Classical Grammy Winners

The Grammys were awarded Sunday night, and the AMG blog is listing the winners in the Classical category so that you take a look at the albums and reviews and listen to the samples to see what you think of the judges’ choices. In the case of the winner of Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording, you can’t listen to a sample, because the winner, Weill: Rise And Fall of the City of Mahagonny, is not an album at all, but a DVD. For the first time, the Grammys have included DVDs in their classical category, and three DVDs, all of them operas, were nominated.

The nominees and winners this year were heavily weighted toward vocal music. Four of the five nominees for Best Classical Album, including the winner, feature voices; three of the Best Small Ensemble Performances, again including the winner, are vocal; and the winner of the Best Classical Contemporary Composition is a vocal work. That piece, John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan, is a landmark because it gives Bob Dylan, as librettist, his first classical Grammy.

 
Best Classical Album
Weill: Rise And Fall of the City of Mahagonny
James Conlon, conductor; Anthony Dean Griffey, Patti LuPone & Audra McDonald; Fred Vogler, producer (Donnie Ray Albert, John Easterlin, Steven Humes, Mel Ulrich & Robert Wörle; Los Angeles Opera Chorus; Los Angeles Opera Orchestra)
[EuroArts]
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Best Orchestral Performance
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
Bernard Haitink, conductor (Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
[CSO Resound]
 
 
Symphony No.4 - 1. Allegretto poco moderato - Presto
Symphony No.4 - 2. Moderato con moto
 
 
 
 
 
Best Opera Recording
Weill: Rise And Fall of the City of Mahagonny
James Conlon, conductor; Anthony Dean Griffey, Patti LuPone & Audra McDonald; Fred Vogler, producer (Donnie Ray Albert, John Easterlin, Steven Humes, Mel Ulrich & Robert Wörle; Los Angeles Opera Chorus; Los Angeles Opera Orchestra)
[EuroArts]
 
 
Best Choral Performance
Symphony of Psalms
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor; Simon Halsey, chorus master (Berliner Philharmoniker; Rundfunkchor Berlin)
[EMI Classics]
 
 
Symphony of Psalms - 1. Exaudi orationem meam
Symphony of Psalms - 3. Alleluia. Laudate Dominum
 
 
 
 
Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
Schoenberg/Sibelius: Violin Concertos
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor; Hilary Hahn (Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra)
[Deutsche Grammophon]
 
 
Schoenberg: Violin Concerto - 1. Poco allegro
Sibelius: Violin Concerto - 1. Allegro moderato
 
 
 
 
Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)
Piano Music of Salonen, Stucky, and Lutoslawski
Gloria Cheng
[Telarc]
 
 
Lutoslawski: Piano Sonata - 1. Allegro
Salonen: Preludes for piano - 3. Invenzione a due voci
 
 
 
 
 
Best Chamber Music Performance
Elliott Carter: String Quartets Nos. 1 And 5
Pacifica Quartet
[Naxos]
 
 
String Quartet No. 1 - 1. Allegro scorrevole
String Quartet No. 5 - 2. Giocoso
 
 
 
 
 
Best Small Ensemble Performance
Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary
Charles Bruffy, conductor; Phoenix Chorale
[Chandos]
 
 
Stephen Paulus: Splendid Jewel
Cecilia McDowall: Three Latin Motets - 1. Ave Regina
 
 
 
 
Best Classical Vocal Performance
Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan
Hila Plitmann (JoAnn Falletta; Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra)
[Naxos]
 
 
Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan - 2. Clothes Line
Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan - 7. Postlude: Forever Young
 
 
Best Classical Contemporary Composition
Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan
John Corigliano (JoAnn Falletta)
[Naxos]