Apple Music Classical has announced its Album of the Year for 2025.

German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott‘s recording of John Field’s complete nocturnes has taken out the honour for most popular album of the year.

Born in Dublin in 1782, Field is a lesser-known Irish pianist and composer, widely credited with inventing the Nocturne; preceding Chopin’s exploration of the form by more than a decade. A student of Clementi, the composer was an associate of composers including Beethoven, Hummell and Haydn. He grew up in London and relocated to St Petersburg in 1803, before dying in relative obscurity in 1837.

Ott made her debut with DG at the age of 19 with Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante in 2009. She is a prolific recording artist and has performed with groups including the London Symphony Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, the New York Philharmonic and the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra.

Earlier this month, she released an EP of piano works for film by late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson.

“Engaging with [Field’s] Nocturnes was a deeply rewarding experience,” Ott wrote in the sleeve note. “Their beauty and grace affected me profoundly and enriched my life while I was preparing for...