British bastion of classical music publishing, Gramophone, has released the shortlisted recordings to make the 12 main categories in its hotly contested annual Awards. This year will see industry stalwarts up against some relative newbies for the hot spot.
James Jolly, Gramophone’s editor-in-chief, said: ‘It’s always gratifying to see how well our voting process works in singling out the finest musicians of our day, and this year is no exception.
‘Youth sits side by side with age and maturity, new musical relationships are celebrated, but above all it is the sheer of joy of making music and sharing it – so important in this increasingly fractured world – that shines through.’
The top three recordings in each category will be revealed on 17 August, with the list of winners announced online on 22 August.
The flashy Awards ceremony will take place 15 September at St John’s Smith Square, London. Here, one of the 12 category winners will be crowned Gramophone’s Recording of the Year, along with Artist of the Year (voted for by the public), Young Artist of the Year, Lifetime Achievement and Label of the Year.
So who is in the running for 2016?
- Pianists Igor Levit, Stephen Hough, Jonathan Plowright, Bertrand Chamayou and Yevgeny Sudbin face violinist Alina Ibragimova in the final for best Instrumental recording.
- The best category Recital sees Max Emanuel Cencic, Christiane Karg, Jonas Kaufmann, Mariana Flores, Sabine Devieilhe and Sonya Yoncheva, go head to head.
- The Solo Vocal category features big hitters Joyce DiDonato, Werner Güra, Alice Coote, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Rosa Feola and Véronique Gens.
- The batons thrashing it out for the Orchestral category are BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin, Orchestra Mozart, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé.
- The Concerto category will see last year’s winner Maria João Pires face Vilde Frang, Janine Jansen, Christian Tetzlaff, Maxim Rysanov and Daniil Trifonov in the Concerto category.
One name to be seen throughout is Antonio Pappano who, as pianist and conductor, features on five shortlisted recordings in the Concerto, Contemporary, Opera, Solo Vocal and Recital categories.
The full list of nominees for all recording categories – Baroque Instrumental, Baroque Vocal, Chamber, Choral, Concerto, Contemporary, Early Music, Instrumental, Opera, Orchestral, Recital and Vocal – can be found in Gramophone’s digimag, published today.
The Gramophone Classical Music Awards are presented in association with EFG International, with individual awards supported by Classic FM, Qobuz, Help Musicians and Mrs Joan Jones. #GramoAwards
