10th August 2018

Awards, Gramophone Awards 2018 - the top three in each category

by Chris O'Reilly

Gramophone Awards 2018 Following last week's shortlist of sixty titles, the top three recordings in each category for the 2018 Gramophone Awards have been announced this morning. The ten category-winners will be revealed on 31st August, and the ceremony itself will take place on September 13th at the Connaught Rooms in London - details of special prizes including Artist and Recording of the Year will be unveiled on the night...

You can browse Gramophone's devoted digimag featuring full reviews of all sixty shortlisted titles here.

Chamber

'They have a powerful understanding of the music’s structure, coupled to superlative technical skill. Sensibly, they don’t try to fake a Hungarian accent: instead, their awareness of the music’s roots is incorporated into a wider expressive language.'

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'The Capuçon brothers and their colleagues may be an ad hoc group but they play with the unanimity and blended tone of a veteran ensemble...Best of all, the musicians find a near-ideal balance of urgency and patience – the hallmark of a great Brahms interpretation.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'From the off, they make the music their own...the sense of story-telling is very persuasive...Another triumphant addition to the Pavel Haas’s already Award-laden discography.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC

Choral

'There is plenty of warmth and animation in the superb music-making. I Fagiolini’s consort and solo singing are exemplary...In such sure hands (and throats) as these, Monteverdi’s psalm-settings reach their fullest capacity to enchant and astonish.'

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'The Estonians have always rejoiced in a warm, rich sound and perfect blend, and guided by the utterly precise and dynamic Kaspars Putninš they give here a truly outstanding rendition that picks up every emotional and spiritual nuance with no sacrifice of technical perfection.'

Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

Concerto

'An out-and-out winner...Tetzlaff’s account of the First Concerto elevates this work to a whole new level of musical excellence, so much so that I’m inclined to place his expertly recorded CD of the two concertos ahead of all rival versions. It’s that good!'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'These interpretations sing of an artist still thoroughly in tune with his previous thoughts, but who is keen to develop those ideas further. He's supported every step of the way in this pursuit by the warmly responsive Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'There are so many moments here that bring a smile to a jaded Mozartian’s face...Anderszewski’s piano is right there in the middle of it, supporting, chattering away in passagework, never once hogging the spotlight.'

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

Contemporary

'Not only is Dean’s piece as theatrical as its title would suggest, it also has a compelling downwards trajectory...Luca Francesconi’s concerto Hard Pace couldn’t be more different but is just as special, perhaps even more so...With Storgårds and the GSO, it’s a dream team.'

Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'Both pieces reaffirm Dusapin’s quartet cycle as among the most significant now emerging.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'The music fair kidnaps the listener's attention at the outset and does not ransom it until the gripping, wholly satisfying close...The performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is stunning in its virtuosity (especially the three timpanists) and Brabbins shapes the whole edifice grippingly.'

Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

Early Music

'At full stretch there isn’t a weak link from top to bottom...try the Mass that forms the centrepiece here...I doubt whether I’ll be alone in thinking this one of the discoveries of the year.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'Both music and performance are on a pleasingly high level...the groups are so well blended (and indeed opulent) that one imagines that Galeazzo would have been delighted.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'This has to be one of the most exciting and engaging releases of medieval song in recent years...The singers use a variety of techniques to engage and communicate, from beautiful clear phrasing to crisp, expressive consonants...Every performance on this disc is illuminating, considered and committed.'

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

Instrumental

'This is one of those discs where a word count is a strange thing. For it needs only four: Go Buy This Disc...whatever he does, you can’t imagine the music going any other way, which is perhaps the definition of a great artist.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'Aimard’s interpretations are anything but tame. His dynamic range is formidable, his voicing of chords scrupulously faithful, his clarity unimpeachable. It’s hard to imagine the textures having greater impact or precision.'

Available Formats: 3 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'For sheer articulacy, synchronised gymnastics, flawless balance, range of colour and flinty attack, or any other criterion you care to reach for, this is breathtaking pianism...An immensely collectable album: a strong candidate for Disc of the Year, never mind of the Month.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC

Opera

'Nelson is in no great rush, allowing Berlioz’s music time to breathe where necessary…[His] cast is simply to die for...Énée is thrillingly sung by Michael Spyres…DiDonato’s vehement response to Énée’s desertion reveals her as a great tragedienne…In short this is a peach of recording.'

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'Rattle maintains both a clear pulse in individual scenes and a through line...The LSO’s playing throughout is at a high level of virtuosity...Gerhaher and Kožená are good at not over-egging the pudding of their confusions and naiveties...An early jewel in the crown of Simon Rattle’s assumption of the principal conductorship of the LSO.'

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'Few if any conductors match Christophe Rousset’s understanding of Lullian style and rhetoric...His pacing and inflecting of the music seems unerring...it is hard to imagine this music, often delightful, sometimes witty, intermittently touching, coming alive more vividly than it does here.'

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

Orchestral

'No one hearing the pieces on this disc is likely to doubt their technical finesse or expressive refinement: qualities that go a long way towards the defining of ‘lateness’ in artistic terms...There are unlikely to be any better discs of contemporary music this year.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'Les Siècles’ French-built woodwind and brass instruments from the early 20th century...Lean gut strings achieve feathery lightness... With fine choral contributions from the Ensemble Aedes, this new recording is highly recommended.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'This is a symphony of silences; Currentzis has calibrated them with the unsparing precision of a Pinter or a Haneke...Perhaps, in the Pathétique, Currentzis has met his match...It’s early days, but only the most exalted of comparisons suggest themselves.'

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

Recital

'Roth exploits the period instruments of Les Siècles to emphasise the sheer variety of orchestral colours on display...Devieilhe, meanwhile, has a wonderfully instinctive and apparently effortless way with this music...All in all, this refreshing, fascinating and beguiling album is impossible to resist. Highly recommended.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'It’s provocative stuff, its emotional – at times emotive – impact immeasurably heightened by very careful programming...Gens and Niquet throw themselves into all this with an engrossing mix of abandon and restraint. Gens’s trademark combination of purity of utterance and smoky tone speaks volumes.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'This is a treasure trove of rare music…Galou is a perfect singer to introduce us to this music, thanks to an agile and comfortable technique...The playing of Accademia Bizantina…is keen as mustard and filled with typically telling detail by director Ottavio Dantone.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

Solo Vocal

'All the songs receive terrific performances. Holger Falk has a clear, cleanly focused baritone that can run the gamut from a honeyed piano to something more like an impassioned shout...There’s also an ideal balance between sophistication and rawness.'

Available Format: CD

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'The second instalment of Malcolm Martineau’s survey of Fauré’s songs is exceptionally beautiful, both in choice of material and quality of performance...Martineau’s understanding of Fauré’s piano-writing, in which less means more and virtuosity is avoided in favour of nuance, remains impeccable.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

'With her warm tone and often remarkable way with both vocal colour and verbal inflection, Crebassa is outstanding in this repertory, and in Fazıl Say she has an accompanist whose direct yet subtle approach matches her own...One of the finest French song recitals of recent years. I cannot recommend it too highly.'

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive

Chris grew up in London and studied cello from the age of 5. He never did enough practice to get really good at it, but caught a passion for Classical music which would stick with him forever. He has wide ranging musical tastes, still plays Chamber music and particularly loves Mahler.

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Awards, Gramophone Awards 2018 - the top three in each category

Chamber

Choral

Concerto

Contemporary

Early Music

Instrumental

Opera

Orchestral

Recital

Solo Vocal

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