2010 Gramophone Awards - October 1, 2010
Baroque Instrumental
That astounding gamba-player Paolo Pandolfo plays music by Carl Friedrich Abel, a pupil of JS Bach
Abel: The Drexel Manuscript / Pandolfo
Richard Egarr continues his survey of the chamber music of Handel
Handel: Trio Sonatas Op. 2 & 5 / Egarr
Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima give us French-flavoured Vivaldi.
Vivaldi: The French Connection, Various Concertos
Baroque Vocal
A glorious French performance of Bach’s Magnificat
Bach: Magnificat / Ricercar Consort
A real choral discovery in Lotti’s Missa a tre cori (coupled with Zelenka and Bach)
Music by a composer surely due for wider appreciation, Heinrich Schütz, one of the most important musicians of the Baroque era.
Schutz: Weihnachtshistorie, Auferstehungshistorie
Chamber
A searching and very poetic collection of Beethoven’s Sonatas for piano and violin from former Gramophone Young Artist Isabelle Faust with Alexander Melnikov
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas / Faust, Melnikov
Another disc from the excellent Pavel Haas Quartet presenting a trio of rarely heard works by Prokofiev
Prokofiev: String Quartets 1 & 2 / Pavel Haas Quartet
A magnificent trilogy of late Schubert from the Belcea Quartet (also former Gramophone Award winners).
Schubert: String Quintet 'Der Tod und das Madchen
Choral
Frank Martin’s Rembrandt-inspired meditation of the Crucifixion stunningly presented
Frank Martin: Golgotha / Reuss
Two of Vaughan Williams’s finest choral works performed by the Bach Choir
Vaughan Williams: Sancta Civitas and Dona Nobis Pacem
a shattering recording of the Verdi Requiem from Antonio Pappano and his revivified Santa Cecilia forces.
Verdi: Messa Da Requiem / Pappano
Concerto
Three superb soloists: Till Fellner supported with colossal imagination by Kent Nagano gives us Beethoven’s last two piano concertos.
Beethoven: Piano Concertos 4 & 5 / Fellner
Thomas Zehetmair challenges the Brits with a magnificent Elgar Violin Concerto (in the company of Sir Mark Elder) and Freddy Kempf tackles two of Prokofiev’s most challenging piano concertos.
Prokofiev: Piano Concertos / Freddy Kempf
Contemporary
Thomas Adès’s first large-scale opera, superbly cast and performed
Thomas Ades: The Tempest
A collection of recent works by Elliott Carter
Carter: Music Vol. 8, 16 Compositions
A really appealing Violin Concerto from Berlin-based but Korean-born Unsuk Chin (a disc that includes her Rocaná)
Chin: Rocana, Violin Concerto / Nagano
DVD Documentary
The heart-warming and genuinely life-changing El Sistema profiled with its most famous alumnus Gustavo Dudamel
El Sistema - Music to Change Life: Gustavo Dudamel
Bernstein on Bernstein, an intimate and charming profile of a musical colossus
Leonard Bernstein: Reflections
And Pierre Boulez working at his foundation in Lucerne on two of his own works and Debussy’s Jeux – a wonderfully revealing portrait of one of music’s greats.
Pierre Boulez: Inheriting the Future of Music
DVD Performance
Prokofiev’s rarely heard Gambler given a terrific performance supported by Barenboim conducting at white heat
Prokofiev: The Gambler (Barenboim)
Purcell’s Fairy Queen, strongly sung and very engagingly (and funnily) acted
Purcell: The Fairy Queen / Sampson, Christie
Jonas Kaufmann on top form in Lohengrin, stylishly updated to the 1930s and performed with total commitment and conviction.
Wagner: Lohengrin / Kaufmann, Nagano
Early Music
The culmination of The Cardinall’s Musick’s magnificent Byrd series, genuinely great music from the Renaissance incomparably performed
Byrd: Infelix ego, vol. 13 / Cardinall's Musick
Consort music by John Ward played by the multi-Gramophone Award-winning Phantasm
John Ward: Consort Music for Five and Six Viols
Music from the Eton Choirbook sung by the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford with great conviction under Stephen Darlington.
Choir of Christ Church Oxford: Eton Choirbook
Historic Archive
Three great pianists of the last century in performances appearing on disc for the first time: Friedrich Gulda offering a young man’s views of all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas
Beethoven: Die Klaviersonaten / Friedrich Gulda
Emil Gilels on aristocratic form in sonatas by Beethoven and Weber
Emil Gilels: Beethoven and Weber
Sviatoslav Richter on superb form in a challenging performance of Schubert’s C minor Piano Sonata.
Sviatoslav Richter: Recital
Historic Reissue
A fascinating collection of mainly Russian symphonic music conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky – including a truly shattering Shostakovich Ninth Symphony; 30 years worth of recordings from a towering musician – and human being – Pablo Casals
Casals: Complete Published EMI Recordings 1926-55
An amazing (and arm-straining) 70-CD set that contains all of the RCA and CBS recordings of the phenomenal Vladimir Horowitz.
Horowitz: The Complete Original Jacket Collection
Instrumental
A set of piano sonatas well worth exploring and played by one of the piano world’s newest stars
Bowen: The Piano Sonatas / Driver
Another instalment in the series that brought Jean-Efflam Bavouzet an Award last year
Debussy: Piano Works, Vol. 5 / Bavouzet
A jaw-dropping live recital from one of the keyboard tigers of our age, Arcadi Volodos, a pianist who can conjure pure magic from a Steinway!
Volodos in Vienna - Live from Musikverein Wien
Opera
Peter Maxwell Davies’s opera about a composer given a magnificent performance under another fine composer
Maxwell Davies: Taverner
Oliver Knussen; Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin performed with huge commitment by the German forces under Kent Nagano
Saariaho: L'Amour de Loin / Nagano
Sir Mark Elder’s anniversary concert performances of Götterdämmerung captured in magnificent sound – and showcasing an orchestra on top form.
Orchestral
Glorious Mozart from the Scottish CO and the late Sir Charles Mackerras
Mozart: Symphonies Vol. 2 / Mackerras
A magnificent memorial to a great conductor in the full glare of his Indian Summer; or could it be the Dvorák tone-poems for which conducts the Czech Phil
Dvorak: Symphonic Poems / Mackerras
…who also appear on a superb disc of Martinu’s last two symphonies, works of glorious colour and refinement.
Martinu - Symphonies 5 & 6 / Belohlavek, Czech Philharmonic
Recital
One of the newest categories and showcasing three superb singers on top form: Anne Sofie von Otter’s first foray into the French Baroque (and a triumph!)
Anne Sofie von Otter: Ombre de mon amant
Joyce DiDonato slipping into the haute couture creations run up by Rossini
Rossini: Colbran, the Muse / Joyce DiDonato
Jonas Kaufmann, in his native repertoire, demonstrating why he’s the tenor de nos jours.
Kaufmann: Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven / Abbado
Solo Vocal
Two fine German baritones on top form and an English tenor taking them on in Schubert’s Winterreise. Christian Gerhaher brings his customary intensity to Mahler; Matthias Goerne continues his Schubert cycle in the company of a series of illustrious pianists
Schubert: Vol.4, Heliopolis / Goerne
Mark Padmore and Mark Lewis give us Schubert’s last song-cycle with massive intensity and poetry.
Schubert: Winterreise / Padmore, Lewis