Awards,
Gramophone Awards 2022 - The Winners!
After a two-year hiatus from in-person ceremonies for obvious reasons, what a pleasure it is to be over at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London for the annual Gramophone Awards this evening, where this year's special awards and of course the coveted Recording of the Year prize have just been announced...The event will be available to watch on Friday 7th October via Gramophone's YouTube channel as well as through Medici TV - and we hope to have a few informal photos of our own from throughout the evening to share in due course!
Until 14th November we're offering discounts of up to 25% on all of the winning recordings and category finalists
Recording of the Year (and Opera category-winner)
Korngold: Die tote Stadt (DVD)
Jonas Kaufmann (Paul), Marlis Petersen (Marietta), Andrej Filonczyk (Frank/Fritz), Jennifer Johnston (Brigitta); Bayerische Staatsoper, Kirill Petrenko, Simon Stone
'There’s a depth and emotional intelligence to this staging that disarmed my initial resistance...on every level, a glorious achievement.'
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Chamber
'With sound of unsparing immediacy and Merlin’s typically provocative notes, this release testifies to the Ébène’s ambition and, moreover, its attainment.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Choral
JS Bach: Matthäus-Passion
Julian Prégardien (Evangelist), Stéphane Degout (Christus); Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
'With its glowing inner vitality and penetrating observations, this is a Passion that makes a very definite statement about what this work can communicate in our times.'
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto
Beethoven, Berg & Bartók: Violin Concertos
Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin), Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Harding, Kirill Petrenko, Alan Gilbert
'This surely has to be the version of the Berg you go to first, with the Beethoven warranting a recommendation that’s virtually as strong.'
Available Format: 2 CDs + Blu-ray Audio
Contemporary
Hans Abrahamsen: The Snow Queen
Barbara Hannigan (Gerda), Rachael Wilson (Kay), Katarina Dalayman (Grandmother / Old Lady / Finn Woman), Peter Rose (Snow Queen / Reindeer / Clock); Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Cornelius Meister, Andreas Kriegenburg
'Kriegenburg’s production...is not a show for kids, even if Abrahamsen’s opera might be – getting close to Andersen’s genius in recounting big ideas with little tales.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Early Music
'Not only are the performances all on an extremely high level but there are quite a lot of pieces here that you cannot otherwise hear.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Instrumental
'Ehnes’s ‘centrist’ approach keeps your attention focused on the music, leaving you to marvel at his technique only after you’ve stopped listening.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Piano
'If her performance comes across as a breathtakingly extravagant display of intellect and imagination, that’s because this is what Beethoven’s music is.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Orchestral
'Petrenko has a way of hearing deep into textures and harmonies that is at times really quite startling. He gives us X-ray ears.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Song
'Even on disc, without the visuals, you can hear how Grigorian lives and breathes each song...Pianist Lukas Geniušas is an equal partner dramatically.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Voice & Ensemble
'The range of roles is astonishing, but then so are these performances...Spyres really is a tenor – and a baritone, it seems – who has the operatic world at his feet.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concept Album
'Her mezzo voice has incredible range, depth and power at the lower end combined with crystalline clarity up top, with lovely weight, poise and balance.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Young Artist of the Year - Johan Dalene
The 22-year-old Swedish violinist was described by Gramophone as ‘a musician of special sensibilities’ when he made his recording debut on BIS with the Tchaikovsky and Barber concertos in early 2020; his sophomore album Nordic Rhapsody (including works by Sinding , Stenhammar, Sibelius and Rautavaara) also impressed thanks to the ‘palpable maturity, intelligence and composure’ of his playing, and was shortlisted for the Chamber Category at last year’s Awards. This year’s accounts of the Nielsen and Sibelius concertos supplied further evidence of his Midas touch, with Andrew Mellor declaring ‘For my money, there’s no finer coupling of these highly contrasting yet much-associated concertos on record’.
Artist of the Year - Barbara Hannigan
The trailblazing Canadian soprano and conductor was a driving force behind Hans Abrahamsen’s 2019 opera The Snow Queen (winner of this year’s Contemporary Award), which grew out of their collaboration on the Shakespeare-inspired song-cycle let me tell you - itself a Gramophone Award-winner back in 2016. Hannigan’s other recent and forthcoming recordings have included the delightfully eclectic Dance With Me (featuring music by Elgar, Kurt Weill, Glenn Miller and Barry Manilow) with the LUDWIG Orchestra, and Sehnsucht: Live in Rotterdam - recorded in the empty De Doelen concert-hall during lockdown and including Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in a chamber arrangement by the late Reinbert de Leeuw.
Lifetime Achievement Award - Daniel Barenboim
Now entering his ninth decade, the Argentine-born pianist and conductor has had a truly illustrious career not only as a performer but as a tireless advocate for music's role in intercommunal reconciliation. Last night he announced a hiatus from performing, and in particular conducting, in order to focus on his health. Barenboim receives the award in recognition not only of his unparalleled musical achievements, but also of his extensive humanitarian work - including the foundation of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999, which he launched with his friend Edward Said in order to promote understanding and collaboration between young Arab and Israeli musicians.
You can view Daniel Barenboim's full discography as a conductor here and as a pianist here.
Special Achievement Award
Mozart Momentum: 1785
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano), Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Matthew Truscott (violin), Joel Hunter (viola), Frank-Michael Guthmann (cello)
'Socially distanced they may have been but the camaraderie that was so evident in their groundbreaking Beethoven cycle with Leif Ove Andsnes is, if anything, even more apparent here.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mozart Momentum: 1786
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano/director), Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Christiane Karg (soprano), Matthew Truscott (violin), Joel Hunter (viola), Frank-Michael Guthmann (cello)
'Time and again Andsnes had me reaching for the score to confirm things I’d never noticed before...some of the finest Mozart-playing on the planet.'
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Spatial Audio
'What really shines here is the illumination of so many colouristic permutations, sounding for all the world as if Ravel had just in this moment heard them.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Label of the Year - Chandos
Founded by Brian Couzens in 1979, the British label has had a prolific and impressive year indeed, with highlights including music by the Mendelssohn siblings and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor from the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, the final instalment of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s superb series of Haydn piano sonatas, and a veritable deluge of projects from Sinfonia of London and John Wilson (ranging from classic Hollywood film-scores to John Ireland and Ravel).
Orchestra of the Year - Budapest Festival Orchestra
The Hungarian orchestra which Fischer founded in 1983 fought off competitors including the Czech Philharmonic, the Wiener Philharmoniker and Les Siècles to scoop this public-voted prize; highlights from their discography include a multi-award-winning Mahler cycle (released between 2005 and 2020), the complete Brahms symphonies (soon to be released as a boxed set), and music by their compatriots Bartók, Kodály and Liszt.
You can view the Budapest Festival Orchestra's full discography here.
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
