After a wonderful summer of listening, the voting for the 2024 Gramophone Classical Music Awards is over. These 33 recordings, three per category, comprise our shortlist. The winners will be revealed at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards and on this website along with the special awards on October 2, when we also name the Recording of the Year for 2024. This year's Awards are presented with Presto Music and each of the albums links through to their site, where you can stream or buy the recording.

Chamber

Award sponsored by Wigmore Hall

Mendelssohn Cello Sonatas

Sol Gabetta vc Bertrand Chamayou pf (Sony Classical)

‘We’re privileged with a fine tribute not only to Mendelssohn and those inspired by his example, but to two exceptional players on top form...’ Rob Cowan

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Schumann Piano Quartet and Quintet

Faust, Schreiber vns Tamestit va Queyras vc Melnikov pf (Harmonia Mundi)

‘They meld their ensemble seamlessly and attend to minute details of phrasing and dynamics without losing sight of the shape of each movement...’ Stephen Cera

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‘A Lionel Tertis Celebration’

Timothy Ridout va Frank Dupree, James Baillieu pfs (Harmonia Mundi)

‘All told, it’s a most rewarding programme that gathers together an unusual array of ear-catching pieces in performances that present the music in its best possible light...’ Rob Cowan

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Choral

Delius A Mass of Life

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Mark Elder (LAWO)

‘This newcomer represents a considerable achievement and augurs well for Elder’s new role as the Bergen PO’s Principal Guest Conductor...’ Andrew Achenbach

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Elgar The Dream of Gerontius

Gabrieli Consort & Players / Paul McCreesh (Signum)

‘Even if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Elgarian with special loyalties to a particular interpretation, be it by Barbirolli, Boult, Britten, Davis, Hickox or Elder, this CD is brimful of edifying delights and surprises worthy of repeated listening...’ Jeremy Dibble

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Parry Prometheus Unbound

Sols; Crouch End Festival Chorus, London Mozart Players / William Vann (Chandos)

‘The soloists are placed well forwards of the orchestra in an ‘oratorio-authentic’ balance that irresistibly evokes a Saturday evening in a good-sized parish church (in this instance, St Jude on the Hill in Hampstead), filled to the rafters by friends and relations of the local choral society. The casting, however, is more glamorous than such an audience would have any right to expect...’ Peter Quantrill

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Concerto

Bacewicz Piano Concertos

Peter Jablonski, Elisabeth Brauß pfs Finnish RSO / Nicholas Collon (Ondine)

‘Jablonski is a seasoned Bacewicz crusader, with a fine solo album of her music to his name (3/22). Elisabeth Brauss, Nicholas Collon and the Finnish RSO match him for energy and aplomb. Altogether this is a disc as thought-provoking as it is engaging...’ David Fanning

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Britten Violin Concerto

Isabelle Faust vn Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Jakub Hrůša (Harmonia Mundi)

‘Faust’s sheer emotional commitment and musical finesse, as captured in stunningly integrated sound by the Bavarian engineers, now takes her right to the top of my modern tree...’ Geraint Lewis

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Rachmaninov Piano Concertos, Paganini Rhapsody

Yuja Wang pf Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra / Gustavo Dudamel (DG)

‘Alongside Wang’s signature fiery attack and uber-clarity at supersonic tempos, her phrasing is spacious and shapely, the broader ebb and flow always persuasive...’ David Fanning

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Contemporary

Award sponsored by PPL and PRS For Music

Unsuk Chin Orchestral Works

Berliner Philharmoniker / Sir Simon Rattle, Myung-Whun Chung, Sakari Oramo (Berliner Philharmoniker)

‘All six works included here underline what a diligent, imaginative and consistently engaging composer Chin is...’ Andrew Mellor

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Pohjola String Quartets Nos 5-7

The New Helsinki Quartet (Alba)

‘Frantic activity leads to music born more and more of total inspiration until it reaches a sort of exalted plane, and dies out. A remarkable piece...’ Andrew Mellor

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Saariaho Maan Varjot, Château de l’ame, True Fire, Offrande

Olivier Latry org Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Radio France)

‘There’s music on this valuable disc that I’ll return to while it reminds me, again, how the organ, her own instrument, could unlock such remarkable thoughts in her...’ Andrew Mellor

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Early Music

Josquin Motets & Chansons

Cut Circle / Jesse Rodin (Musique en Wallonie)

‘Josquin is a truly remarkable composer and Cut Circle’s superb energy is quite addictive...’ Edward Breen

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Obrecht Missa Maria zart

Cappella Pratensis / Stratton Bull (Challenge Classics)

‘This is clearly a well-honed performance, strongest in delicate moments...’ Edward Breen

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Schütz Italian Madrigals

Les Arts Florissants / Paul Agnew (Harmonia Mundi)

‘Their dynamism conjures exceptional declamations of hushed eroticism, bitter melancholy, breezes and laughter, and allusions to war and love...’ David Vickers

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Instrumental

JS Bach Bach’s Missing Pages – An Expanded Orgelbüchlein

Sietze de Vries org (Fugue State Films)

‘Is de Vries’s ersatz Bach convincing? The answer is a decisive ‘yes’. He is in total control of the idiom...’ Malcolm Riley

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JS Bach Complete Works for Keyboard, Vol 8: Köthen, 1717-1723

Benjamin Alard clav/hpd (Harmonia Mundi)

‘It’s the sort of music-making that, its intellectual grasp notwithstanding, clearly emanates from the heart...’ Patrick Rucker

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Ysaÿe Solo Violin Sonatas

Hilary Hahn vn (DG)

‘Hilary Hahn’s unique qualities – her rich, pulsing tone, her technical mastery, her unabashed confidence, her imagination and her ability to present the music as fresh-minted – inclines me towards her recording as the finest currently available...’ Rob Cowan

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Opera

Award sponsored by Mascarade Opera Foundation

Bertin Fausto

Soloists; Les Talens Lyriques, Flemish Radio Choir / Christophe Rousset (Bru Zane)

‘The performance is a knockout. Rousset conducts with blazing conviction, admirably sustaining the high emotional pitch without once tipping towards melodrama...’ Tim Ashley

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Janáček Katya Kabanova

Soloists; VPO / Jakub Hrůša (Unitel Edition (DVD))

‘Benjamin Hulett and Jarmila Balážová make a spirited and touching pair as Kudrjáš and Varvara, their scenes together beautifully done. Hrůša, meanwhile, is wonderful in this work, superbly judging its mixture of lyricism and tension...’ Tim Ashley

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Wagner Parsifal

Soloists; Wiener Staatsoper / Philippe Jordan (Sony Classical)

‘This is not conducting that draws attention to itself by means of extremes of tempo or hyper-refined textures. For a Parsifal to be led so vividly by the personalities on stage makes a welcome change...’ Peter Quantrill

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Orchestral

Award sponsored by Lark Music

Ravel Daphnis et Chloé

Sinfonia of London / John Wilson (Chandos)

‘For my money this is the finest recorded Daphnis for a generation...’ David Gutman

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Smetana Má vlast

Czech PO / Semyon Bychkov (Pentatone)

‘I think it’s Bychkov’s ability to relate phrasing to sound that is at the heart of his success here. He plainly relishes the orchestra’s natural blend while celebrating the beauty of its soloists...’ Edward Seckerson

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Vaughan Williams Job, Old King Cole & The Running Set

RLPO / Andrew Manze (Onyx)

‘Manze’s way with the ‘Epilogue’ approaches perfection in its tender compassion and glowing serenity. Overall, this is unquestionably a very fine achievement...’ Andrew Achenbach

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Piano

Awards sponsored by Kawai

Bartók, Janáček, Szymanowski Piano Works

Piotr Anderszewski pf (Warner Classics)

‘The range is vast; but giddy or sober, direct or disorientating, high-minded or venomous, each piece emerges, often startlingly, with its own flavour intact...’ Peter J Rabinowitz

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Chopin Études

Yunchan Lim pf (Decca)

‘Yunchan Lim’s Chopin Studies are a triumph, and to say that they bode well for his future is a colossal understatement...’ David Fanning

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Liszt Études d’exécution transcendante

Yunchan Lim pf (Steinway & Sons)

‘This is certainly one of the finest and most compelling performances of the Transcendental Études I have ever heard...’ Jeremy Nicholas

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Song

Beydts Mélodies & Songs

Cyrille Dubois ten Tristan Raës pf (Aparté)

‘Dubois is very much in his element with Beydts’s lyrical yet declamatory vocal writing, and the poetic quality of his singing, familiar from his Fauré, proves equally beguiling here...’ Tim Ashley

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Schubert Die schöne Müllerin

Konstantin Krimmel bar Daniel Heide pf (Alpha)

‘There’s certainly no shortage of outstanding recordings of this cycle but this new one – considered, refined and beautifully sung, played and recorded – is among the most satisfying and quietly moving to come my way for a long time...’ Hugo Shirley 

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‘But I like to sing…’

Carolyn Sampson sop Jack Liebeck vn Joseph Middleton pf (BIS)

‘It’s a portrait of an artist who has shown us many faces on those 100 discs but whose voice remains a constant: sweet, flexible, alive to the text. And always intelligent...’ Alexandra Coghlan

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Voice & Ensemble

Puccini ‘The Great Puccini’

Jonathan Tetelman ten PKF Prague Philharmonia / Carlo Rizzi (DG)

‘What a sound! Tetelman’s tenor possesses gleaming brightness, and his open vowels and excellent Italian diction make him the sunniest-sounding tenor since Luciano Pavarotti...’ Mark Pullinger

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‘In the Shadows’

Michael Spyres ten Les Talens Lyriques / Christophe Rousset (Erato)

‘This is another fine, fascinating album from an unusually interesting and intelligent artist, handsomely recorded...’ Hugo Shirley

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‘Paysage’

Véronique Gens sop Munich Radio Orchestra / Hervé Niquet (Alpha)

‘Gens is in quite splendid voice. Her soprano is in remarkably good shape, supple and elegant, her diction exemplary and her phrasing exquisite, deftly capturing the mood of each song...’ Mark Pullinger

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