Gramophone Awards
My comments on the Gramophone Awards, that I’ve done nearly every year since the beginning of this blog in 2015, always are quite popular with my readers.
And rightly so, Gramophone remains the most important and influencial classical music magazine in the world (in my subjective opinion), so it is always valuable to check what they like and recommend. And by default the handful of albums who make it to the final selection of the annual awards are obviously very good recordings.
But why bother writing about it and not just referring you to the full magazine release (available for free) that Gramophone has just put out ? Basically, I repeat myself: You really have to find a reviewer that you like and that your personal taste aligns with. If your taste happens to be somewhat similar to mine, maybe my couple of comments around the nominations can be of help.
But as always, I also love it when you violently disagree with me!
So, let’s start.
CPE Bach: Oboe Concertos – Xenia Loeffler – Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Harmonia Mundi 2020)
I haven’t formally reviewed this album on my blog yet, but I had checked it out when it was released. I’m usually a big fan of the AKAMUS orchestra, and I’ve even seen Xenia Löffler and the ensemble live, however, performing the JS Bach violin concertos together with Isabelle Faust (the album of which co-incidentally was a 2019 Gramophone Award nomination), so I had high expectations.
Poor Carl Philipp Emmanuel still is in the shadow of his legendary father, but, to my personal taste, he is really the one most worth checking out. He perfectly illustrates the ongoing transition from the baroque period to the “Wiener Klassik” of Haydn and Mozart (check out some of my album recommendations for CPE here).
Richard Wigmore in Gramophone writes “I’d confidently recommend this disc to anyone attracted to CPE’s quirkily fascinating art“. Couldn’t have said it better (except I wonder who beyond Gramophone editors still uses “discs”).
My rating: 4 stars (absolutely 5 stars playing, but CPE isn’t such a core composer that I’d necessarily recommend this to everybody blindly).
Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 2 & 5 – Martin Helmchen – Andrew Manze – DSO Berlin (Alpha 2020)
I didn’t review this album, however, you’ll find my very positive notes (4 stars) on their recordings of concertos no. 1 & 4 here.
The recordings of 2 & 5 is even more impressive. This is in many ways a “modern mainstream” recording, how you’d expect a Beethoven recording to sound like in 2020. Sufficiently inspired from the Historically Informed practice (where Manze comes from), and Helmchen really is one of those a brilliant a bit under the radar pianists that would benefit from being a bit more well known. (Co-incidentally, a very good recording of the Beethoven violin sonatas by Helmchen with Frank Peter Zimmermann was just released yesterday, more on this later).
But as Gramophone nicely writes, the magic sauce is in the beautiful pairing of Manze and Helmchen. This album really is highly enjoyable. Will it kick Andsnes and a lot of the legendary 1960 performances from their thrones? No, but it really is an album well worth having.
My rating: 5 stars
Beethoven & Sibelius – Violon Concertos – Christian Tetzlaff – Richard Ticciati – DSO Berlin (Ondine 2020)
Seeing two Beethoven albums in this selection isn’t very surprising in the 250th anniversary of Beethoven. However, seeing two albums of the Deutsche Symphonieorchester Berlin here is already more intriguing.
For decades, the former RIAS (radio in the American sector) orchestra has been a bit in the shadows of the legendary Berlin Philharmonic and the excellent Staatskapelle from the former East. But as these two albums show, it has been able to develop an independent profile. It is often working with younger or still lesser known conductors (Ticciati is 37), and has therefore been able to experiment more.
Not that I’d call a recording of the two Beethoven and Sibelius warhorses an experiment. That said, Christian Tetzlaff (I’m a big fan) takes quite a lot of risks in this album. Luckily for him, these risks are very much rewarding. This is a recording that will allow you to discover many new details in these two works that you probably know really well, particurlarly in the somewhat more experimental Sibelius. And it is played with a beautiful passion. And a special mention needs to go to Ticciati for his excellent handling of the orchestra.
For the Beethoven, as a side note, Swiss Public Radio recently released one of their shows where two experts compare 5 recordings blindly. The two winners of this blind test of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, all recordings of the last decade, where my beloved recording with Isabelle Faust and Claudio Abbado (my personal reference), and this very recent release by Tetzlaff. And I fully agree with the reviewers choices, both recordings are excellent in their own rights and should be in your collection.
My rating: 5 stars
Chopin: Piano Concertos – Benjamin Grosvenor – Elim Chan – Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Decca 2020)
Oh yes!
OK I admit I’m as big of a fanboy of Grosvenor as I am of Isabelle Faust and Igor Levit, basically pretty much everything they release usually blows me away.
But still I’m impressed that this recording takes its place right there with the legendary recordings of the Chopin Award winners Krystian Zimerman and Martha Argerich. I’ve already reviewed this magnificent album here, and have nothing much more to add than “buy it now, what are you waiting for!”.
My rating: 5 stars
Mozart: Piano Concertos vol. 4 – Jean-Efflam Bavouzet – Manchester Camerata – Gabor Takacs-Nagy (Chandos 2020)
Unfortunately, Chandos has a somewhat restrictive streaming policy, presumably allowing only slightly older albums to be streamed on Qobuz. I checked out the previous vol. 3 of this cycle which was available for streaming and liked what I heard, but unfortunately that’s all I can say at this time.
Schoenberg: Violin Concerto / Verklärte Nacht – Isabelle Faust – Daniel Harding – Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Harmonia Mundi 2020)
So, this is another Isabelle Faust release, so I should like it, right? Well my only problem is that the musical universe of Arnold Schoenberg and my comfort zone are still miles apart. The violin concerto is just something that my brain isn’t able to process correctly just yet.
That said, the earlier and more accessible Verklärte Nacht (transfigured night) sounds much more accessible. I’m probably going to buy this album just to really expand my musical horizon a bit. But don’t expect any value added comments from me.
In short, it’s the brilliant Isabelle Faust and recommended by Gramphone, so if you like early 20th century classical music, this should be a no-brainer.
My conclusion
My personal winner of the very good selection above would be Grosvenor’s Chopin, with Tetzlaff’s new album just behind (and those are also the albums I’ve purchased for my personal music collection).
We’ll know more in some weeks when the final awards are being given.
How about you? I’d love to hear your take on these albums.
You can find the albums here (all Qobuz):
Beethoven / Sibelius / Tetzlaff
musicophilesblog - From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms 
What would you say about Gramophone’s circulation decline from 70K+ to 19K+ (including digital edition) in the last 10-15 years?
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Good question.
Look, I’m not an industry and journalism insider, I work in a totally unrelated industry and am just doing all this for fun.
That said, with my common sense I see several reasons for that decline. 1) Journalism and magazines have been mostly declining across the board. 2) Particularly niche publications with a presumably more older target audience have been slow in moving to a digital channel 3) I don’t have numbers but it feels like the overall interest for classical music is declining, and it is becoming even more of a niche than it was in the 1980s and 90s, the golden days of the CD. 4) There’s more and more competition for attention from other sites, from private blogs like mine to more for profit digital ventures. But that said, if not Gramophone, who else do you see out there with a somewhat significant international influence on the classical music scene? What do you think?
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Well, a discussion of your points would require finding out and using data, too, so I won’t get into detail. I factually know that not only classical or music but the whole magazine industry is in decline for decades now because of decreasing print ad sales with exceptions. One of the major hits was the 2008 financial crisis and nowadays I’m hearing that since February they are taking heavier losses.
But my understanding of classical music industry in particular is that they were late in adapting to the changes in technology and the change of cultural consumption that came with it. I believe they are trying to evolve into it now but my view is they are pushing into its demise as we know it.
When I zoom into Gramophone’s case, as a consumer whose classical music album purchases average 1400+ per year since 1990 and who has many over half-century old alikes in his circles, I see two main problems
a) Decline in their reputation which happened very fast, again, with technology becoming a tool to acquire knowledge. Their British-bias became undoubtful. Especially with editor changes marketing replaced honesty.
b) The scene, despite the arguments of decline, broadened (maybe by thinning) in order to satisfy streaming companies’ demand of non-stop supply. So the change in quantity of output (releases, so-called artists, indie labels, etc.) left them short-handed for picking the quality and covering a meaningful amount regardless of their quality.
Having said that, I know that especially quite a few of the indie record labels (the ones which tragically still are slow adjusting to the times) are desperately in need of outlets to market their products to the new demographics and this is the only meaningful purpose that the magazine serves for…where not prestige but popularity is needed
On a final note, my perception is, in terms of influence, ICMA and the german Opus Klassik awards are gaining fast every year.
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I fully agree with your assessment. And I’ll check out the ICMA and Opus Klassik. I primarily read English and French magazines but probably should have a closer look at what happens on the German market. Talking about independent labels, I’m a big fan. There is so much more great content on Alpha, Ondine, Hyperion, BIS etc than on the “majors” these days. Let’s hope they survive. I’m doing my part in both buying a lot and talking about them on my blog here.
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