South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son likes to live life in the moment rather than have everything planned, so when a studio offered her the opportunity she thought she’d record some Mozart sonatas. “The first session took place on his birthday, 27 January. After that session, I told myself, ‘Why not all of them right now?’”

Yeol Eum SonWith close to 90 complete sets to compete with it was a bold decision. For the 36-year-old pianist the aim was to concentrate on the diversity – “Mozart’s music is never one-sided” – and produce variety in sounds.

The result is a sparkling set with the 18 sonatas performed in numerical order, giving the listener an enjoyable ride through the composer’s development from an 18-year-old to the six works he composed for Princess Frederica Louise in 1789.

A silver medallist in the 2009 Van Cliburn competition, Yeol Eum has a varied repertoire, mixing Romantic mainstays like Brahms and Schumann with Berg, Prokofiev and Ravel, as well as drawing rave reviews for her 2020 Onyx album of jazz-influenced works by Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin. But, she...