Awards,
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2022: The Winners!
I'm coming to you direct from Kings Place in London this evening, where winners of this year's BBC Music Magazine Awards ceremony have just been announced. The coveted Recording of the Year Award has gone to Igor Levit for his ‘monumental' accounts of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes & Fugues and Ronald Stevenson's Passacaglia on D.S.C.H on Sony, and the Personality of the Year prize to Scottish tenor Nicky Spence, who was hailed by the jury as 'a true force for good over the last twelve months' thanks to his recent TV outreach project and work in vaccination-centres as well as his numerous achievements on stage and in the studio.
Until 27th June we're offering discounts of up to 20% off all the winners (please note that discounts do not apply to downloads).
Recording of the Year and Instrumental
'The first surprise of this album – which you will absolutely want to hear – is the subtlety and intimacy of Levit’s playing…Only a handful of pianists have scaled the heights of Stevenson’s tour de force. Levit does so in unforgettable style.'
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Chamber
'It’s ravishingly done by the Sitkovetsky Trio, who more than inhabit the scope of Ravel’s expressive language and ambition in his attempt to expand the form’s musical language.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Choral
Bach: Ich habe genug. Cantatas BWV 32, 82 & 106
Joanne Lunn (soprano), Katie Bray (mezzo), Hugo Hymas (tenor), Robert Davies (baritone), Matthew Brook (bass-baritone); The Dunedin Consort, John Butt
'As with all their releases, John Butt and the Dunedins approach the scores from a scholarly angle (Butt’s approachable notes guide us through various musical and liturgical considerations) but it’s the heart rather than the head that informs their music-making.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Concerto
Plaisirs illuminés: Veress - Ginastera - Coll
Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Sol Gabetta (cello), Camerata Bern, Francisco Coll
'Two threads run through this adventurous disc – the spirit of Béla Bartók and the Camerata Bern’s prowess – but the force of personality at the centre of it all comes from the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Opera
Glass: Akhnaten
Zachary James (Amenhotep III), Richard Bernstein (Aye), Aaron Blake (High Priest), Will Liverman (General Horemhab), Anthony Roth Constanzo (Akhnaten), Disella Larusdottir (Queen Tye), J'Nai Bridges (Nefertiti); Metropolitan Opera, Karen Kamensek
'Costanzo gives so much to the titular role in Philip Glass’s 1983 work…J’Nai Bridges is a dazzling Nefertiti and Dísella Lárusdóttir epitomises regal restraint.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Orchestral
Dutilleux: Le Loup
Adam Walker (flute), Juliana Koch (oboe), Jonathan Davies (bassoon) Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
'Wilson seizes on the opportunities to bring out the vivid colours of Dutilleux’s score, with the brass blazing superbly and every rhythm alive with meaning. No less striking is the music’s lyricism, phrased by Wilson with great tenderness.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Vocal
'There is much here to surprise and delight in this well-recorded issue.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Premiere
'It’s an eclectic mix that combines nostalgia with a modern, shuffle-play sense of adventure...Most stirringly passionate, having inspired the series, Mark Simpson’s An Essay of Love sums up its purpose – and the entire project.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Newcomer
'Passione is singing in the tradition of De Tommaso’s hero Franco Corelli: stylish and heartfelt, spinning gold out of the simplest of popular Italian songs...He has an unerring instinct for drama and for when to lead and when to lean into the melody.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Personality of the Year - Nicky Spence
In addition to his visceral performances as Siegmund in English National Opera's The Valkyrie and Laca in Covent Garden's Jenůfa, the past twelve months have seen the Scottish tenor administering COVID vaccines (often serenading his patients in the process!) in South London and appearing as a judge and mentor on Sky Arts' new series Anyone Can Sing. He's been busy in the studio too, with recent and forthcoming recordings including Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge and other works on Hyperion, Barber songs with his new husband Dylan Perez on Resonus, and Schubert's The Fair Maid of the Mill with Christopher Glynn on Signum.
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
