Awards,
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2022: Shortlist
The nominations for this year's BBC Music Magazine Awards have just been announced, with a potential long-list of over 300 five-star recordings from the past twelve months pared down to 27 finalists (three contenders spread over nine categories - this year the Newcomer and Premiere Awards are also open to public vote).
You can browse the short-list and listen to snippets of the discs below; to place your votes, visit the magazine's website by midnight UK time on Monday 28th February. The winning recordings will be announced at a ceremony at Kings Place on Thursday 28th April, where the Recording of the Year and Personality of the Year will also be revealed...
Chamber
'It’s ravishingly done by the Sitkovetsky Trio, who more than inhabit the scope of Ravel’s expressive language and ambition in his attempt to expand the form’s musical language.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Judging by their passionate performances, this British team clearly feel utterly at home in this repertoire...The hit, undoubtedly, is the premiere recording of Price’s structurally lopsided but endearing A minor Quintet...And the icing on the cake? The Collective’s vigour and warmth.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Approaching the repertoire with a shared musical vision, they produce ravishingly expressive accounts from curtain up to lights down...Harmonia Mundi’s resonant recording and expert balance contribute to a truly outstanding disc.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Choral
Jan Ladislav Dussek: Messe Solemnelle
Stefanie True (soprano), Helen Charlston (mezzo-soprano), Gwilym Bowen (tenor), Morgan Pearse (bass), Choir of the AAM, Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr
'The work is fluent, imaginatively orchestrated with impressive contrapuntal writing…This enjoyable, well recorded rendition, with lovely solo singing, has clear passionate advocacy; notwithstanding the odd rough edge the performance does Dussek’s mass proud.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Bach: Ich habe genug. Cantatas BWV 32, 82 & 106
Joanne Lunn (soprano), Katie Bray (mezzo), Hugo Hymas (tenor), Robert Davies, Matthew Brook (basses), The Dunedin Consort, John Butt
'As with all their releases, John Butt and the Dunedins approach the scores from a scholarly angle (Butt’s approachable notes guide us through various musical and liturgical considerations) but it’s the heart rather than the head that informs their music-making.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The music of Pärt is stitched into the choir’s DNA...The Niguliste’s acoustic is Putniņš’s trump card, further nourishing the choir’s enveloping sonorousness – which he expertly contours to explore Schnittke’s subtlety and ear for choral colour. The billowing sound-surges always husband shape and purpose, and for all its monumentality the first movement is kept on the move.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto
Martinů: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 - Bartók: Sonata for Solo Violin
Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin), Bamberger Symphoniker, Jakub Hruša
'Zimmermann has fully absorbed the slightly eclectic style of [the First Concerto] and produces a performance of conviction, not to mention dazzling virtuosity. Hrůša accompanies with understanding and flexibility.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Plaisirs illuminés: Veress - Ginastera - Coll
Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Sol Gabetta (cello), Camerata Bern, Francisco Coll
'Two threads run through this adventurous disc – the spirit of Béla Bartók and the Camerata Bern’s prowess – but the force of personality at the centre of it all comes from the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Beethoven: Complete Piano Concertos
Krystian Zimerman (piano), London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
'It is appropriate that the peak of Beethoven’s orchestral artistry should be scaled by two musicians also at the height of their powers: these performances are as near-definitive as I ever expect to hear...[Zimerman's] interpretations here have a fleet grace which takes the breath away.'
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental
'Ibragimova imbues each caprice with its own unique musical personality and expressive narrative, with the result that all those thousands of notes emerge with an emotional rather than merely technical imperative...Inimitable, unforgettable and cherishable.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The Toccata BV 29, being a transcription of Bach’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue BWV 564, allows Donohoe’s artistry to flower. The first movement has a majestically cathedral sound, and the Adagio has grave beauty, with the Fugue flying exhilaratingly high.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The first surprise of this album – which you will absolutely want to hear – is the subtlety and intimacy of Levit’s playing…Only a handful of pianists have scaled the heights of Stevenson’s tour de force. Levit does so in unforgettable style.'
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera
Handel: Ariodante (DVD)
Cecilia Bartoli (Ariodante), Kathryn Lewek (Ginevra), Nathan Berg (King of Scotland), Christophe Dumaux (Polinesso), Sandrine Piau (Dalinda), Rolando Villazón (Lurcanio), Kristofer Lundin (Odoardo); Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, Gianluca Capuano, Christof Loy
'This is no routine Ariodante…Bartoli is Bartoli. Those who find her trilling mannered and freighted with excessive vibrato will wrinkle their noses. But who can doubt her remarkable presence on stage…Lewek’s Ginevra gives us a masterclass in Handelian legato.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Handel: Rodelinda
Lucy Crowe (Rodelinda), Iestyn Davies (Bertarido), Joshua Ellicott (Grimoaldo), Brandon Cedel (Garibaldo), Jess Dandy (Eduige), Tim Mead (Unulfo); The English Concert, Harry Bicket
'Bicket’s artistic integrity makes his the definitive Rodelinda. His subtlety pays off especially in slow movements, which are more suspenseful and ravishing than in any previous recording...Crowe’s laments alone make this a must-have recording, but her steely bravura is equally gobsmacking.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Glass: Akhnaten (DVD)
Zachary James (Amenhotep III), Richard Bernstein (Aye), Aaron Blake (High Priest), Will Liverman (General Horemhab), Anthony Roth Constanzo (Akhnaten), Disella Larusdottir (Queen Tye), J'Nai Bridges (Nefertiti); Metropolitan Opera, Karen Kamensek
'Costanzo gives so much to the titular role in Philip Glass’s 1983 work…J’Nai Bridges is a dazzling Nefertiti and Dísella Lárusdóttir epitomises regal restraint.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Orchestral
'The Philadelphia polish helps to highlight one of Price’s most endearing qualities: those kaleidoscopic orchestrations...there’s a special joy in hearing its wind and brass sections caressing the soulful melodies generously strewn through these symphonies from both ends of the 1930s.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'They’re both electrifying, and they sound absolutely magnificent...Pappano makes sure [the Fourth] sings as often as it can...The opening bars of this Sixth, a cry of anguish that’s also passionate bel canto song, promise the very best recording of the work.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Dutilleux: Le Loup & Other Works
Adam Walker (flute), Juliana Koch (oboe), Jonathan Davies (bassoon) Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
'Wilson seizes on the opportunities to bring out the vivid colours of Dutilleux’s score, with the brass blazing superbly and every rhythm alive with meaning. No less striking is the music’s lyricism, phrased by Wilson with great tenderness.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Vocal
'This is perfect ground for Lindsey and Cohen, both extremely accomplished and transformative performers of Baroque music...Her extraordinary vocal evocations are complemented throughout by the subtle and inflected playing of the Arcangelo group.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'There is much here to surprise and delight in this well-recorded issue.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Spyres has a remarkable range and is a consummate vocal chameleon too...What Spyres brings to each role here is a pitch-perfect sense of character as he teaches a familiar lesson, that the voice is always in service of the role – however you choose to categorise it.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Premiere
'It’s an eclectic mix that combines nostalgia with a modern, shuffle-play sense of adventure...Most stirringly passionate, having inspired the series, Mark Simpson’s An Essay of Love sums up its purpose – and the entire project.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Oceano: Chamber Music by Sebastian Fagerlund
Minna Pensola (violin), Atte Kilpeläinen (viola), Tomas Djupsjöbacka (cello), Christoffer Sundqvist (clarinet), Paavali Jumppanen (piano), Hervé Joulain (horn), Meta4
'The Finn’s natural outlet for his tautly robust, driving energy has been in opera and orchestral works. Yet his chamber music is no less compelling…By turns ferociously rhythmic, playful and softly luminous, every piece here shares a coherent dramatic arc.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'There’s no sense of waning powers nor any loss of iconoclastic spirit...it’s a vivid soundworld, performed with postmodern cool by Fischer and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Newcomer
Heart & Hereafter: Collected songs of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Elizabeth Llewellyn (soprano), Simon Lepper (piano)
'She’s a persuasive advocate for this largely unknown repertoire. Llewellyn has extensive operatic experience...and it shows in the Six Sorrow Songs that open the recital...Llewellyn leaves no doubt in turbulent passages that she has power aplenty to reckon with.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Passione is singing in the tradition of De Tommaso’s hero Franco Corelli: stylish and heartfelt, spinning gold out of the simplest of popular Italian songs...He has an unerring instinct for drama and for when to lead and when to lean into the melody.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The Centre is Everywhere
Works by Edmund Finnis et al; Manchester Collective (Bedroom Community, HVALUR38)
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
