BBC Music Magazine announces public voting for 2012 Awards

Voting for the seventh annual BBC Music Magazine Awards will open to the public on Friday 13 January on the BBC Music Magazine website.

The BBC Music Magazine Awards are the only classical music awards in which the main categories are voted for by the public. The shortlist represents the very best of more than 1,500 recordings reviewed by BBC Music Magazine in 2011. It features many leading names from the international classical music arena, with a strong showing from British artists including pianist Steven Osborne and conductor Sir Mark Elder.

This year sees a number of firsts for the BBC Music Magazine Awards. A new public voted category - for Best DVD - has been introduced (previously voted for by the jury) which recognises the increasing number of high quality classical music and opera DVDs. And for the first time in the history of the Awards an ensemble has been shortlisted twice. In their 10th anniversary year, Tenebrae, Nigel Short’s elite choral group, have been nominated in the Choral category for their disc of Parry’s Songs of Farewell, and also for their recording of Victoria’s Mass of 1605.

This year’s shortlist also features the youngest-ever nominated artist, Benjamin Grosvenor, who was just 18 when he recorded his Chopin, Liszt, Ravel recital disc. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Quartet has become the first performing group to receive a hat-trick of BBC Music Magazine Award nominations. In 2008 the high-powered young Israeli quartet won the Chamber Award for their recording of Shostakovich Quartet Nos 6, 8 and 11; in 2010 for their Haydn’s String Quartets; and this year they excelled in Mozart, receiving a third nomination in the same category.

Recordings in seven categories including Orchestral, Opera, Choral and Instrumental, will be presented for public voting, which will run from 13 January to 29 February on the BBC Music Magazine website, www.classical-music.com/awards2012. Audio excerpts from each of the recordings will be available on the site to help voters choose their favourites, and all voters will be entered into a prize draw to win a limited edition Centennial Kemble piano worth £7,000 and a Yamaha hi-fi worth £380.

The winners of the BBC Music Magazine Awards will be announced at an exclusive awards ceremony held on 12 April 2012 at Kings Place, London. In addition to the seven categories voted for by the public, there are four jury awards: Recording of the Year, Premiere Recording, Technical Excellence and Best Newcomer. The jury is made up of five of the country’s leading classical music critics: Hilary Finch, Anthony Pryer, Erik Levi, Calum Macdonald and Andrew McGregor, plus BBC Music Magazine editor Oliver Condy, consultant editor Helen Wallace and reviews editor Rebecca Franks.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE AWARDS 2012 NOMINATIONS

• Jean-Efflam Bavouzet; BBC Symphony Orchestra/Yan Pascal Tortelier
  Debussy: Fantaisie; Ravel: Piano Concertos (Chandos)
  
“A dazzling palette of colours; magical tone and impeccable phrasing; sensitivity to every mood combined with an unerring instinct for Ravel’s finely-turned forms.”
• Barnabás Kelemen; Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra/Zoltán Kocsis
  Bartók: Rhapsodies Nos 1 & 2; Violin Concerto No. 2 (Hungaroton)
  “Explosive is the only word for the combination of Barnabás Kelemen, Zoltán Kocsis and Bartók: performances that burn with a coruscating inspiration.”
• Mihoko Fukimura; Bamburg Symphony Orchestra/Jonathan Nott

  Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Tudor)
  “Nott’s brilliantly vivid live recording is supported by playing of elemental power from the Bamburg Symphony Orchestra.” 

• Eglise Gutiérrez (Linda); The Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House/Sir Mark Elder
  Donizetti: Linda di Chamounix (Opera Rara)
  “Hearing this lavishly-cast, vividly conducted recording, one wonders why Linda di Chamounix ever dropped out of the repertoire.”
• Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Agrippina); Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/René Jacobs
  Handel: Agrippina (Harmonia Mundi)
  “Agrippina herself is a manipulative monster… and a performance as thrillingly realised as this from René Jacobs and his outstanding cast proves the dramatic worth of the original score.”
• Nathalie Stutzmann; Orfeo 55
  Vivaldi: Prima Donna (DG)
  “Stutzmann’s heady mixture of raw energy, high-octane passion and stunning vocal acrobatics works marvellously in this imaginatively planned recital.”

• Chorus Sine Nomine/Kristjan Järvi
  Reich: The Desert Music (Chandos)
  “The Desert Music finds Reich in monumental mode. Järvi and his Austrian forces set a new benchmark in this beautifully balanced and emotionally engaged performance.”
• Tenebrae/Nigel Short
  Parry: Songs of Farewell (Signum)
  “Tenebrae’s superbly programmed collection is the finest to appear in years. Technical discipline, supreme vocal blend, dynamic range, sensitive phrasing and terrific soloists.”
• Tenebrae/Nigel Short

  Victoria: Requiem Mass, 1605; Lobo: Lamentations (Signum)
  “Tenebrae seem to have everything - deep musical insight, technical finesse and an utterly mesmerizing balance and poise.”

• Juliane Banse (soprano), Alexsander Madzar (piano)
  Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder; Hartmann: Lamento (ECM)
  “We have here some extraordinary acts of vocal and pianistic understanding. Captivating and magnificently varied throughout.”
• Florian Boesch (baritone), Roger Vignoles (piano)
  Loewe: Songs & Ballads (Hyperion)
  “Carl Loewe was a virtuoso performer, holding audiences in thrall with his own singing. Florian Boesch taps into that heritage with chilling and thrilling characterisations.”
• Andreas Scholl with Accademia Bizantina
  Purcell: O Solitude! (Decca)
  “It might be a new Golden Age of the countertenor, but few can equal the sheer beauty of tone and dramatic instinct displayed by Andreas Scholl.”

• Jerusalem String Quartet

  Mozart: String Quartets K.157, 458 & 589 (Harmonia Mundi)
  “I defy anyone not to find something new in these scintillating performances. From the opening bars we are in the midst of a riveting conversation…”
• Kepler Quartet
  Ben Johnston: String Quartets Nos 1, 5 & 10 (New World)
  “A revelation. The still little-known and underestimated 85-year-old American composer writes music which challenges, stimulates and delights the ear.”
• Retrospect Trio
  Purcell: Twelve Sonatas in Three Parts (Linn)
  “These dazzling, original ‘Sonatas’ brought Italian virtuosity to London’s music scene. The genius part writing has an enticing clarity here, and it’s imbued with irresistible energy.

• Piotr Anderszewski
  Schumann: Humoreske; Studies for the pedal piano (Virgin)
  “Anderszewski proves to be utterly compelling and persuasive, teasing out an astonishing range of colours throughout.”
• Benjamin Grosvenor
  Chopin, Liszt and Ravel recital (Decca)

  “It’s astonishing to think that Grosvenor is still only 19 yet he can produce performances of such maturity and finesse.”
• Steven Osborne
  Ravel: Complete solo piano music (Hyperion)

  “Here is the child and the man in Ravel, the innocence and the experience. The recording captures Osborne's imaginative sense of Ravel's other-worldliness with stylistic and technical distinction.”

• Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Claudio Abbado
  Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (Accentus Music)
  “The three-minute silence between the final, ineluctably slow and soft bars of the Adagio and the storm of audience applause says it all…”
• Jacques Imbrailo (Billy Budd); Glyndebourne Opera, London Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder

  Britten: Billy Budd (Opus Arte)
  “This is a terrific act of advocacy for Britten’s opera, with a searingly effective cast and alert musical direction.”
• Iréne Theorin (Elektra); Vienna State Opera/Daniele Gatti
  Strauss: Elektra (Arthaus)
  “All the claustrophobic intensity of Strauss's most compressed operatic one-acter is recreated here, thanks to Nikolaus Lehnhoff's searching staging.

-ENDS-

For further information please contact:
Carolyn Wray
Press Office | Immediate Media
0117 3148812 | carolyn.wray@immediatemedia.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

BBC Music Magazine Awards 2012 Jury
Hilary Finch – Music critic, The Times
Anthony Pryer – Lecturer in aesthetics and musical historiography at Goldsmith’s College, London 
Eric Levi – Reader in Music and Director of Performance at Royal Holloway, London
Calum Macdonald – Editor of Tempo
Andrew McGregor – Presenter, CD Review – BBC Radio 3
Helen Wallace (Chair) – Consultant editor, BBC Music Magazine
Oliver Condy – Editor, BBC Music Magazine
Rebecca Franks – Reviews editor, BBC Music Magazine