Beethoven Vol. 5: Piano Concerto No.3 In C Minor / Caroline Shaw: Watermark (CD)

Gramophone Magazine
May 2026
Editor's Choice

Jonathan Biss (piano), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Malin Broman

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
Shaw, C: Watermark

Jonathan Biss concludes his Beethoven/5 commissioning project with this final installment, bringing to a close one of the most ambitious and innovative Beethoven release series of the 21st century. Volume 5 pairs Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3 in C minor with Caroline Shaw’s Watermark. Shaw’s piece serves as a reimagination of Beethoven’s concerto through both direct quotation and subtle reflections of its harmonic language, effectively creating a vivid dialogue between past and present.

"[Shaw] has an assured control of expectation, and even when the music dissolves into something surprising, it seems, in retrospect, as if we have been expecting it all along. Overall, a memorable conclusion to a noteworthy series." — Gramophone Magazine, May 2026