(Feb. 13, 2011) - Every year brings Grammy surprises, and the 53rd annual Grammy Awards ceremony, held today in Los Angeles, was no exception.
Within the classical categories, perhaps the biggest surprise to industry insiders was a highly unusual tie between two recordings for Best Engineered Album, Classical: Michael Daugherty's Superman-inspired Metropolis Symphony, engineered by the team of Mark Donahue, John Hill and Dirk Sobotka for Naxos; and Eliesha Nelson's album of Quincy Porter's complete viola works on Dorian Sono Luminus, with the four engineers Leslie Ann Jones, Kory Kruckenberg, Brandie Lane, and David Sabee. The Producer of the Year went to David Frost, a seven-time winner.
Although the album of Daugherty's music led the pack with five separate nominations, it was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's recording of Verdi's Requiem, led by Riccardo Muti, that took home the Best Classical Album award as well as that of Best Choral Performance. Muti's current season has been plagued by health issues, including a collapse at the podium less than two weeks ago that resulted in emergency surgery to repair broken facial bones, followed by the installation of a pacemaker this past week. (Muti has cancelled all remaining performances with the CSO this winter.)
Meanwhile, the Daugherty recording also won for Best Orchestral Performance by the Nashville Symphony as well as Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
This was actually quite a notable year for 20th- and 21st-century compositions: the Kent Nagano-helmed recording of Kaija Saariaho's L'amour de loin on Harmonia Mundi won for Best Opera Recording; the Best Chamber Music Performance award went to the young Parker Quartet for their recording of Ligeti's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 (Naxos); and organist Paul Jacobs was honored with Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra) for his Naxos album of Messiaen's Livre du Saint-Sacrement.
Other classical artists honored today were the members of the Juilliard String Quartet, who were given a Lifetime Achievement Award; Mitsuko Uchida for her album of Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 24 (Decca) for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra); and Jordi Savall and his Hesperion XXI and La Capella Reial De Catalunya for their self-released album on Alia Vox, Dinastia Borja (The Borgia Dynasty) for Best Small Ensemble Performance. Cecilia Bartoli's album Sacrificium (Decca) won Best Classical Vocal Performance, while Christopher Tin's self-released Calling All Dawns was named Best Classical Crossover Album.
You can explore and buy many of the nominated recordings right here on Ariama; many of the recordings included in this year's Grammy nominations have become fast favorites amongst our own team and top sellers on our site. Check out the entire list of winners and nominees at the Grammy website.
Best Classical Album:
| | Giancarlo Guerrero: Daugherty, Metropolis Symphony; Deus Ex Machina (Naxos) |
| | Cecilia Bartoli: Sacrificium (Decca) |
| | Riccardo Muti: Verdi, Requiem (CSO Resound) |
| | Mariss Jansons: Bruckner, Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 (RCO) |
| | Steve Mackey: Mackey, Dreamhouse (BMOP/sound) |
Best Orchestral Performance:
| | Giancarlo Guerrero: Daugherty, Metropolis Symphony; Deus Ex Machina (Naxos) |
| | Pierre Boulez: Stravinsky, Pulcinella; Symphony in Three Movements; Four Etudes (CSO Resound) |
| | Mariss Jansons: Bruckner, Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 (RCO) |
| | Steve Mackey: Mackey, Dreamhouse (BMOP/sound) |
| | Thomas Fey: Salieri, Overtures & Stage, Vol. 2 (Haenssler) |
Best Opera Recording:
| | Matthew Dirst: Hasse, Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra (Dorian Sono Luminus) |
| | Kent Nagano: Saariaho, L'Amour de loin (Harmonia Mundi) |
| | Valery Gergiev: Shchedrin, The Enchanted Wanderer (Mariinsky) |
| | David Lloyd-Jones: Sullivan, Ivanhoe (Chandos) |
Best Choral Performance:
| | Nicholas Harnoncourt & Erwin Ortner: Bach, Cantatas (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi) |
| | Paul Hillier: Baltic Runes (Harmonia Mundi) |
| | Riccardo Muti & Duain Wolfe: Verdi, Requiem (CSO Resound) |
| | Daniel Reuss: Martin, Golgotha (Harmonia Mundi) |
Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
| | Terrence Wilson: Daugherty, Deus Ex Machina (Naxos) |
| | Avi Avital: Dorman, Mandolin Concerto (Naxos) |
| | Joseph Banowetz: Kletzki, Piano Concerto in D minor, Op. 22 (Naxos) |
| | Mitsuko Uchida: Mozart, Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 24 (Decca) |
| | Eliesha Nelson: Porter, Complete Viola Works (Dorian) |
Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra):
| | Nelson Freire: Chopin, The Nocturnes (Decca) |
| | Marc-Andre Hamelin: Hamelin, Etudes (Hyperion) |
| | Paul Jacobs: Messiaen, Livre du Saint-Sacrement (Naxos) |
| | Julia Fischer: Paganini, 24 Caprices (Decca) |
| | Sarah Schuster Ericsson: 20th-Century Harp Sonatas (Dorian Sono Luminus) |
Best Chamber Music Performance:
| | Isabelle Faust & Alexander Melnikov: Beethoven, Complete Sonatas for Violin & Piano (Harmonia Mundi) |
| | Marc Regnier: Gnattali, Solo & Chamber Works for Guitar (Dorian Sono Luminus) |
| | Parker Quartet: Ligeti, String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 (Naxos) |
| | Eliesha Nelson: Porter, Complete Viola Works (Dorian Sono Luminus) |
| | Fred Sherry String Quartet: Schoenberg, String Quartets Nos. 3 & 4 (Naxos) |
Best Small Ensemble Performance:
| | The Sixteen/Harry Christophers: Ceremony and Devotion--Music for the Tudors (Coro) |
| | Hesperion XXI & La Capella Reial de Catalunya/Jordi Savall: Dinastia Borja--The Borgian Dynasty (Alia Vox) |
| | The Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips: Victoria, The Lamentations of Jeremiah (Gimell) |
| | Noel Edison: Whitacre, Choral Music (Naxos) |
Best Classical Vocal Performance:
| | Anne Sofie von Otter: Ombre de Mon Amant--French Baroque Arias (Archiv) |
| | Cecilia Bartoli: Sacrificium (Decca) |
| | Lucia Duchonova: Turina, Canto a Sevilla (Hanssler) |
| | Vivica Genaux: Vivaldi, Opera Arias--Pyrotechnics (Virgin Classics) |
| | Measha Brueggergosman: Wagner, Wesendonck-Lieder (Deutsche Grammophon) |
Best Classical Contemporary Composition:
| | Michael Daugherty, Deus Ex Machina (Naxos) |
| | Hans Werner Henze, Appasionatamente Plus (Cybele Records) |
| | Magnus Lindberg, Graffiti (Ondine) |
| | Arvo Part, Symphony No. 4 (ECM New Series) |
| | Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin, The Enchanted Wanderer (Mariinsky) |
Best Classical Crossover Album:
| | Matt Haimovitz: Meeting of the Spirits (Oxingale) |
| | The Silk Road Ensemble: Off the Map (World Village) |
| | Jessye Norman: My Life, My Song (Sony Classical) |
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by Anastasia Tsioulcas
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