The 54th annual Grammy Awards were presented in Los Angeles and the winners were a mix of favorites and surprises. There was some major restructuring at the Grammys this year and some categories (like Best Classical Album) were discontinued, but remaining categories were hotly contested and featured music’s best. Independent and major classical music labels pretty much split the awards with recordings of new music figuring prominently in the final judging.
The winners of the 54th annual Grammy Awards:
Robert Aldridge’s opera Elmer Gantry was a big winner taking home Grammys for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Engineered Classical Album.
Some short-money favorites won. Mezzo-soprano Joyce Di Donato can place a Best Classical Vocal Solo Grammy on her mantel for her Diva Divo album, and classical music's darling Gustavo Dudamel earned a Best Orchestral Performance Grammy for his recording with the Los Angeles Philharmonic of the Brahms Fourth Symphony.
Music by living composers enjoyed lots of the spotlight. The Eric Whitacre Singers won the Best Choral Performance Grammy for their album Light and Gold, and it was most encouraging that four of the five nominated albums in the category featured music by 20th and 21st century composers.
New music won the day in two other categories. Lonely Motel – Music from Slide, the brilliant song cycle by Steven Mackey featuring Eighth Blackbird, snatched the Grammy for Best Small Ensemble Performance. The Nashville Symphony’s superb recording of Joseph Schwantner’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra was honored with the Best Classical Instrumental Solo Grammy. DVD recordings dominated the Best Opera category, and it was John Adams’ provocative Dr. Atomic that brought home the prize.
Here's the list of nominees and our choices:
Best Engineered Album, Classical
Winner: Aldridge: Elmer Gantry (Naxos)
Glazunov: Complete Concertos (Warner Classics)
Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music from Slide (Cedille)
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 (EMI Classics)
Weinberg: Symphony No. 3 (Chandos)
Ariama choice: Weinberg Symphony No. 3
Best Orchestral Performance
Winner: Brahms Symphony No. 4 (DG)
Bowen: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (Chandos)
Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 104, 88 & 101 (Philharmonia Baroque)
Henze: Symphonies Nos. 3 - 5 (Wergo)
Martinu: The Six Symphonies (Onyx)
Ariama choice: Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 104, 88 & 101
Best Opera Recording
Winner: Adams: Dr. Atomic (Sony Classical DVD)
Britten: Billy Budd (Opus Arte DVD)
Rautavaara: Kaivos (Ondine)
Verdi: La Traviata (Opus Arte DVD)
Vivaldi: Ercole (Virgin Classics)
Ariama choice: Britten: Billy Budd
Best Choral Performance
Winner: Whitacre: Light and Gold (Decca)
Beyond All Mortal Dreams (Hyperion)
Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem (Seraphic Fire Media, self-produced)
Kind (2L)
Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: The Natural World of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (Dacapo)
Ariama choice: Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: The Natural World of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen
Best Small Ensemble Performance
Winner: Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music from Slide (Cedille)
Frank: Hilos (Naxos)
The Kingdoms of Castile (Sono Luminus)
A Seraphic Fire Christmas (Seraphic Fire Media, self-produced)
Sound the Bells! (Harmonia Mundi)
Ariama choice: Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music from Slide (Cedille)
Best Classical Instrumental Solo
Winner: Schwantner: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (Naxos)
Chinese Recorder Concertos - East Meets West (OUR Recordings)
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 (DG)
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 (EMI Classics)
Corigliano: Winging It, Piano Music of John Corigliano (Cedille)
Ariama choice: Schwantner: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (Naxos)
Best Classical Vocal Solo
Winner: Diva Divo (Virgin Classics)
Grieg/Thommessen: Veslemoy Synsk (2L)
Handel: Cleopatra (Virgin Classics)
Purcell: O Solitude (Decca)
Three Baroque Tenors (EMI Classics)
Ariama choice: Diva Divo (Virgin Classics)
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
Winner: Aldridge: Elmer Gantry (Naxos)
Crumb: The Ghosts of Alahambra (Bridge Records)
Friedman: Quartets (New Amsterdam Records)
Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music from Slide (Cedille)
Ruders: Piano Concerto No. 2 (Bridge Records)
Ariama choice: Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music from Slide
Do you agree with the choices of the Grammy judges? How about our choices? We'd love to hear about your favorites.
by Craig Zeichner, Ariama Editor
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