Just in: The classical Grammy nominations – in full
NewsBest Orchestral Performance
Berlin Philharmonic & John Williams – John Williams: The Berlin Concert
Los Angeles Philharmonic & Gustavo Dudamel – Dvořák: Symphonies Nos. 7-9
New York Youth Symphony – Works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, Valerie Coleman; conductor Michael Repper
Various Artists – Sila: The Breath of the World
Wild Up & Christopher Rountree – Stay on It
Best Opera Recording
Boston Modern Orchestra Project & Odyssey Opera Chorus – Anthony Davis: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & The Metropolitan Opera Chorus – Blanchard: Fire Shut Up in My Bones
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & The Metropolitan Opera Chorus – Eurydice
Best Choral Performance
The Crossing – Born
English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir – J.S. Bach: St. John Passion, BWV 245
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Ailyn Pérez, Michelle DeYoung, Matthew Polenzani & Eric Owens – Verdi’s Requiem: The Met Remembers 9/11
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
Attacca Quartet – Caroline Shaw: Evergreen
Dover Quartet – Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2 – The Middle Quartets
Neave Trio – Musical Remembrances
Publiquartet – What Is American
Third Coast Percussion – Perspectives
Best Classical Instrumental Solo
Daniil Trifonov – Bach: The Art of Life (pictured)
Hilary Hahn – Abels: Isolation Variation
Mak Grgić – A Night in Upper Town – The Music of Zoran Krajacic
Mitsuko Uchida – Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
Time for Three, The Philadelphia Orchestra & Xian Zhang – Letters for the Future
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album
Il Pomo d’Oro – Eden
Nicholas Phan, Brooklyn Rider, The Knights & Eric Jacobsen – Stranger – Works for Tenor by Nico Muhly
Renée Fleming & Yannick Nézet-Séguin – Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene
Sasha Cooke & Kirill Kuzmin – How Do I Find You
Will Liverman, Paul Sánchez & J’Nai Bridges – Shawn E. Okpebholo: Lord, How Come Me Here?
Best Classical Compendium
Christopher Tin, Voces8, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Barnaby Smith – The Lost Birds
Kitt Wakeley – An Adoption Story
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Yannick Nézet-Séguin – A Concert for Ukraine
Seunghee Lee, JP Jofre & London Symphony Orchestra – Aspire
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
Andris Nelsons & Gewandhausorchester – Gubaidulina: The Wrath of God
Carlos Simon, MK Zulu, Marco Pavé & Hub New Music – Simon: Requiem for the Enslaved
Ian Rosenbaum & Dover Quartet – Akiho: Ligneous Suite
Jack Quartet – Bermel: Intonations
Time for Three, The Philadelphia Orchestra & Xian Zhang – Puts: Contact
The Grammys mean nothing. The first three listed for orchestral recordings are all political. I don’t know who nominates these records, but why not that stunning John Wilson recording of the Korngold symphony?
Hold on a second please, there must be a mistake.
Where is Muti? Where is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra?
Muti withdrew his name this year so someone else had an opportunity to win. He is that kind of guy.
A youth symphony is nominated over major classical orchestras?
What a joke!
Hmm I wonder why THAT performance got nominated.
By and large what a somber, gloomy selection. Is that what sells or have the arbiters of the Grammy awards let the woes of the world affect their judgement? What is important here, the music or the technical quality of the recording? One may also ask if more recent composers are incapable of writing joyful and uplifting music, or, for a composer to be considered ‘good’ is to be serious? Where are, for example, our satirists, our Offenbachs and our Gilbert & Sullivans exploring new music in a new way? I suppose you could say that in the world of today there’s not a lot to be happy about.
Ffs, do we really need to now give a Grammy to Florence Price music? It’s bad enough it’s mediocre af, only interesting from historic point. They played it for 2 weeks in LA past 2 weeks, and makes one wonder WHY
Thank you for pointing to the Empress’ new clothes.
I loved John Williams with the Berlin Phil (at least the version I saw on the DCH), and thought it was a great tribute to one of the great composers of our age, but I wouldn’t nominate it for a Grammy.
81. Producer Of The Year, Classical
A Producer’s Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.)
Jonathan Allen
Aspire (Seunghee Lee, JP Jofre, Enrico Fagone & London Symphony Orchestra) (A)
Cooper: Continuum (Jessica Cottis, Adjoah Andoh, Clio Gould & The Oculus Ensemble) (A)
Muse (Sheku Kanneh-Mason & Isata Kanneh-Mason) (A)
Origins (Lucie Horsch) (A)
Saudade (Plinio Fernandes) (A)
Schubert: Winterreise (Benjamin Appl) (A)
Secret Love Letters (Lisa Batiashvili, Yannik Nézet-Séguin & Philadelphia Orchestra) (A)
Song (Sheku Kanneh-Mason) (A)
Christoph Franke
Brahms & Berg: Violin Concertos (Christian Tetzlaff, Robin Ticciati & Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin) (A)
John Williams – The Berlin Concert (John Williams & Berliner Philharmoniker) (A)
Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos (Lars Vogt & Orchestre De Chambre De Paris) (A)
Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas (Elisabeth Leonskaja) (A)
Mozart Y Mambo: Cuban Dances (Sarah Willis, José Antonio Méndez Padrón & Havana Lyceum Orchestra) (A)
James Ginsburg
As We Are (Julian Velasco) (A)
Avant L’Orage – French String Trios (Black Oak Ensemble) (A)
Gems From Armenia (Aznavoorian Duo) (A)
Stephenson: Symphony No. 3, ‘Visions’ (Vladimir Kulenovic & Lake Forest Symphony) (A)
Trios From Contemporary Chicago (Lincoln Trio) (A)
When There Are No Words – Revolutionary Works For Oboe And Piano (Alex Klein & Phillip Bush) (A)
Elaine Martone
Beethoven: The Last Sonatas (Gerardo Teissonnière) (A)
Big Things (Icarus Quartet) (A)
Perspectives (Third Coast Percussion) (A)
Schnittke: Concerto For Piano And Strings; Prokofiev: Symphony No. 2 (Yefim Bronfman, Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra) (A)
Strauss: Three Tone Poems (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra) (A)
Upon Further Reflection (John Wilson) (A)
Judith Sherman
Akiho: Oculus (Various Artists) (A)
Bach, C.P.E.: Sonatas & Rondos (Marc-André Hamelin) (A)
Bolcom: The Complete Rags (Marc-André Hamelin) (A)
Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartets (Takács Quartet) (A)
Huang Ro’s A Dust In Time (Del Sol Quartet) (A)
It Feels Like (Eunbi Kim) (A)
León: Teclas De Mi Piano (Adam Kent) (A)
Violin Odyssey (Itamar Zorman & Ieva Jokubaviciute) (A)
Works By Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, Valerie Coleman (Michael Repper & New York Youth Symphony) (A)
https://www.grammy.com/news/2023-grammy-nominations-complete-winners-nominees-list
80. Best Engineered Album, Classical
An Engineer’s Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.)
Bates: Philharmonia Fantastique – The Making Of The Orchestra
Shawn Murphy, Charlie Post & Gary Rydstrom, engineers; Michael Romanowski, mastering engineer (Edwin Outwater & Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6; Stucky: Silent Spring
Mark Donahue, engineer; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
Perspectives
Jonathan Lackey, Bill Maylone & Dan Nichols, engineers; Joe Lambert, mastering engineer (Third Coast Percussion)
Tuvayhun – Beatitudes For A Wounded World
Morten Lindberg, engineer; Morten Lindberg, mastering engineer (Anita Brevik, Nidarosdomens Jentekor & Trondheimsolistene)
Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes
Bernhard Güttler, Shawn Murphy & Nick Squire, engineers; Christoph Stickel, mastering engineer (Anne-Sophie Mutter, John Williams & Boston Symphony Orchestra)
John Williams is a good composer and there is nothing wrong with approachable music, but there is more to human identity than super heroes and cartoony space odysseys. When both the Berlin and Vienna Phils succumb to this one has to wonder.
You missed his other nomination for his 2nd violin concerto. Quite the irony, that you succumb to reducing him to (his) film music. (which is great music in its own right btw.)
Dudamel’s Dvorak is one of his less impressive release, colour less, passionless… completely useless recording in actual discography…obviously the selection is made more by name than by ear
Yannick got 5 nominations.
Is it a historical record? Well deserved!
How can people who let absolutely no mark in the recording history, so uneventful, who have so little to say, except bringing the worse of their time (politically correct)can be in such proéminent positions in the musical world???.at least the bleak Beethoven cycle isn’t in the list….
I don’t think five nominations in one year is a record, but nominations for five different recordings in one year might be.
Can someone educate me what is going wrong with his nominations? Yannick is decent.
I’m sick to my stomach that Cate Blanchett was ignored for her transcendent performance of Mahler Five on DG.
(Unsolicited movie review: Tár is a watchable movie by the transfixing direction of Todd Field and the transfixing performance of Blanchett, but it’s a 2 1/2 hour movie that is 1 hour too long, and the last 20 minutes is not only not believable, it’s downright silly. But watch Blanchett channel Bernstein and Mirga, she clearly studied both and does a spot-on imitation of Mirga on the podium.)
I don’t know how many of you all know this, but there’s a phenomenon here in the States of some people coming out of that movie not knowing or realizing that Lydia Tár is not a real person.
See this article, which got a good deal of mockery on one of New York magazine’s verticals: https://www.thecut.com/2022/10/lydia-tar-is-not-real.html
Among the mockery is this trolling response by another of New York magazine’s verticals: https://www.vulture.com/2022/11/who-is-lydia-tar-cate-blanchett-biopic-explained.html
So many recordings we can live without.
It would never have occurred to me to classify “Sila: The Breath of the World” as an orchestral performance.
Under Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, shouldn’t “Il Pomo d’Oro – Eden” mention the vocal soloist, Joyce Di Donato?
Perhaps in reality the nomination is motivated by the name of the ensemble, “The Tomato”.
Those spaces between words make all the difference.
How on earth did people (like the ancient Greeks) ever make sense of a text before they invented spaces between words?
You always had a humorous side, Norman, but this time you have surpassed yourself.
Lol. I don’t think the word “best” can be applied to the vast majority of these recordings. “Mediocre” would be better.
I’m happy to see Neave Trio – “Musical Remembrances” nominated. I stream it often.
Tell me you are lazy without saying lazy… They always find some Grammy darlings and nominate them over and over, no matter what they do… We know classical music nominations are there out of habit and tradition but at least have some people that actually listen new releases and have some up-to-date opinions about classical music scene.
Who cares about the Classical Grammy nominations? They have been a joke for decades. Comment away as long as you understand that the nominations are made by people who understand nothing about classical music, and even if they did, the awards are not chosen based on any aspects of musical merit.