BBC Music Magazine announces Nominated Recordings for 2019 Awards

17 January 2019 - Press release

The shortlists for the 14th annual BBC Music Magazine Awards, the only classical music awards in which the main categories are voted for by the public, have been announced.

A jury of expert critics from BBC Music Magazine selected the 21 nominees, which are spread across seven categories. The nominees were drawn from over 150 recordings that received five-star reviews in 2018 in BBC Music Magazine, the world’s best-selling classical music monthly. The public vote is now open at www.classical-music.com/awards , the BBC Music Magazine website.

There are seven categories open to the public vote: Orchestral, Concerto, Opera, Choral, Vocal, Chamber and Instrumental. Audio excerpts of all the nominated discs can be listened to on the voting site.

Once again, the BBC Music Magazine Awards shine the spotlight on a wonderful mix of familiar works and new discoveries. Among the former are stunning new recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony by MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis, and Mahler’s First Symphony by theDüsseldorf Symphony Orchestra and Adám Fischer, both of which are nominated in the Orchestra category. The latter, meanwhile, includes Michael Collins ’s recordings of Crusell’s sparkling Clarinet Concertos in the Concerto category; the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge’s disc of choral works by 25-year-old composer Owain Park in the Choral category; and, also in the Choral category, Parle Qui Veut, a recording of ‘Moralizing Songs of the Middle Ages’ by Sollazzo Ensemble.

This year, two composers have nominations in two different categories. Debussy, the centenary of whose death was marked by a number of excellent discs in 2018, is represented in the Instrumental category by Alexander Melnikov and Olga Pashchenko’s recordings of the Etudes, Book 2 and the composer’s own two-piano arrangement of La mer; and, in the Chamber category, by recordings of his late works from an array of leading musicians from the Harmonia Mundi label, including violinist Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras. John Adams, who is very much alive and well, appears in the Orchestral category courtesy of conductor Peter Oundjian and theRoyal Scottish National Orchestra’s recording of his Naïve and Sentimental Music and Absolute Jest. He is also in the Opera category, in which he himself conducts his thrilling Doctor Atomic.

Nominated in the Instrumental category for the second year running, meanwhile, is Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe, whose SoftLOUD disc of works played on acoustic and electric guitar follows 2017’s successful debut album, Dreams and Fancies. Previous BBC Music Magazine Award winners making another appearance in the nominations include conductor Sir Mark Elder, who conducts Rossini’sSemiramide in the Opera category, and conductor Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, whose A Rose Magnificat album of British choral works is in the Choral category.

Oliver Condy , editor of BBC Music Magazine, says: ‘Drawing up the shortlist for our Awards has been, like every year, a huge challenge – the quality of recordings in all genres throughout 2018 was remarkably high. But now the power is in the hands of the music-loving public, and I’m excited to find out who they choose as the ultimate winners!’

The winners of the Awards will be announced at a ceremony on 10 April at Kings Place, London. In addition to the public awards, there are four jury awards: Premiere Recording, Newcomer of the Year, DVD of the Year and Recording of the Year.

BBC Music Magazine Awards 2018 nominations

Orchestral

Tchaikovsky

Symphony No. 6

MusicAeterna/Teodor Currentzis

Sony 88985404352

John Adams

Naïve and Sentimental Music; Absolute Jest

Doric String Quartet; Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Peter Oundjian

Chandos CHSA 5199

Mahler

Symphony No. 1

Düsseldorf Symphony/Adam Fischer

Avi AVI8553390

Concerto

Bartók

Violin Concertos Nos 1 and 2

Christian Tetzlaff (violin); Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hannu Lintu

Ondine ODE13172

Rachmaninov

Piano Concertos Nos 2 and 4; Suite for JS Bach’s Partita

Daniil Trifonov (piano); Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Deutsche Grammophon 483 5335

Crusell

Clarinet Concertos, Op. 1, Op. 11, Grand Concerto, Op. 5, Introduction et air suédois, Op. 12

Michael Collins (soloist/conductor); Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Chandos CHSA 5187

Opera

Handel

Acis and Galatea

Lucy Crowe, Allan Clayton, Benjamin Hulett, Neal Davies, Jeremy Budd; Early Opera Company/Christian Curnyn

Chandos CHSA 0404(2)

John Adams

Doctor Atomic

Gerald Finley, Brindley Sherratt, Andrew Staples, Julia Bullock, Jennifer Johnston, Aubery Allicock, Marcus Farnsworth, Samuel Sakker; BBC Singers/Matthew Morley; BBC Symphony Orchestra/John Adams

Nonesuch 7559-79310-7

Rossini

Semiramide

Albina Shagimuratova, Daniela Barcellona, Mirco Palazzi, Barry Banks, Gianluca Buratto, Susana Gaspar, David Butt Philip, James Platt; Opera Rara Chorus/Mandeleine Venner, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenmnet/Sir Mark Elder

Opera Rara

Vocal

Mirages

Works by Messager, Debussy, Delibes, Delage, Stravinsky, Thomas, Berlioz, Massenet and Koechlin

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano); Les Siècles/Francois-Xavier Roth; Alexandre Tharaud (piano); Jodie Devos (soprano), Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano)

Erato 0190295767723

Schumann

Liederkreis, Op. 39; Lieder und Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister, Op. 98a

Mahler

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

Florian Boesch (baritone), Malcolm Martineau (piano)

Linn CKD 511

Enfers

Works by Rameau, Rebel and Gluck

Stéphane Degout (bass-baritone); Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon

Harmonia Mundi HMM 902288

Choral

Owain Park

Choral works

The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge/Stephen Layton

Hyperion CDA 68191

Parle Qui Veut

Moralizing Songs of the Middle Ages

Sollazzo Ensemble

Linn CKD 529

A Rose Magnificat

Works by Leighton, Tallis, Warlock, White, MacMillan, Sheppard, Park, Wylkynson, Howells, Lane and Martin

Gabrieli Consort/Paul McCreesh

Signum SIGCD 536

Chamber

Bacewicz

Piano Quintets Nos 1 and 2; Quartet for Four Violins; Quartet for Four Cellos

Silesian Quartet; Wojciech Switala (piano); Polish Cello Quartet; Krzystof Lason (violin), Malgorzata Wasiucionek (violin)

Chandos CHAN 10976

Deux

Works by Bartók, Poulenc, Ravel and Dohnanyi

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Polina Leschenko (piano)

Alpha ALPHA 387

Debussy

The Late Works

Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Javier Perianes (piano), Xavier de Maistre (harp), Antoine Tamestit (viola), Magali Mosnier (flute), Tanguy de Williencourt (piano)

Harmonia Mundi HMM 902303

Instrumental

JS Bach

Works by JS Bach; transcriptions of Bach by Wilhelm Kempff, August Stradal, Ferrucio busoni, Vikingur Olafsson, Sergei Rachmaninov and Alexander Siloti

Vikingur Olafsson (piano)

Deutsche Grammophon 483 5022

SoftLOUD

Works by Oswald, MacMillan, Reich, Wolfe, Lang; arrangements from Scottish Lute Manuscripts

Sean Shibe (guitar)

Delphian DCD 34213

Debussy

Préludes, Book 2; La mer (transcr. Debussy)

Alexander Melnikov (piano); Olga Paschchenko (piano)

Harmonia Mundi HMM 902302

For further details contact: Emma Cooney emma.cooney@immediate.co.uk

This year’s jury members are:

Claire Jackson critic, writer, editor

Steph Power critic, composer, editor, Wales Art Review

Anthony Pryer Reader in Music, Goldsmiths, University of London

Paul Riley critic, journalist

Michael Beek, reviews editor, BBC Music Magazine

Oliver Condy, editor, BBC Music Magazine

Rebecca Franks, chair of awards jury; managing editor, BBC Music Magazine

Andrew McGregor, presenter BBC Radio 3’s Record Review