As we write in the opening to our Awards section, it has been – and continues to be – a year like no other. And as James Jolly also writes on that page: ‘Thank goodness for recordings!’ Thank goodness indeed. For most of the people reading this, recordings have been the primary, perhaps only, way of experiencing classical music over this past difficult half-year.

Our Awards are always a time to step back and honour the achievements of the past 12 months – and this we certainly do, over a celebratory 34-page section highlighting those recordings which have been enriching, uplifting and entertaining. Writers – and we at Gramophone are as guilty as anyone of this – often reach for that phrase ‘golden age’ to capture the magnificence of a previous era. Well, as I look at the likes of Igor Levit, Benjamin Grosvenor, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Joyce DiDonato, Sandrine Piau, Nicky Spence, Masaaki Suzuki (and I’ll stop listing winners here for fear that if I go on any further I’ll make an entirely unintended statement by omission!), our generation seems as extraordinary as any. This year’s winning albums will form the basis of collections for decades to come, their interpretations benchmarks against which others will be judged.

One impact of the world situation has been the restriction on travel. Look down the cast list, as it were, of almost every one of our Award winners (both those behind the microphones and behind the scenes), and you’ll see it crosses countries if not continents; the recent absence of travel has been a painful reminder of just how global our family is. A few weeks ago I attended a virtual edition of the Beijing Forum for Performing Arts. There, spread across screen after screen of delegates, were the heads of orchestras, venue managers, musicians – the visionaries shaping music in their regions (including London, where it took an international conference to connect me with colleagues who live down the road!). As with all good conferences, differing ideas and solutions were explored and aired, but shared by the entire international community were the artistic ideals that underpin all music-making, and the deep desire to be back together again. Those bonds remain, and surely always will.

But if this is a point to step back, it would be wrong at such a moment not to acknowledge the deep difficulties facing those artists who so enrich our lives, whose work is severely limited, and whose chances to collaborate and communicate have been curtailed. All the albums celebrated here, even most of those reviewed elsewhere in the issue, were recorded pre-pandemic. And while it’s been heartening to know that, as restrictions have lifted little by little, recording sessions have revived (expect a lot of instrumental and chamber music albums next year!), the only certainty in the coming months is that great challenges remain. We are privileged to have so many superlative artists in our midst, and whether we hear them on record or radio or in concert halls, we salute them and wish them well, waiting with hope for happier times.

In a year like no other, we present a list of winners like no other. Every year is uniquely special – and, because music goes on, next year’s will be too.

This article appears in the Awards 2020 issue of Gramophone - available October 7