Barbara Hannigan tops Grammy classical winners (full list)
mainThe Canadian soprano won classical vocal album last night at the Grammys, for Crazy Girl Crazy.
Other winners include Daniil Trifonov, Pat Kop, Jennifer Higdon (twice) and Gavin Bryars. There’s a first-ever Grammy for the Houston Symphony. And a posthumous Grammy for Leonard Cohen for his last album, which employs a Montreal synagogue choir.
Rest of the best:
Producer of the year: David Frost
Orchestral performance: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio, Manfred Honeck, conductor, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Opera recording: Berg: Wozzeck, Hans Graf, conductor; Anne Schwanewilms, Roman Trekel, soloists; Houston Grand Opera, Houston Symphony.
Choral performance: Bryars: The Fifth Century, Donald Nally, conductor
Chamber music/small ensemble performance: Death & The Maiden, Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Instrumental solo: Transcendental, Daniil Trifonov
Compendium: Higdon: All Things Majestic, Viola Concerto & Oboe Concerto,” Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Nashville Symphony
Contemporary composition: Viola Concerto, Jennifer Higdon, composer
Engineered album: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio, Mark Donahue, engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
Wow they hand out Grammys these days like charity. For example, Hannigan’s short timed album which contains that coital and absurd Berio piece and the awful Gershwin rearrangement. The Berg piece is fine but worth a Grammy? Then the opera award to a recording containing the voiceless Schwanewilms. Puzzling.
Look to be honest, Barbara Hannigan is a brilliant artist when in her element but she really should stick with the avant-garde stuff.
Last year it was Shostakovich 5 (Boston), this year it was Shostakovich 5 (Pittsburg). I didn’t realize so much could be said in Shostakovich 5.
I listened to HIgdon’s pieces. It’s very snappy and easy on the ear. Like Bruno Mars.
I saw an interview with Higdon once where she was asked what the differences were between pop and classical. She gave a long rambling answer and basically admitted she didn’t know. This person is teaching at Curtis.
So what she should have said was?:
George, you’re full of it. I absolutely know the difference between pop and classical. Having grown up around pop music, but now working full time in classical (and extremely busy), I do know the differences.
+1
Then tell us
Right, because teaching random anonymous people on the internet about the differences between pop and classical music is her job.
I’ll just leave this thread here…
https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/7tp92u/the_grammys_are_a_joke/
Can it be that the ghastly Trump’s ‘America First’ is also holding sway here? Europeans also make great recordings…
FYI, Hannigan is Canadian and her album was recorded in Holland, with a dutch orchestra and team.
Jeez, what else can you blame the guy for!?
Something to be aware of: relatively few people vote in the classical categories of the Grammys. I remember reading that back in the 1980’s, somebody connected with the Atlanta Symphony realized that all the musicians involved in any recording were eligible to vote. The ASO had been making good but relatively unheralded recordings. They got the orchestra members registered, and voilá! — the Atlanta Symphony began winning grammys on a regular basis. I wouldn’t imagine that much has changed over the years.
Still preferable to Australia Bruce, where classical music has been extracted from the maingame (Aria) awards, and now happily shares a place alongside Jazz in their own little ghetto, they call it the ‘Art Music’ awards.
A whole sector of the art-form cheerfully giving itself awards without any annoying accountability to audiences or the public at large.
Sounds like a fishy story. Do you have anything to back that up? Now, to vote you have to have at least 6 credits on a commercial record. Usually, orchestral musician are uncredited.
I’m sure ‘credited’ is interpreted by the academy as ‘having played on’ that number of commercial releases. The Wrecking Crew played on any number of major recordings without being credited, I can’t imagine they would have excluded musicians of that calibre just because their names are not on the sleeve.
I have no proof. It’s just something I vaguely remember reading somewhere years ago.
I remember the controversy, too. If you google “Controversy Again Casts Cloud Over Grammy Awards Program ” you will find a newspaper article from 1986 that touches on the Atlanta Symphony and block voting. Not a lot of detail, though.
The fact that Atlanta Symphony was winning Grammys for most of their recordings in 1970s and 1980s is more than enough of a proof.
The Atlanta Symphony has more Grammys than the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics combined.
The awards garnered by the ASO are largely attributable to the involvement of the ASO chorus and the quality of Telarc’s recordings. I don’t believe they have created the definitive account of any mainstream repertoire.
Precisely: adding chorus to recordings certainly ensures more votes.
The whole “Grammy” was a shame. All my friends and I agree that we will not watch it again. It is politics all over. Only Bono and Elton John performing were worth our time. Two dresses were worth seeing there. That was all there was. A real star’s album,Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s album, lauded online, beforehand, was not even mentioned. Shame, big-time shame!
Canada has Juno awards, France has Grand Prix du Disque. Foreign artists should NOT be eligible for Grammys except in an international category. Like so many other opportunities, it is unfair to Americans. But most of the Grammy winners are questionable, like always. And all it takes to be a nominee is money and connections.
Recording awards are often very nationalistic. Look at Gramophone’s awards – they’re full of British performers doing Elgar and Vaughan Williams. The Canadian Junos inevitably have a Glenn Gould reissue. The French ones usually give a prize to one of the Capucon brothers or perhaps Aimard.
I do think the classical Grammys are conducted with some integrity – or at least more than the pop Grammys, which mostly celebrate commercial dreck.
It is a small wonder that a pop Grammy was not advertised as such. “Pop Grammy”? All in all, this Grammy transmission was lauded as “Grammy” period, to be aired at a certain time on a certain day and month. No mention of classical or pop. And it was a highly, politically charged show. Not an art show. Disgusting!