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

On October 28, Naxos released its fourth recording featuring the acclaimed Baroque music ensemble Opera Lafayette, performing Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Armide. Led by Artistic Director Ryan Brown, the cast features mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel in the title role, supported by Robert Getchell, François Loup, William Sharp, and others. Opera Lafayette’s recordings for Naxos include Gluck’s Orphée et Euridice (2005), Sacchini’s Oedipe à Colone (2006), and Rameau Operatic Arias (2007).

Armide was the zenith of Lully’s long and fruitful career as the most powerful musician at the court of Louis XIV and the first major composer of French opera. Though not his final composition, Armide was his last complete tragédie en musique and the last work he wrote in collaboration with librettist Philippe Quinault. It was an instant and enduring success: a crowd-pleaser at its initial production and a perennial favorite of audiences and critics in the 18th century.

OPERA LAFAYETTE is a period-instrument ensemble dedicated to performances of 17th- and 18th-century operas, particularly of the French repertoire. Founded in 1995 in Washington, D.C. by Artistic Director Ryan Brown, Opera Lafayette has earned critical acclaim and a loyal following for its performances and recordings with international singers renowned for their interpretations of Baroque and Classical operas. The Washington Post called the ensemble “one of the most intellectually exciting fixtures of the Washington music world.” Of their recording of Rameau Operatic Arias with tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, England’s OPERA magazine wrote: “The period-instrument orchestra of the Washington-based Opera Lafayette … in its decade-long existence has done so much to further the cause of 18th-century French Opera.” Upcoming recordings by Opera Lafayette include Rebel and Francoeur’s Zélindor, roi des Sylphes (2009), and Le Déserteur, to be recorded in February 2009.

Tags: Armide, blog.naxos.com, François Loup, Jean-Baptiste Lully, NaxosDirect, Opera Lafayette, Philippe Quinault, Robert Getchell, Ryan Brown, Stephanie Houtzeel, William Sharp

Hailed by the Times (London) as the “world’s leading festival of early music”, the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF), directed by Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, has received two Grammy® nominations for its recordings of Baroque operas on the CPO label: Conradi’s Ariadne (777073-2) and Lully’s Thésée (777240-2).The ensemble’s much-awaited third recording, Jean- Baptiste Lully’s Psyché (777367-2), was recorded at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall following BEMF’s North American premiere performances at its 14th biennial festival. This world premiere recording features soprano Carolyn Sampson in the title role and Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin as Venus. Other cast members include Aaron Sheehan, Colin Balzer, Amanda Forsythe, Mireille Lebel, Yulia Van Doren, Olivier Laquerre, Jason McStoots, Matthew Shaw, Aaron Engebreth, Ricard Bordas, Teresa Wakim, and José Lemos.

It was 330 years ago that Lully’s tragédie lyrique Psyché was performed at the court of Louis XIV. The plot concerns the fate of the most beautiful girl in the world and the jealousy of the goddess Venus; hell, death, and the devil; frightful journeys to the underworld; and the happy marriage of the god of love Amor and Psyche - that is, once her divine mother-in-law no longer has anything against this union, since Jupiter has endowed her soul with immortality. This magnificent and richly varied, entertaining as well as horrifying, musically and scenically uncommonly lavish opera from the France of the Sun King was presented last year at the Boston Early Music Festival.

Tags: 777367-2, Aaron Engebreth, Aaron Sheehan, Amanda Forsythe, blog.naxos.com, Carolyn Sampson, Colin Balzer, Jason McStoots, Jean-Baptiste Lully, José Lemos, Karina Gauvin, Matthew Shaw, Mireille Lebel, Olivier Laquerre, Paul O'Dette, Psyché, Ricard Bordas, Stephen Stubbs, Teresa Wakim, Yulia Van Doren