After too many years away from the recording studio, pianist Mitsuko Uchida returned in 2022 with this truly revelatory album of Beethoven’s 33 Variations in C Major. Uchida’s Beethoven credentials have never been in question, but here her well-known fusion of poetic piano-playing and intellectual power makes for superb results. What is so striking is her grasp of the work’s huge and complex architecture: Each variation seems to emerge from its predecessor before passing on to its successor. Her creativity and inventive use of color make each variation a pearl, yet a pearl that takes its place rightly on a beautifully assembled string of 33.