Recording of the Year & Opera Category

Puccini La fanciulla del West

Carol Neblett, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes; Royal Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Covent Garden / Zubin Mehta (DG) 

'Carol Neblett emerges as a superb recording artist with a voice which takes richly and smoothly to the microphone, at least as balanced here. It is a heart-warming performance from first to last.'

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Recording Category Winners

Chamber

Bartók Sonata for two pianos and percussion Debussy En blanc et noir Mozart Andante and Variations, K501

Martha Argerich, Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich pfs Willy Goudswaard, Michael de Roo perc (Philips)

'A remarkable and outstanding performance of both the Bartók and Debussy works. These readings are as strongly characterized as any I have ever heard either on records or in the concert hall.'

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Choral

Handel Dixit Dominus. Zadok the Priest

Felicity Palmer, Margaret Marshall, John Angelo Messana, Charles Brett, Richard Morton, Alastair Thompson, David Wilson-Johnson; Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra / John Eliot Gardiner with Nicholas Kraemer hpd Malcolm Hicks org (Erato) 

'The singing and playing is extraordinarily vivid, at times even vehement, every detail of Handel's exhilarating and virtuoso writing given due prominence.'

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Concerto

Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 1. Romeo and Juliet - Scena; Dance of the young girls with lilies Ravel Concerto in D major for the left hand. Pavane pour une infante défunte

Andrei Gavrilov pf London Symphony Orchestra / Simon Rattle (HMV Melodiya) Reviewed September 1978.

'This newcomer is second to none in both works and in terms of sheer pianistic wizardry superior to most. This is riveting playing of real temperament and personality.'

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Contemporary 

Webern Complete Music, Vol 1

Various artists and ensembles / Pierre Boulez (CBS Masterworks)

'Restraint is naturally the keynote, but the music's eloquent lyricism is never repressed, and moments of drama are the more powerful for the clarity with which essential formal relationships are projected.'

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Early Music

Handel Acis and Galatea 

Norma Burrowes, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Martyn Hill, Paul Elliot, Willard White; English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner with Nicholas Kraemer hpd (Archiv)

'Gardiner's performance is wonderfully stylish and pleasing.'

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Historical 

Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice

Kathleen Ferrier, Greet Koeman, Nel Duval; Netherlands Opera Chorus and Orchestra / Charles Bruck (HMV)

'From the very first cries of "Euridice", we know that we are in the presence of an artist who could drain tears from a stone; they are urgent, pleading.'

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Instrumental

Liszt Variations on 'Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen' . Fantasia and Fugue on the theme B.A.C.H. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses – No 3, Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude; No 4, Pensées des morts

Alfred Brendel pf (Philips)

'Every piece on this record is specially illuminated, and I shall be surprised if, at the end of the year, we do not rank it high among the pianistic achievements on record for 1978, the clarity of the fugue on Bach's name, the thoughts about death, so characteristic and original. It is a great record of any decade.'

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Orchestral

Mozart Symphonies No 25 in G minor, K183; No 29 in A major, K201

English Chamber Orchestra / Benjamin Britten (Decca) 

'The mellowness and sensitivity of Britten's performances are matched by the warmth of the Decca recording, which ably reproduces the Snape sound. To my mind, the Britten disc is a revelation.'

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Solo Vocal

Chausson Poème de l'amour et de la mer Duparc Songs

Dame Janet Baker mez London Symphony Orchestra / André Previn (HMV) 

'Compared with Victoria de los Angeles's HMV recording, Dame Janet's is more dramatic, darker and heavier in tone and less refined, though more intense, at climaxes. Previn is a strongly supporting accompanist and the quality of the recording is good.'

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