven, Adams and Tao himself

Ferdinand Ries: Piano Trio and Sextets review – Beethoven’s biographer steps into the spotlight

Ries has been overshadowed by his master, but the pianist/composer had plenty of talent – and ego – of his own, as these chamber works show

Diabelli Variations review – Uchida’s unparalleled playing is made for this

The pianist’s clarity and dexterity brings humour and insights to Beethoven’s contradictory colossus of a work