Gramophone Announces 2021 Award Winners 

There are 11 main categories alongside special awards, with winners including violinists Alina Ibragimova and James Ehnes

 

This year’s Gramophone Classical Music Awards ceremony was held on October 5, 2021, presenting prizes to 11 recordings and eight special awards. 

The award ceremony, streamed by 330,000 households worldwide, was hosted by Gramophone’s Editor-in-Chief James Jolly and pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, from London’s VOCES8 Centre.

This year, the only award decided on by the public was the Orchestra of the Year award. The event also introduced an inaugural Spatial Music Award.

“Even though live music has been absent from so many of our lives over the past 18 months, recorded music has continued to provide us with solace, escape and joy, and the 2021 Gramophone Classical Music Awards celebrate the amazing quality and richness of 11 albums that have caught our attention,” said James Jolly.  

 

The category award winners are:

 

Chamber:

Beach & Elgar: Piano Quintets (Hyperion)

Takács Quartet; Garrick Ohlsson

 

Choral:

Dussek: Messe solemnelle (AAM Records)

AAM & Choir / Richard Egarr 

 

Concerto:

Shostakovich: Violin Concertos (Hyperion)

Alina Ibragimova (violin); State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, “Evgeny Svetlanov” / Vladimir Jurowski 

 

Contemporary:

Pickard: The Gardener of Aleppo and other chamber works (BIS)

Susan Bickley, Nash Ensemble / Martyn Brabbins

 

Early Music:

Josquin: Masses – D’ung aultre amer; Faysant regretz; Hercules Dux Ferrarie (Gimell)

The Tallis Scholars / Peter Phillips 

 

Instrumental:

JS Bach: Lute Suites (Delphian)

Sean Shibe 

 

Opera and Recording of The Year:

Britten: Peter Grimes (Chandos)

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choirs / Edward Gardner; Stuart Skelton, Erin Wall, Roderick Williams, Susan Bickley, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Robert Murray, James Gilchrist and Marcus Farnsworth

 

Orchestral:

Franz Schmidt: The Complete Symphonies (Deutsche Grammophon)

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra / Paavo Järvi

 

Piano:

JS Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2 - Excerpts (Warner Classics)

Piotr Anderszewski 

 

Voice & Ensemble:

Verdi Opera Arias (Sony Classical)

Ludovic Tézier; Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna / Frédéric Chaslin 

 

Song:

“El Nour” (Warner Classics)

Fatma Said, Malcolm Martineau, Rafael Aguirre, Burcu Karadağ, Tim Allhoff, Itamar Doari, Henning Sieverts, Tamer Pinarbasi, and Vision String Quartet

 

Special award winners are:

Artist of the Year – Violinist James Ehnes

Label of the Year - Deutsche Grammophon

Lifetime Achievement – Soprano Gundula Janowitz

Young Artist of the Year – Soprano Fatma Said

Orchestra of the Year – Minnesota Orchestra

Special Achievement – Boston Modern Orchestra Project

Spatial Audio – Stile Antico, The Golden Renaissance: Josquin Des Prez (Decca Classics)

Concept Album – Christian-Pierre La Marca, Cello 360 (Naïve)

 

The recorded award ceremony featured performances by winners including Egyptian soprano Fatma Said, violinist Alina Ibragimova, guitarist Sean Shibe, and pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason.

You can watch the award ceremony below: