Gramophone Classical Music Awards 1980
Thursday, March 27, 2025
A look back at the winning recordings of the 1980 Gramophone Classical Music Awards. featuring Charles Mackerras, Trevor Pinnock, Bernard Haitink and Krystian Zimerman
Recording of the Year and Operatic category
Janáček From the House of the Dead
Jiří Zahradníček, Iva Zídek, Václav Zítek; Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Charles Mackerras (Decca)
Producer: James Mallinson; Engineers: James Lock, Colin Moorfoot; Digital Engineer: Michael Mailes
The series of Janáček's operas conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras for Decca has become one of the most exciting gramophone projects of the day, with each issue a major event. This new digital recording of From the House of the Dead is no exception.
Sir Charles has known and understood this music ever since his student days in Prague, and his feeling for its style and idiom has deepened with the years. He conducts the work with a contained passion that totally avoids sentimentality. Janáček's style, always tending toward the brief, pregnant idea, is never more laconic than here, and Sir Charles is a complete master of it.
The cast is equally adept: to single out the artists here would be inappropriate, as the work has no central hero. One of the great characteristics of this set is the sense of total absorption in the music. The singers have captured the succinctness of the idiom and the necessity to make points briefly and accurately.
This is even more true of the version we now have, thanks to the establishment of the true score by John Tyrrell: the sound is sparer, more like chamber music than in former versions. The keen differentiation between instruments is reflected in a clear, sharp recording that reveals the full subtlety and originality of Janáček's ideas. Scholarship and creative understanding go hand in hand in what is a real contribution to knowledge. John Warrack
Chamber
Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor, Op 34
Maurizio Pollini pf Quartetto Italiano (DG)
Producer: Rainer Brock; Engineer: Klaus Scheibe
Most Brahms enthusiasts, I suspect, would agree that the Piano Quintet is his most exciting chamber work, and when it is supported by a quite unusually exciting performance, it really does carry all before it. In this recording, I am confident you will find an exceptional degree of inspiration in both the music and the way it is played. Back in 1960, I had the great pleasure of reviewing in these columns the first Pollini recording to be issued in Britain – Chopin's Piano Concerto in E minor – and, if you'll forgive the cliché, he swept me off my feet. He's been doing so ever since, and I was glad to see that his recording of two Bartók concertos won an award last year. He dominates this Brahms Piano Quintet, at times perhaps a little more than he should, but this does give the performance a special quality. In the slow movement, Brahms obviously wanted piano domination and wrote accordingly, and in all four movements, the admirable Quartetto Italiano contribute fully, notably in the Scherzo, which receives the most exuberant and thrilling performance I can recall. And what an absolutely stunning movement it is when played like this! But all four movements have an almost mesmeric tension, a positively creative musicality; your attention is gripped, your absorption demanded as of right. The sound is splendidly rounded and full, especially the piano tone. Roger Fiske
Historical (vocal)
Fernando de Lucia The Gramophone Company Recordings, 1902-1909
Fernando de Lucia ten with various accompaniments (Rubini mono)
Producer: Desmond Shawe-Taylor; Engineers: Michael Henstock, Vivian Lift
What can be more important in an historical reissue than to recall for us the style and performing tradition of a bygone age? Nowhere in the year under consideration has that been more thoroughly or revealingly done than in Rubini's comprehensive album of Fernando de Lucia's G&T records made between 1902 and 1909. Here, in a very wide repertory, we capture the individuality, elegance, and refinement of a bygone age of singing, that of the mid- and late-nineteenth century. It is a tradition that was largely obscured when Caruso, with his fabulous voice and powerful style, gave the twentieth century another style.
A contemporary described De Lucia as a 'mosaic tenor,' one who could enchant the ear with his delicate, distinctive phrasing. He was also said to be able to make his listeners 'forget mundane cares' as they heard him, carrying them into the 'boundless sky'; something of that character in his interpretations can be gleaned 70 and more years later on these discs, which have been truthfully refurbished and presented at the right pitch, through the combined and loving efforts of Michael Henstock, Vivian Liff, and Desmond Shawe-Taylor. At last, we can appreciate the limpid, graceful delivery of De Lucia's Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, the tenderness of his Faust and Romeo, the exquisite finesse of his Lohengrin. Alan Blyth
Historical (non-vocal)
Bartók Mikrokosmos (excerpts), Contrasts for violin, clarinet, and piano
Béla Bartók pf Joseph Szigeti vn Benny Goodman cl (CBS Classics)
The gramophone has accumulated a vast repertoire of recordings of permanent value, and so the Historical category has been divided into vocal and instrumental departments. Even so, competition in the latter remained intense. My colleagues (Malcolm Macdonald and Robert Layton) and I had an arduous task in reducing a so-called shortlist of about two dozen items to just one. Some of the strongest runners, such as Gieseking's Debussy recordings (HMV, 9/80), had been predictable, but others might occasion surprise, like the reissue of Harold Samuel's Bach performances (Pearl, 11/80).
In the end, however, 'Bartók plays Bartók' seemed the right and natural choice, for it presents one of our century's greatest composers, who was also a great pianist, in works of his own. On one side, he is heard in excerpts from the Mikrokosmos series, and the profound musicality of his playing scarcely needs emphasis. On the other side, he is found with Joseph Szigeti and Benny Goodman in Contrasts, a work they jointly commissioned and gave the first performances of. Here, then, is some living musical history, recordings that will be of as much interest in a hundred years' time as they are now, a demonstration of the gramophone's true value. Max Harrison
Choral
Handel L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato – Parts 1 and 2
Patrizia Kwella, Maria McLaughlin, Jennifer Smith sops Michael Ginn treb Maldwyn Davies, Martyn Hill tens Stephen Varcoe bar Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner (Erato)
Producer: Michael Garcin; Engineer: Pierre Lavoix
I'll always be happy to welcome as an award winner any major work by Purcell or Handel which John Eliot Gardiner conducts; he has a flair for such music. L'Allegro is not so well known as it should be; as in Handel's day, its lack of either plot or religious overtones tells against it. This is not really an oratorio, as composer and poet are intent on charming rather than improving the listener. It was a good idea of Jennens to contrive a libretto which alternated between Milton's L'Allegro and his Il Penseroso, as this allowed for plenty of musical contrast and gave Handel a rare opportunity to set fine poetry. Because Milton is here at his least solemn, Handel is at his least solemn too, and the succession of short piquant items, some of them redolent of the countryside, is like nothing else in his output. It was rash of Jennens to try to rival Milton with a third section, Il Moderato, but Gardiner shows that apart from the final chorus, its music is much more interesting than writers have generally allowed. He is much to be thanked for making the whole of this delightful score sound so sprightly and attractive.
The orchestral playing is a joy, the chorus singing lively, and the soloists never less than pleasing, Patrizia Kwella, Jennifer Smith, and Martyn Hill being outstanding. It is an unexpected bonus to have a good boy treble to sing the songs Handel intended for a boy. Balance and quality are just what an award winner should have. Roger Fiske
Contemporary
Birtwistle Punch and Judy
Stephen Roberts, Jan DeGaetani, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Philip Langridge, David Wilson-Johnson, John Tomlinson; London Sinfonietta / David Atherton (Decca/NMC)
Producer: James Mallinson; Engineer: Stanley Goodall
On the face of it, it was a courageous decision to record an opera which few potential listeners will have had the opportunity of experiencing in the theatre (it has not been performed on stage in this country – inexplicably – for over ten years). A shrewd decision too, though, since Punch and Judy is in many ways an ideal opera for gramophone listening, especially in a performance as vividly direct as this one. Its imagery is so gripping, the bewildering ingenuities of its narrative are so compelling that the imagination is forced to build its own stage and scenery amid which Birtwistle's horridly all-too-half-human puppets can stalk and gibber through their ceremonies of pride and violence. On repeated hearing, the initial impact of the work does not diminish, but the moments of sober gravity, fevered calm, and poignant delicacy grow to achieve their own memorability.
The complex structure of the opera, an elaborate pattern of reflections, recurrences, variations, and cross-references, intensifies the sense of ritual, of a myth relentlessly unfolding. It is, indeed, an almost endlessly fascinating opera that insists on being heard again and again, an imaginative tour-de-force of a very high order. The singers, the orchestra, and, not least, the recording are fully equal to the strenuous demands that Birtwistle makes of them. Michael Oliver
Early Music
CPE Bach Symphonies, Wq182
English Concert / Trevor Pinnock hpd (Archiv Produktion)
Producer: Andreas Hoischneider; Recording Supervisor: Gerd Ploebsch; Engineer: Klaus Scheibe
As with last year's Award, I and my colleagues took as one of our main criteria for what constitutes 'early music' the manner of performance, which had to show an appreciation of the original sonorities and ways of interpretation. But we were also concerned that the music itself should be of substantial worth, and we favoured enterprise, preferring works not generally available to those of which there were several other recordings (though in practice, there were surprisingly few really outstanding records of pieces in the standard repertoire this year). The symphonies of CPE Bach, written on the commission of Baron van Swieten, fulfil these conditions well: strong, perhaps eccentric music, large in scale and manner, well argued in the sense that CPE Bach, like Haydn, 'worried' his themes, yet full of bold gestures. Although scored just for strings, the orchestration sounds grander.
The performance by the English Concert has an assurance that is even now rare when 'original' instruments are used, with secure intonation and good tone. It makes the most of Bach's rapid changes of dynamics. In other words, it reveals the considerable qualities of the music. Its rival for the Award, Le Chansonnier Cordiforme recorded by The Consort of Musicke, an excellent example of a scholarly enterprise well executed, could not quite match this, either in the consistent qualities of the music or performance. But there is no doubt that this record of CPE Bach is outstanding. Denis Arnold
Engineered
Debussy Nocturnes. Jeux
Concertgebouw Orchestra / Bernard Haitink (Philips)
Balance Engineer/Producer: Volker Straus
Engineering quality has always played an important part in the success of a recording. Now, in these days of high fidelity, we demand ever higher technical standards, and it is gratifying to find the gramophone companies responding. Thus, our quarterly feature 'Sounds in Retrospect' has reported a good number of discs with sumptuous sound, sensitive balance, and lifelike dynamics.
In 1979, we saw the introduction of digital tape mastering, from which LP records with new standards of transient crispness and steady bass could be made. Several 'digital' discs were strong candidates for the 1980 Best Engineered Recording Award – such as the Simon Rattle/Bournemouth Mahler Symphony No 10 (HMV, 12/80), the Bonynge/Sutherland Massenet Le Roi de Lahore (Decca, 11/80), and the Karajan/Berlin Mozart Die Zauberflöte (DG, 10/80).
After lengthy listening sessions, we have chosen a recording that is not digital but possesses all the technical virtues. Philips has built up a tradition of beautiful recordings of the Concertgebouw Orchestra under its chief conductor Bernard Haitink. In Debussy's Trois Nocturnes and Jeux, the tonmeister Volker Straus lets us hear every tiniest detail of orchestral colour – not to mention the women's voices in 'Sirènes' – distanced to perfection in the warmly embracing Concertgebouw acoustics. Background noises are totally absent, and there is no tampering with dynamics – just an enthralling flow of completely natural light and shade. John Borwick
Concerto
Ravel Piano Concerto in G. Piano Concerto in D for the Left Hand
Jean-Philippe Collard pf French National Orchestra / Lorin Maazel (HMV)
Producer: Eric Macleod; Engineer: Paul Vavasseur
I take it as axiomatic that an award-winning concerto record should be able to hold its own alongside any alternative version of that coupling. It goes without saying that there have been distinguished versions of both Ravel concertos: Michelangeli's classic account of the G major is still available (HMV, 9/74), and in the Left-Hand Concerto, there are memorable performances from the late Julius Katchen (Decca, 5/70) and Andrei Gavrilov (HMV, 9/75). The latter, coupled with the Prokofiev First Concerto, was voted the best concerto record of 1975.
Though there have been some fine records of both Ravel concertos coupled together, I cannot say that any of them is superior to Jean-Philippe Collard's account with the Orchestre National de France under Maazel.
As I said in my original review, Collard brings great tendresse to bear on the more reflective moments of the Left-Hand Concerto, and there is much delicacy of feeling both here and in its companion. Nor is there any lack of poetry or brilliance. Moreover, neither concerto has ever been so well recorded: the texture is marvellously transparent and well-defined, and the orchestral playing under Lorin Maazel, as anyone who knows his records of the Ravel operas will expect, is quite magical. Robert Layton
Instrumental
Brahms Piano Sonatas: No 1 in C, Op 1; No 2 in F sharp minor, Op 2
Krystian Zimerman pf (DG)
Producer: Hanno Rinke; Engineer: Wolfgang Mitlehner
Though the common image of Brahms is of a stout, bearded gentleman of advancing years, he, too, was young once – perhaps even younger when writing his first two piano sonatas than Krystian Zimerman (born in December 1956) was when he recorded them. I think Brahms would be the first to applaud this particular 'critics' choice,' especially since, for all his romantic warmth and drive, Zimerman, like Brahms himself, never allows feeling to run away with him.
Both performances are underpinned by a solid respect for that classical discipline so cherished by the composer. As I remarked when first reviewing the record, I personally thought both slow movements were marginally too slow for Brahms's Andante markings. However, Zimerman has Julius Katchen on his side – if not Arrau in Op 2. I also questioned his deliberation in the Scherzo of Op 2, and there was one brief departure from the composer's precise indications in the approach to the recapitulation in the first movement of Op 1.
But whatever he does, Zimerman brings a mellow sympathy and conviction, belying his tender years. His approach to Brahms is entirely consistent. As piano playing, pure and simple, the performances are exemplary in clarity, control, tonal warmth – and bravura, too, in the flanking movements of Op 2.
Since the only other available coupling of the two sonatas from the devoted Brahmsian Julius Katchen is beginning to show its age (it was recorded back in 1964), this mellifluous new issue deserves to sweep the board. Joan Chissell
Orchestral
Debussy Nocturnes. Jeux
Concertgebouw Orchestra / Bernard Haitink (Philips)
Balance Engineer/Producer: Volker Straus
I don't think that I've heard more beautiful orchestral sounds, recorded or live, during 1980 than those on this disc (the cassette, too, I understand, is exceptionally fine). Few scores place more difficulties in the path of conductor, orchestra, and recording engineer than that enigmatically understated masterpiece Jeux. Debussy himself spoke of sounds 'illuminated from behind,' produced by 'an orchestra floating above the ground.' He compared the fluidity of the work to the unpredictably complex patterns of a game of tennis, yet insisted on the unity of the music, the subtle thematic threads that bind together its seemingly wayward episodes.
Haitink is marvellously responsive to Debussy's ever-shifting colours and subtly-hatched textures, but the connecting thread is never lost, despite a leisured overall pace and flexible rubato within it. There is rhythmic alertness, too (we are reminded that Jeux is a 'poème dansé'), and an awareness of the shadows and chills that fall disconcertingly across the music from time to time.
Haitink's account of the Nocturnes is hardly less remarkable in its combination of sensuous richness, delicate precision, and exhilarating energy – it is a performance that invites and withstands the highest comparisons. The standard of orchestral playing is extremely high – woodwind soli and sumptuous yet transparent strings especially – and the recording is outstanding in its clarity and natural perspective.
In every way, an exceptionally distinguished issue. Michael Oliver
Solo Vocal
A Shropshire Lad Musical Settings of Housman
Graham Trew bar Roger Vignoles pf (Meridian)
Producer: John East; Engineer: John Shuttleworth
When voting in an Award class, one naturally tends to be a bit 'possessive' about a record one has originally reviewed and been enthusiastic about from the start. Yet enough of my colleagues have voted the same way, and I can only congratulate this young singer, Graham Trew, whose recording debut this was, and his partner, Roger Vignoles, on their success.
This section of the Gramophone Awards is a particularly difficult one in which to vote, containing as it did everything from a grand scena for voice and orchestra, to some of the greatest Lieder with piano, and English song. Without detracting from the artistry of these two young performers, it would be unfair not to say that a great deal of credit goes to John Michael East and CW Orr (who died in 1976), who provided lists of Housman settings – some of them almost forgotten – for Graham Trew to work on.
Trew ended up with about 75 baritone settings, from which he selected the 38 recorded on these discs. The result is not only a splendid variety of settings but also includes four complete cycles (by Somervell, Butterworth, Moeran, and Gurney). There is also the fascination of hearing how very differently several composers have treated the same poem.
Graham Trew, as I said in my original review, has a voice that is 'a pleasure to hear; he uses it with great artistry and variety, while his diction is quite remarkable, especially for its extraordinary clarity.' Finally, a word of praise to Meridian Records – not only for their admirable recording. They showed faith in Trew from his Wigmore Hall recital in 1978, when he sang the Somervell cycle, and gave him this large assignment on the strength of it. It is splendid to find a company acting as a good impresario should – finding new talent and giving it a chance in public. Trevor Harvey
