Awards, Gramophone Awards 2017 - Recording of the Year

The Presto editorial team are currently over at 8 Northumberland Avenue for the annual Gramophone Awards, where this year's special awards and of course the coveted Recording of the Year prize have just been announced…

The overall category-winners (which were revealed on 1st September) are listed below, and you can also browse through the complete shortlist of finalists here.

Recording of the Year

Artist of the Year - Vasily Petrenko

The principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is already something of a Gramophone Awards veteran - after scooping the Orchestral Award in 2009 and 2011 for his Liverpool recordings of Tchaikovsky's Manfred and Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, he featured twice in this year's nominations (his Tchaikovsky and Lalo with violinist Augustin Hadelich was shortlisted for the Concerto Award, and the second instalment of his Tchaikovsky Symphonies cycle was a finalist in the Orchestral category). You can read Katherine's interview with him about the latter recording here.

Browse the full list of his currently available recordings here.

Lifetime Achievement Award - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa

The New Zealand-born lyric soprano won Artist of the Year at the 1982 Awards (the same year in which she was made a Dame), following a decade of outstanding performances and recordings of Mozart and Strauss roles in particular. It was as Strauss's Marschallin that she made her final operatic appearance in 2009 (though her cameo role in the Royal Opera House's Fille du Regiment in 2014 took the Presto team's breath away!); recent years have seen her focusing on nurturing emerging talent through the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation, the Solti Foundation and her close association with BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, and this morning she formally announced her retirement from public performance.

Browse the full list of her currently available recordings here.

Young Artist of the Year - Beatrice Rana

The 24 year old Italian pianist first came to international prominence in 2013, when she won the Silver Medal and the Audience Prize in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Two years later, she signed to Warner Classics, making her debut on the label with Antonio Pappano and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky Concertos which prompted Gramophone to declare 'Rana is fierce! And not only as a pianist but as a fully developed artist of a stature that belies her tender years'. More recently, her recording of the Goldberg Variations was described as ‘emotionally multi-faceted’ (Gramophone), ‘vividly characterised’ (BBC Music Magazine) and ‘supremely intelligent’ (Sunday Times).

Label of the Year - Signum Classics

The Label of the Year accolade is a surprise twentieth-birthday present for Signum, a privately-owned boutique label with special interests in choral and contemporary repertoire; now numbering over 500 recordings, their catalogue includes the celebrated Winged Lion series (featuring Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort), the complete works of Thomas Tallis with Chapelle du Roi and numerous acclaimed recordings from artists such as Tenebrae, The King's Singers, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Classical Opera Company. Highlights this year have included Jonathan Dove's new song-cycle In Damascus, a Shostakovich series with Peter Donohoe, Chineke!'s debut recording of Dvorak and Sibelius, and Paul McCreesh's super-sized take on Haydn's The Seasons, which was nominated for the Choral Award.

You can browse the complete Signum catalogue here.

Special Achievement - Colin Matthews for NMC

The British composer Colin Matthews founded NMC Recordings in 1989 to bring contemporary classical music to a wider audience - the label grew out of his work with The Holst Foundation (which he set up in 1984 with Gustav Holst's daughter Imogen), and now runs to almost 300 releases, including a huge number of world premiere recordings. Much of Matthews's own music has appeared on the label, including his Violin Concerto (released last year and praised as 'lyrically rewarding and memorably orchestrated' by Record Review), the song-cycle The Great Journey, and his orchestration of Britten's Les illuminations. In 2009 The NMC Songbook won Best Contemporary CD at the Gramophone Awards, and in 2015 the label was awarded the RPS Leslie Boosey Award for its outstanding contribution to the furthering of contemporary music in Britain.

Browse all available recordings of Colin Matthews's music here.

Anniversary Award - Classic FM

At 6AM on 7th September 1992, the UK’s first national commercial radio station made its debut on air (the first work broadcast was Handel's Zadok The Priest, which has since become a regular fixture in their annual Hall of Fame); Classic FM now attracts over 5 million listeners each week, thanks to their mission to 'make classical music a relevant part of the modern lifestyle'. Other accolades have included UK Radio Brand Of The Year at the Sony Awards in 2013, Station of the Year at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards in 2011, and a gold award from the Sony Radio Academy for an 'outstanding contribution to British radio over the past two decades'. As well as their focus on popular core repertoire, the station are also committed to supporting accessible contemporary classical music, with previous composers in residence including Joby Talbot, Patrick Hawes and Howard Goodall.

You can browse all our currently available Classic FM recordings here.

Category Winners

Baroque Instrumental

Baroque Vocal

Chamber

Choral

Concerto

Contemporary

Early Music

Instrumental

Opera

Orchestral

Recital

Solo Vocal