The Recording Academy® honored artists from labels Naxos, Chandos, EuroArts, CPO, Naïve classique and Artek-with a combined 15 nominations across 11 categories this year, thus capturing 23% of the available classical category nominations. The 51st Annual Grammy® Awards will be announced on February 8, 2009.

Garnering two nominations this year, the Naxos world premiere recording of John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man picked up a Best Classical Contemporary Composition nomination for the Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy®, and Grawemeyer award-winning composer. The album, which features conductor JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic, also brought in a nomination for the recording’s soloist, Israeli-born soprano Hila Plitmann, who received a nomination for Best Classical Vocal Performance.

The Pacifica Quartet, recently named 2009 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America, was honored with a nomination for Best Chamber Music Performance for its acclaimed Naxos recording of Elliott Carter String Quartets Nos. 1 & 5. The second volume of this series is due for release in February 2009. Renowned producer Judith Sherman picked up a nomination for Producer of the Year for her work on the Carter String Quartets on Naxos and 4 additional albums.

A Choral Performance nomination went to chorus master Henryk Wojnarowski and conductor Antoni Wit for the Naxos recording of Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater with the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. A Best Engineered Album (Classical) nomination went to engineer John Newton for his work on the Naxos recording Respighi: Church Windows, Brazilian Impressions, Rossiniana, which featured conductor JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

NAXOS OF AMERICA DISTRIBUTED LABEL ARTISTS NOMINATED FOR GRAMMYS®

Artists from British-based label Chandos received 5 nominations in multiple categories this year. Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary featuring the Phoenix Chorale, conductor Charles Bruffy, and produced by Blanton Alspaugh, was nominated for Best Classical Album (Awards to Artists and Producer). Additionally, Mr. Bruffy and the Phoenix Chorale were nominated in the Best Small Ensemble Performance category for this recording. Another Chandos choral recording, Rheinberger: Sacred Choral Works, conductor Charles Bruffy (with the Kansas City Chorale and Phoenix Bach Choir) earned nominations for Best Surround Sound Album and Best Choral Performance. Finally, a Best Orchestral Performance nomination went to conductor Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra for their Chandos recording D’Indy Orchestral Works, Volume 1.

A EuroArts production earned two nominations in the categories of Best Classical Album (Award to Artists and Producers) and Best Opera Recording (Award to Conductor, Producer, and Principal Soloists) for their DVD recording of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny. The performance featured conductor James Conlon, soloists Anthony Dean Griffey, Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald; the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and Chorus; and was produced by Fred Vogler. This is the first Grammy® Awards in which DVD recordings of operas are eligible for nomination. Only the audio portion of the DVD is considered in the nominating process.

Also in the category of Best Opera Recording nominations went to conductors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs for their CPO recording of Jean Baptiste Lully’s Psyché with the Boston Early Music Festival (Mr. O’Dette and Mr. Stubbs also were nominated last year for their CPO recording of Jean Baptiste Lully’s Thésée with the Boston Early Music Festival).

Renowned Italian conductor and Baroque-specialist, Rinaldo Alessandrini was nominated for his Naïve classique recording of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo.

Finally, violinist Elmar Oliveira earned a nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra for his Artek recording of Violin Concertos by Ernst Bloch and Benjamin Lees with John McLaughlin Williams conducting the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.

Tags: Anthony Dean Griffey, Antoni Wit, Artek, Arthaus, Audra McDonald, Benjamin Lees, Blanton Alspaugh, blog.naxos.com, Boston Early Music Festival, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Chandos, Charles Bruffy, D'Indy, Elliott Carter, Elmar Oliveira, Ernest Bloch, Fred Vogler, Grammy, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, James Conlon, Jean-Baptiste Lully, JoAnn Falletta, John Corigliano, John Newton, Judith Sherman, Kurt Weil, L'Orfeo, Los Angeles Opera and Orchestra, Monteverdi, Mr. Tambourine Man, naïve, Naxos, NaxosDirect, Pacifica String Quartet, Patti LuPone, Phoenix Chorale, Psyché, Respighi, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny, Rumon Gamba, Spotless Rose:Hymns to the Virgin Mary, Szymanowski, Thesee, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir

The Recording Academy® has honored the much-acclaimed Naxos recording of Joan Tower’s Made in America, with Leonard Slatkin leading the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, produced by Tim Handley, with three GRAMMY® Awards: Best Classical Album (awarded to Artists and Producer), Best Orchestral Performance (awarded to Conductor and Orchestra), and Best Classical Contemporary Composition (awarded to Composer).

This is the second time in three years that a Naxos recording has won GRAMMY® Awards in three major categories; in 2006, William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience won three GRAMMY® Awards (Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance, and Best Contemporary Classical Composition). In addition, Tim Handley won Producer of the Year, Classical for his work on five Naxos albums, including Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

Made in America began when 65 small U.S. orchestras pooled their resources to commission a new work by a major American composer. With the help of the American Symphony Orchestra League, Meet The Composer, and Ford Motor Company Fund, the project evolved into the phenomenon known as Ford Made in America, bringing Tower’s piece to towns nationwide.

NAXOS OF AMERICA-DISTRIBUTED LABEL ARTISTS WIN THREE GRAMMY®AWARDS

The Best Opera Recording of the Year (Awarded to the conductor, producer, and principal performers) went to the Chandos* recording of Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel, conducted by Sir Charles MacKerras, produced by Brian Couzens; featuring Rebecca Evans, Jane Henschel, Jennifer Larmore, Sarah Coppen, Diana Montague, and Sarah Tynan; the New London Children’s Choir; and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Additionally, Sound Engineer John Newton was honored with the Award for Best Engineered Classical Album for his work on the Chandos recording of Grechaninov’s Passion Week.

*Naxos of America currently manages Chandos’ digital distribution and will begin physical CD distribution of Chandos recordings on April 1, 2008.

Violinist James Ehnes took home the Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra for his CBC Records recording of violin concertos by Barber, Korngold, and Walton, with Bramwell Tovey conducting the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Tags: blog.naxos.com, Classical, Grammy, Grammy Awards, joan tower, made in america, naras

Raymond Bisha interviews Maestro Jose Serebrier about his Grammy nominated CD Shostakovich: The Golden Age.

Album details…

 

Tags: blog.naxos.com, Grammy, Instrumental Music, Jose Serebrier, Naxos Classical Music Spotlight, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, shostakovich