Liszt/Sara Ott: Transcendental Studies; Chopin/Sara Ott: Complete Waltzes

As far as the British market is ­concerned, Deutsche Grammophon has adopted the same strategy in ­promoting its ­latest pianistic wonder, the 22-year-old ­Japanese/German Alice Sara Ott, as it did last year with Alexander ­Romanovsky. Ott's first album, devoted to Liszt, was available elsewhere almost a year ago, but only appears here now, in ­tandem with a follow-up disc of Chopin. I'm not convinced, though, that the ploy has worked as well as it did with ­Romanovsky, for while Ott thoroughly justifies her chutzpah in opting to record the fearsome Transcendental Studies on her debut, her account of the complete Chopin Waltzes only underlines what is sometimes missing from the Liszt, too. Her technique is ­dazzling, her tone ­wonderfully varied, from ­crystalline purity to powerfully raw, and the energy propelling her playing seems ­unstoppable. These are ferocious, ­swaggeringly confident accounts of the Liszt ­studies, but they seem at a loss in the ­moments when the music turns reflective or ­requires something poetic, and that lack of ­inwardness is much more ­evident in the Chopin waltzes, where the ­expressive point-making seems far too ­calculated and contrived, for all the ­glitter and polish Ott lavishes on them.