The winners will be revealed on Wednesday 2nd October, when details of special prizes including the Lifetime Achievement Award and Recording of the Year will also be unveiled. Until 6th November, we're offering discounts of up to 20% off all of the titles in the running...
Chamber
Mendelssohn
Sol Gabetta (cello), Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
'We’re privileged with a fine tribute not only to Mendelssohn and those inspired by his example, but to two exceptional players on top form.'
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Schumann: Piano Quartet & Piano Quintet
Isabelle Faust (violin), Anne-Katharina Schreiber (violin), Antoine Tamestit (viola), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Alexander Melnikov (piano)
'They meld their ensemble seamlessly and attend to minute details of phrasing and dynamics without losing sight of the shape of each movement.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
A Lionel Tertis Celebration
Timothy Ridout (viola), Frank Dupree (piano), James Baillieu (piano)
'All told, it’s a most rewarding programme that gathers together an unusual array of ear-catching pieces in performances that present the music in its best possible light.'
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Choral
Delius: A Mass of Life
Roderick Williams (baritone), Gemma Summerfield (soprano), Claudia Huckle (contralto), Bror Magnus Tødenes (tenor); Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edvard Grieg Kor, Collegium Musicum Choir, Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Sir Mark Elder
'Elder steers a commendably purposeful course through Delius’s giant canvas, elucidating both its frequently dense textures and its adventurous chromatic harmonies with penetrating skill.'
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
Nicky Spence (Gerontius), Anna Stéphany (The Angel), Andrew Foster-Williams (The Priest/Angel of the Agony), Polish National Youth Choir, Gabrieli, Paul McCreesh
'Even if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Elgarian with special loyalties to a particular interpretation, this CD is brimful of edifying delights and surprises worthy of repeated listening.'
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Parry: Scenes from Shelley's 'Prometheus Unbound'
Sarah Fox (soprano), Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo), David Butt Philip (tenor), Neal Davies (baritone), Crouch End Festival Chorus, London Mozart Players, William Vann
'Worthy and welcome as earlier recordings are, they pale in energy, in precision and conviction beside the performances here.'
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Concerto
Bacewicz: Concertos for 1 & 2 Pianos, Overture & Music for Strings, Trumpets & Percussion
Peter Jablonski and Elisabeth Brauß (piano), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon
'Bacewicz’s music certainly thrives on its high metabolic rate, its impatience, even, for which this brilliantly executed new album makes no apology.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Britten: Violin Concerto & Chamber Works
Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano), Boris Faust (viola), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Jakub Hrůša
'Faust digs deep and her tone has a visceral immediacy that goes straight to the heart of the music. She is unafraid and unflinching, and vividly unleashes the passion in these pages with mesmeric power, symbiotically partnered by Jakub Hrůša.'
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos & Paganini Rhapsody
Yuja Wang (piano), Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel
'Put it this way: anyone drawing up a canon of the finest recordings of the Rachmaninov concertos would be thought odd if they did not include this latest bid.'
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Contemporary
Unsuk Chin: Orchestral Works
Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle, Myung-Whun Chung, Sakari Oramo
'All six works included here underline what a diligent, imaginative and consistently engaging composer Chin is. Hers is music that deserves the parallel qualities brought to it by this illustrious orchestra.'
Available format: 2 CDs + Blu-ray
Kaija Saariaho: Maan Varjot, Chateau de l'Ame, True Fire, Offrande
Olivier Latry (organ), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Hannu Lintu, Ernest Martínez Izquierdo
'There’s music on this valuable disc that I’ll return to while it reminds me, again, how the organ, her own instrument, could unlock such remarkable thoughts in her.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 16 bit)
Early Music
Josquin: I. Motets & chansons
Cut Circle, Jesse Rodin
'Cut Circle have plenty of revolutionary zeal. But don’t let that put you off: rather than being generalised early-music defamiliarisation, it is joyfully nuanced.'
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Jacob Obrecht: Missa Maria Zart
Cappella Pratensis, Stratton Bull
'This is clearly a well-honed performance, strongest in delicate moments....This new release is a happy marriage of musicality and musicology.'
Available format: SACD
Schütz: Italian Madrigals
Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew
'Les Arts Florissants’ elasticity of expression brings out a particularly lucid evocation of rolling waves and ‘sweet harmony’ in the concluding eight-voice ‘Vasto mar, nel cui seno fan soave armonia’.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Instrumental
JS Bach: The Complete Works For Keyboard, Vol. 8: Köthen, 1717-1723 - For Maria Barbara
Benjamin Alard (harpsichord/clavichord)
'The probity of Alard’s interpretations is bolstered by the intelligence of his programming...It’s the sort of music-making that, its intellectual grasp notwithstanding, clearly emanates from the heart.'
Available formats: 3 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Ysaÿe: Six Sonatas for solo violin Op. 27
Hilary Hahn (violin)
'Hahn’s unique qualities – her rich, pulsing tone, her technical mastery, her unabashed confidence, her imagination and her ability to present the music as freshminted.... – inclines me towards her recording as the finest currently available.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Opera (sponsored by Mascarade Opera)
Louise Bertin: Fausto
Karine Deshayes (Fausto), Karina Gauvin (Margarita), Ante Jerkunica (Mefistofele), Nico Darmanin (Valentino), Marie Gautrot (Catarina); Les Talens Lyriques, Flemish Radio Choir, Christophe Rousset
'The performance is a knockout. Rousset conducts with blazing conviction, admirably sustaining the high emotional pitch without once tipping towards melodrama... It’s a terrific set and a major rediscovery.'
Available formats: 2 CDs + Book, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Janáček: Káťa Kabanová (Blu-ray)
Corinne Winters (Kát’a), Evelyn Herlitzius (Kabanicha), David Butt Philip (Boris), Jaroslav Březina (Tichon), Jarmila Balážová (Varvara), Benjamin Hulett (Váňa), Jens Larsen (Dikój); Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Staatsopernchor, Jakub Hrůša, Barrie Kosky
'Winters is utterly remarkable throughout, words and gestures always telling...Despite Kosky’s occasional idiosyncrasies, this is musically overwhelming. You really do need to hear it.'
Available format: Blu-ray
Wagner: Parsifal
Jonas Kaufmann (Parsifal), Ludovic Tézier (Amfortas), Elina Garanča (Kundry), Georg Zeppenfeld (Gurnemanz), Wolfgang Koch (Klingsor), Stefan Cerny (Titurel); Wiener Staatsoper, Philippe Jordan
'This is not conducting that draws attention to itself by means of extremes of tempo or hyper-refined textures. For a Parsifal to be led so vividly by the personalities on stage makes a welcome change.'
Available formats: 4 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Orchestral (sponsored by Lark Insurance)
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
Sinfonia of London, Sinfonia of London Chorus, John Wilson
'Wilson aims to unite the Apollonian and Dionysian, as perspicacious about matters of sonority and articulation as Roth while operating at higher emotional voltage...No coupling but for my money this is the finest recorded Daphnis for a generation.'
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Smetana: Má Vlast
Czech Philharmonic, Semyon Bychkov
'I think it’s Bychkov’s ability to relate phrasing to sound that is at the heart of his success here. He plainly relishes the orchestra’s natural blend while celebrating the beauty of its soloists.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Vaughan Williams: Job, Old King Cole & The Running Set
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze
'Scrupulously prepared and boasting some superbly coordinated, infectiously dedicated playing from the RLPO, it’s a thoroughly absorbing interpretation [of Job]...Overall, this is unquestionably a very fine achievement.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Piano
Bartók, Janáček, Szymanowski
Piotr Anderszewski (piano)
'The level of detail is apt to leave you speechless. For most pianists, attaining that kind of exactitude requires a Faustian bargain in which the soul of the music (if not of the performer) is sacrificed. Not so here.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Chopin: Études, Opp. 10 & 25
Yunchan Lim (piano)
'His Chopin is as flexible and feather-light as it is fluent and fiery, as compelling in its sense of structure as in its relishing of detail. The whole experience radiates joyful, youthful exuberance.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Liszt: Transcendental Études - Live from The Cliburn
Yunchan Lim (piano)
'This is certainly one of the finest and most compelling performances of the Transcendental Études I have ever heard. Gold Medal, yes, and other awards to follow, I suspect and hope.'
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
Song
Louis Beydts: Mélodies & Songs
Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Tristan Raës (piano)
'Another superb disc, in short, from a singer and pianist who always seem to think and feel as one. Its rediscoveries may prove significant, too.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin
Konstantin Krimmel (baritone), Daniel Heide (piano)
'There’s certainly no shortage of outstanding recordings of this cycle but this new one – considered, refined and beautifully sung, played and recorded – is among the most satisfying and quietly moving to come my way for a long time.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
but I like to sing...
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)
'It’s a portrait of an artist who has shown us many faces on those 100 discs but whose voice remains a constant: sweet, flexible, alive to the text. And always intelligent.'
Available format: SACD
Voice & Ensemble
The Great Puccini
Jonathan Tetelman (tenor), PKF - Prague Philharmonia, Carlo Rizzi
'What a sound! Tetelman’s tenor possesses gleaming brightness, and his open vowels and excellent Italian diction make him the sunniest-sounding tenor since Luciano Pavarotti.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
In The Shadows
Michael Spyres (baritenor), Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset
'There’s plenty of vocal heroics from Spyres, as one would expect...this is another fine, fascinating album from an unusually interesting and intelligent artist, handsomely recorded.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Paysage
Véronique Gens (soprano), Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Hervé Niquet
'Her soprano is in remarkably good shape, supple and elegant, her diction exemplary and her phrasing exquisite, deftly capturing the mood of each song.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
