Shortlist announced for Gramophone Awards 2017, the 40th anniversary of this prestigious event

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Category winners from this shortlist will be announced September 1 in advance of glittering ceremony in London on September 13, when the special awards are revealed

#GramoAwards
Gramophone.co.uk

 

Gramophone today announced the top three recordings in the 12 main categories for its prestigious and influential annual Gramophone Classical Music Awards. The Gramophone Classical Music Awards – given this year in association with the Pan-Armenian Symphony Orchestra, Qobuz, Naim Audio and the BPI – celebrate the most outstanding recordings of the past year and mark their 40th anniversary in 2017 with a glittering ceremony in, for the first time, the stunning venue of 8 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2. Live music will once again take centre-stage as the Awards play host to the newly-formed Pan-Armenian Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sergey Smbatyan and there will be performances from winners, past and present, representing the very best in the classical music world.

For the second year running, the awards are streamed live by medici.tv, so tens of thousands of people around the world can enjoy the event. The stream, from 6.30pm (GMT), is sponsored this year by E. Gutzwiller & Cie, Banquiers and IMG Artists.

Joyce DiDonato’s ‘In War and Peace’ album faces competition from Anna Prohaska’s ‘Serpent and Fire’ and Anett Frisch’s ‘Mozart: Arias’ in the Recital category, while Matthias Goerne, Florian Boesch and Benjamin Appl compete for the Solo Vocal prize. The Instrumental category sees a trio of pianists contend for the award, with Murray Perahia facing competition from young pianists Beatrice Rana and Daniil Trifonov. Lisa Batiashvili’s recording of Sibelius and Tchaikovsky violin concertos with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin is one of the Concerto contenders in a high-calibre shortlist which also includes the pianist Danny Driver and the violinist Isabelle Faust. The Baroque Vocal category sees two Bach recordings up against Monteverdi, with Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Iestyn Davies and Arcangelo’s recording of Bach cantatas and Les Arts Florissants’ Monteverdi madrigals disc all vying for the award.

The full list of nominees for all categories – Baroque Instrumental, Baroque Vocal, Chamber, Choral, Contemporary, Early Music, Instrumental, Opera, Orchestral, Recital and Vocal – can be found in Gramophone’s September issue.

The category winners will be unveiled on September 1, but only one of them will go on to win Recording of the Year (sponsored by Qobuz), announced at the ceremony on September 13 alongside other special awards including Young Artist of the Year (supported by Help Musicians UK), Artist of the Year (the only award voted for by the public), the Lifetime Achievement Award (sponsored by Presto Classical), Special Achievement (sponsored by PPL & PRS for Music) and Label of the Year (sponsored by Classical:Next).

James Jolly, Gramophone’s Editor-in-Chief, said:

‘Once again, it’s a very strong year with, as now seems to be the norm, fierce competition in the Instrumental category. For our 40th anniversary we’re delighted to welcome some previous winners back and, after the success of medici.tv’s live stream last year which was watched by some 35,000 people, we’re hoping to reach an even larger international audience.’

The Gramophone Classical Music Awards are presented in association with the Pan-Armenian Symphony Orchestra, Qobuz, Naim and the BPI, with individual awards supported by Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Classical:Next, the European Foundation for Support of Culture, E Gutzwiller & Cie, Banquiers, Help Musicians UK, IDAGIO, the PPL & PRS for Music, Presto Classical, Primephonic, Qobuz and Mrs Joan Jones.

 

For more information, please contact Victoria Bevan or Yasmin Hoy at Albion Media:

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The Gramophone Awards Shortlist

Baroque Instrumental

Florilegium: Telemann: Ihr Völker hört. Concertos (Channel Classics)
Gli Incogniti / Giuliano Carmignola / Amandine Beyer: Vivaldi: Concerti per due violini (Harmonia Mundi)
La Serenissima / Adrian Chandler: ‘The Italian Job’ (Avie)

Baroque Vocal sponsored by Mrs Joan Jones

Iestyn Davies; Arcangelo / Jonathan Cohen: Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (Hyperion)
Les Arts Florissants / Paul Agnew: Monteverdi: Madrigals, Vol 3: Venezia (Harmonia Mundi)
Sir John Eliot Gardiner / Monteverdi Choir; EBS: Bach: St Matthew Passion (SDG)

Chamber sponsored by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute

Danish Quartet: Abrahamsen, Adès, Norgård: String Quartets (ECM)
The Nash Ensemble: Bruch: String Octet. String Quintets (Hyperion)
Silesian Quartet: Bacewicz: Complete String Quartets (Chandos)

Choral sponsored by IDAGIO
Paul McCreesh / Gabrieli Consort & Players: Haydn: The Seasons (Signum)
Hervé Niquet / Le Concert Spirituel: Cherubini, Plantade: Requiems (Alpha)
Masaaki Suzuki / Bach Collegium: Mozart: Mass in C minor (BIS)

Concerto

Lisa Batiashvili; Staatskapelle Berlin / Daniel Barenboim: Sibelius/Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos (DG)
Danny Driver; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Rebecca Miller: Beach, Chaminade, Howells: Piano Concertos (Hyperion)
Isabelle Faust; Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini: Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos 1-5 (Harmonia Mundi)

Contemporary sponsored by Naim Audio

London Symphony Orchestra / Thomas Adès: Adès: Orchestral Works (LSO Live)
Pierre-Laurent Aimard; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / George Benjamin: Benjamin, Ligeti, Murail: Orchestral Works (Neos)
Renaud Capuçon / Various: Dusapin, Mantovani, Rihm: Works for Violin and Orchestra (Erato)

Early Music

The Binchois Consort: ‘Music for the 100 Years War’ (Hyperion)
Cut Circle / Jesse Rodin: Dufay: Les messes à teneur (Musique en Wallonie)
Phantasm: Dowland: Lachrimae or Seven Tears (Linn)

Instrumental

Murray Perahia: Bach: French Suites (DG)
Beatrice Rana: Bach: Goldberg Variations (Warner Classics)
Daniil Trifonov: Liszt: ‘Transcendental’: Etudes d’éxécution transcendante (DG)

Opera sponsored by E. Gutzwiller & Cie, Banquiers

Glyndebourne / Leo Hussain: Britten: Rape of Lucretia (DVD) (Opus Arte)
Hochschule für Musik, Freiburg / François Bollon: Goldmark: Die Königin von Saba (CPO)
Zurich Opera / Fabio Luisi: Berg: Wozzeck (DVD) (Accentus)

Orchestral sponsored by the European Foundation for Support of Culture

Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini: Haydn: Symphonies Nos 12, 60, 70 (Alpha)
Minnesota Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä: Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 3, 6 & 7 (BIS)
Seattle Symphony Orchestra / Thomas Dausgaard: Mahler/Cooke: Symphony No 10 (Seattle SO)

Recital sponsored by Primephonic

Joyce DiDonato with Il Pomo d’Oro / Maxim Emelyanychev: ‘In War and Peace’ (Erato)
Anett Fritsch with Munich Rundfunk / Alessandro de Marchi: Mozart: Arias (Orfeo)
Anna Prohaska with Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini: ‘Serpent and Fire’ (Alpha)

Solo Vocal

Benjamin Appl & James Bailieu: Heimat (Sony Classical)
Florian Boesch & Roger Vignoles: Krenek: Reisebuch aus den österrichischen Alpen (Hyperion)
Matthias Goerne & Christoph Eschenbach: Brahms: Vier ernste Gesänge; Songs Op 32 (Harmonia Mundi)