A Warm Welcome to the Awards (editor-in-chief James Jolly)

Rarely have the Gramophone Awards so effortlessly celebrated the breadth of what the classical record industry has to offer, and this year there are a few surprises too. The Awards, which this year we are delighted to be presenting in association with Steinway & Sons, have been marking the industry's outstanding work since 1977 and many of the recordings we've singled out have taken on classics status. 

The "process" this year remained largely unchanged-- it has evolved down the years to take into account new avenues and areas of focus. We have, though, retired the Hisoric Reissue catigory dedicated to recordings making a return to the catalogue; the "complete recordings syndrome" has become so widespread that the art of the reissue has too often metaphored into "how many discs can we cram into a box". Our Historic Award therefore goes to a recording making a first commercial appearance on disc.

The voting rounds unfold in three parts. To begin the process we canvass the record companies for a proportion of their releases. Specialist committees then whittle these longlists (some 550 recordings) down to just six in each of the 15 categories. These form Round Two, and at this point any critic can opt into as many categories as desired, and the six discs are despatched.

From the second round, the 15 winners emerges. The Final round, which produces the Recording of the Year, takes place at Gramophone's Teddington offices, for which we convene a committee of contributors and editors. This jury, all armed with the winning discs, then gather to talk through each of the recordings before a vote determines the winner of winners-- and this year the Recording of the Year emerged pretty effortlessly despite some passionate advocacy for a numbers of the others.

Some random thoughts on the "Class of 2011". A Major company has broken through the Early Music recording wall-- this has always gone to an independent. The Opera prize finally goes to a company that has come close so many times, a win well deserved for a label thats makes opera recordings the "old-fashioned way": rehearse at length, often
performed in concert and then recorded under optinum studio conditions. Unusually, in the DVD Documentary category, both winner and runner-up focus their attention on the same artists. All is revealed in the following. 

※Artist of the year: 

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor.

※Lifetime Achievement: 

Dame Janet Baker, mezzo-soprano.

※Specialist Classical Chart: 

Milos Karadaglic--The Guitar

※Label of the Year: 

Wigmore Hall Live

※Young Artist of the year: 

Milos Karadaglic

※Special Achievement: 

Sir Eliot Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage on SDG

※Editor's Choice: 

Rossini Stabat mater (Santa Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra/Anotonio Papano) EMI

※Baroque Instrumental: 

Winner--CPE Bach Harpsichord Concertos Wq.43 (Andreas Staier/hpd; Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/Petra Mullejans) Harmonia Mundi

2. Teleman 'Musique de table' --The Complete Tafelmusik ( Gottfried von der Goltz/vns; Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/Petra Mullejans) Harmonia Mundi

3. Handel Concerti grossi, op.6 (Pavlo Beznosiuk/vn; Avison Ensemble) Linn

※Baroque Vocal:

Winner-- Handel Apollo e Dafne (Fabio Bonizzoni/hrd; La Risonanza Soloists) Glossa

2. Lully Bellerophon (Soloists; Namur Chammber Choir; Les Talens Lyriques/Chritophe Rousset) Aparte

3. Handel Flavio, re de' Longobardi (Soloists; Early Opera Company/Christian Curnyn) Chandos

※Chamber:

Winner-- Dvorak String Quartets (Pavel Haas Quartet) Supraphon

2. Beethoven vinlin sonatas, vol.3 (Alina Ibragimova/vn; Cedric Tiberghien/pf) Wigmore Hall Live

3. Bartok. Grieg. R. Strauss Violin Sonatas (Vlide Frang/vn; Michail Lifits/pf) EMI

※Choral:

Winner--Elgar The Kingdom (Soloists; Halle Choir and Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder) Halle

2. Delius Appalachia. The Song of the High Hills (Soloists; BBC Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis) Chandos

3. MacMillan Visitatio sepulchri. Sun-Dogs (Netherlands Radio Choir & Chamber Philharmonic/Celso Antunes, James MacMillan) BIS

※Concerto:

Winner-- Debussy Fantasie; Ravel Piano Concertos (Jean-Efflam Bavouzet/pf; BBC Symphony Orchestra/Yan Pascal Tortelier) Chandos

2. Bartok Piano Concertos (Jean-Efflam Bavouzet/pf; BBC Philharmonic/Gianandrea Noseda) Chandos

3. Reger Piano Concerto; R. Strauss Burleske (Marc-Andre Hamelin/pf; Berlin RSO/Ilan Volkov) Hyperion

※Contemporary:

Winner--Birtwistle Night's Black Bird (Halle Orchestra/Ryan Wigglesworth) NMC

2. D Matthews Winter Passions (Nash Ensemble/Lionel Friend) NMC

3. Ruders Music of Poul Ruders, Vol.6 (Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Thomas Sondergard) Bridge

※DVD Documentary:

Winner--Carlos Kleiber 'Traces to Nowhere', a filem by Eric Schulz. ArtHaus Musik

2. Carlos Kleiber 'I am lost to the world', a film by Georg Wubbolt. C Major

3. Andre Previn 'A bridge between two worlds' a film by Lilian Birnbaum and Peter Stephan Jungk. C Major

※DVD Performance:

Winner--Verdi Don Carlo (Royal Opera/Antonio Papano) EMI

2. Mahler Symphony no.9 (Lucerene Festival Orchestra/Clauddio Abbado) Accentus

3. Britten Death in Venice (La Fince, Venice/Bruno Bartoletti) Dynamic

※Early Music:

Winner--Striggio Mass in 40 Parts (I Fagiolini/Robert Hollingworth) Decca

2. Byrd Conplete Consort Music (Phantasm) Linn

3. Agricola Missa in myne zyn (Calpilla Flamenca/Dirk Snellings) Ricercar

※Historic:

Winner--Mahler Symphony No.10 (Deryck Cooke performing version, r1960/64; LSO/Berthold Goldschmidt) Testament

2. Monteverdi The Coronation of Poppea (r1971; Sadler'sWells Opera/Raymond Leppard) Chandos

3. Beethoven String Trios (r1960; Lonid Kogan/vn, Rudolf Barshai/va, Mstislav Rostropovich/vc) Supraphon

※Instrumental:

Winner--Brahms Handel Variations. Rhapsodies Op.79. Piano Pieces op.118-9 (Murray Perahia/pf) Sony Classics

2. Liszt Harmonies du soir (Nelson Freir/pf) Decca

3. Ravel Complete Solo Piano Music (Steven Osborne/pf) Hyperion

※Opera:

Winner--Rossini Ermino (Soloist; Lodon Philharmonic Orchestra/David Parry) Opera Rara

2. Verdi Otelle (Soloist; London Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/Sir Colin Davis) LSO Live

3. Mozart Die Zauberflote (Soloists; RIAS Chamber Choir; Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin/Rene Jacobs) Harmonia Mundi

※Orchestral:

Winner--Shostakovich Symphony No10 (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko) Naxos

2. Suk Asrael (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Charles Mackerras) Supraphon

3. 'English Spring' (Halle Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder) Halle

※Recital:

Winner--'Verismo Arias' (Jonas Kaufmann/ten; Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Antonio Papano) Decca

2. 'Diva Divo' (Joyce DiDonato/mez; Chorus and Orchestra of the Opera Naional de Lyon/Kazushi Ono) Virgin Classcs

3. 'Ne me refuse pas' (Marie-Nicole Lemieux/contr; French National Orchestra/Fabien Gabel) Naive

※Solo Vocal:

Winner--Britten Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (Gerald Finley/bar; Julius Drake/pf) Hyperion

2. Bennett Songs before Sleep (Sophie Daneman/sop; Susan Bickley/mez; Benjamin Hulett/ten; Roderick Williams/bar; Iain Burnside/pf) NMC

3. Wolf Italienisches Liederbuch (Julia Kleiter/sop; Christoph Pregardien/ten; Hilko Dumno/pf) Challenge Classics