Right down there at the bottom of the barrel are the classical nominations – after rap, blues, latin, heavy metal, R&B, country, jazz, pop and every other form of popular music imaginable there are a few categories for classical music at the Grammys. Just two awards come after and those are for videos, not audio recordings. Here are the winners for 2011.
Best Classical Album
WINNER
Verdi: Requiem
Riccardo Muti, conductor; Duain Wolfe, chorus master; Christopher Alder,
producer; David Frost, Tom Lazarus & Christopher Willis, engineers/mixers; Silas Brown, mastering engineer (Ildar Abdrazakov, Olga Borodina, Barbara Frittoli & Mario Zeffiri; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Chicago Symphony Chorus)
[CSO Resound]
Best Orchestral Performance
WINNER
Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony; Deus Ex Machina
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor (Terrence Wilson; Nashville Symphony)
[Naxos]
Best Opera Recording
WINNER
Saariaho: L'Amour De Loin
Kent Nagano, conductor; Daniel Belcher, Ekaterina Lekhina & Marie-Ange
Todorovitch; Martin Sauer, producer (Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Rundfunkchor Berlin)
[Harmonia Mundi]
Best Choral Performance
WINNER
Verdi: Requiem
Riccardo Muti, conductor; Duain Wolfe, chorus master (Ildar Abdrazakov, Olga
Borodina, Barbara Frittoli & Mario Zeffiri; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Chicago Symphony Chorus)
[CSO Resound]
Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
WINNER
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 24
Mitsuko Uchida (The Cleveland Orchestra)
[Decca]
Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)
WINNER
Messiaen: Livre Du Saint-Sacrement
Paul Jacobs
[Naxos]
Best Chamber Music Performance
WINNER
Ligeti: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Parker Quartet
[Naxos]
Best Small Ensemble Performance
WINNER
Dinastia Borja
Jordi Savall, conductor; Hespèrion XXI & La Capella Reial De Catalunya (Pascal
Bertin, Daniele Carnovich, Lior Elmalich, Montserrat Figueras, Driss El Maloumi, Marc Mauillon, Lluís Vilamajó & Furio Zanasi; Pascal Bertin, Daniele Carnovich, Josep Piera & Francisco Rojas)
[Alia Vox]
Best Classical Vocal Performance
WINNER
Sacrificium
Cecilia Bartoli (Giovanni Antonini; Il Giardino Armonico)
[Decca]
Best Classical Contemporary Composition
WINNER
Daugherty, Michael: Deus Ex Machina
Michael Daugherty (Giancarlo Guerrero)
Track from: Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony
[Naxos]
Best Classical Crossover Album
WINNER
Tin, Christopher: Calling All Dawns
Lucas Richman, conductor (Sussan Deyhim, Lia, Kaori Omura, Dulce Pontes, Jia
Ruhan, Aoi Tada & Frederica von Stade; Anonymous 4 & Soweto Gospel Choir; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
[Tin Works Publishing]
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
