Gramophone's Orchestra of the Year Award is the only Gramophone Classical Music Award decided by public vote (vote here). The 10 orchestras nominated this year are:

BBC Philharmonic (UK), Berliner Philharmoniker (Germany), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (USA), Le Concert des Nations (Spain), Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Germany), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Finland), London Philharmonic Orchestra (UK), Orchestre de Paris (France), National Symphony Orchestra (USA)

This week, we focus on ...

Berliner Philharmoniker (Germany)

For magnificent musicianship from top to bottom, ensemble-playing that speaks of a long-cultivated heritage and a chief conductor who really know how to rehearse and then let the magic happen in concert, the mighty Berliner Philharmoniker have few competitors. Shostakovich symphonies from Kirill Petrenko in May were very fine (‘Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic have few rivals for dynamic streamlined brilliance,’ wrote ES), but – rather more off the beaten path (though they gave the work’s premiere in 1913) – Ruud Langgaard’s First Symphony finds inspired interpreters in the Berliners under Sakari Oramo’s committed advocacy, bringing virtuosity and genuine character to music of a far from familiar idiom.

Langgaard Symphony No 1 Sakari Oramo (Dacapo, 1./23)

Vote for the Berliner Philharmoniker

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