BBC Music Magazine announces nominees for its 2022 awards

In the year of BBC Music MagazineAs part of the 30th anniversary celebrations, the nominees for the 2022 BBC Music Magazine Awards have been announced. Despite last year’s challenges for the classical music industry, artists and labels delivered first-class recordings.

Musicians and sound engineers have become accustomed to the limits of social distancing and have thrived in harsh recording conditions. Many of this year’s nominated recordings were captured under distancing restrictions or, in the case of married violin and piano duo Elena Urioste and Tom Poster, inspired by containment projects. The pair shared daily videos on their YouTube channels as part of their Project #UriPosteJukeBoxcreating a huge digital community and commissioning an assortment of new works – many of which are heard on their new recording, nominated for this year’s Premiere Award. The Covid-19 pandemic has also provided a recording opportunity for The English Concert and its manager Harry Bicket, who, according to our review, “gave us the best ever recording of Rodelinda‘. Faced with a canceled concert production of Handel’s opera, the ensemble decided to record in London with the same musicians, each two meters apart.

The blending and precision required in scores like this requires incredible skill, something conductor Simon Rattle praises London Symphony Orchestra during his recording of Beethoven’s piano concertos with Kristian Zimerman, nominated in the Concerto category. “Sometimes it feels like blowing smoke signals over a mountain,” he says. ‘But the effort almost suits [the music of] Beethoven. The struggle is part of the style. He is a composer who demands that everyone tense all their nerves, and who always asks for more than one can give. LSOs appear twice in this year’s list of nominees: once under Rattle and again under their appointed Music Director Antonio Papanowho should succeed Rattle Next year.

In addition to the more familiar composers, this year’s list of nominations includes several works by composers whose music rarely receives such releases. These range from Dutilleux and Price for Busoni and Coleridge-Taylor, whose music is celebrated in First recital disc by soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn. His most famous work Hiawatha’s Song eclipsed the 80 opus numbers he had to his name when he died in 1912, much of which remains unreleased – until now. Dussek may have been a famous musical figure in the classical era, but he has been unfairly overlooked over the centuries. This is the first time that his Solemn Mass has been captured on record, performed by the Academy of Early Music for the first time since it was composed over 200 years ago. The recording of the whole was nominated for the Choral Award.

This year’s jury was chaired by BBC Music Magazine reviews editor Michael Beckwhich was joined by critics Andrew McGregor, Berta Joncus, George room and Rebecca Franks. Together they whittled down a long list of 312 recordings to the final shortlist of 27 nominees – with 17 record labels represented in the shortlist.

Voting closes at midnight on Monday 28 February.

This year’s winners BBC Music Magazine Award will be announced at a ceremony in London’s Kings Place on Thursday 28 April. In addition to publicly voted categories, the magazine’s editorial team will announce the winners of its BBC Music Magazine Personality of the Year and Recording of the Year.

Vote now for this year’s BBC Music Magazine Awards at musique-classique.com/awards.

The full list of nominees for the 2022 BBC Music Magazine Awards:

Room price

Ravel/Saint-Saens

Trios with piano
Trio Sitkovetsky
BIS BIS-2219

American quintets

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
Chandos CHAN 20224

The mad lover

Thomas Dunford (lute), Théotime Langlois de Swarte (violin)
Harmonia Mundi HMM902305

Orchestra Prize

Florence Prize: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3

Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin
German Grammophon 486 2029

Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6

London Symphony Orchestra/Antonio Pappano
LSO Live LSO0867

Dutilleux: The Wolf

London Sinfonia/John Wilson
Chandos CHSA 5263

Concerto Prize

Bartók/Martinů

Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin), Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Jakub Hrůša
BIS BIS-2457

Illuminated pleasures

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Sol Gabetta (cello); Camerata Bern/Francisco Coll
Alpha Classics ALPHA580

Beethoven: Piano Concertos

Krystian Zimerman (piano); London Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle
German Grammophon 483 9971

Choir Prize

Dussek: Missa Solemn

Academy of Early Music/Richard Egarr
AAM AAM011

JS Bach: Cantatas, BWV 32, 82 & 106

Consort of Dunedin/John Butt
Linn CKD672 Folders

Arvo Pärt/Schnittke: Choral works

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Kaspars Putniņš
BIS BIS-2521

Opera prices

Handel: Ariodante

Cecilia Bartoli et al; The Musicians of Prince Monaco/Gianluca Capuano; real. Christof Loy (Salzburg, 2017)
DVD Unitel 802408

Handel: Rodelinda

Lucy Crowe, Iestyn Davies et al; The English Concert/Harry Bicket
Linn Records CKD658

Philip Glass: Akhenaten

Anthony Roth Costanzo et al; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Karen Kamensek; real. Phelim McDermott (New York, 2019)
Orange Mountain Music DVD OMM5011