Gramophone Classical Music Awards 1988
Friday, June 20, 2025
Simon Rattle triumphed in 1988 with his account of Mahler's Second Symphony with the CBSO winning Recording of the Year
Recording of the Year and Orchestral Category
Mahler Symphony No 2
Arleen Augér sop Dame Janet Baker; City of Birmingham Chorus and Symphony Orchestra / Simon Rattle (EMI/Warner Classics)
Producer: David R. Murray; Engineer: Michael Sheady
Before listening to this recording after a gap of some months during which I have heard and reviewed several other performances of this and other Mahler symphonies, I wondered: will it sound as good as I thought at first? Did I go ‘over the top’ in my review last October? The answers, in the light of a re-hearing, are an emphatic ‘yes’ to the first question and an equally firm ‘no’ to the second.
A great performance will always take precedence for me over a magnificent technical achievement in recording quality, but here we have both in a work that, on the gramophone, needs both. The EMI engineers surpassed themselves on this occasion and all the thrills of Rattle’s careful balancing of the Judgement Day finale are reflected in the recording. As I wrote before, an acoustic triumph. Rattle’s interpretation is in the grand tradition, worthy to be ranked with those by Klemperer and Walter for its insights and with Bernstein for its excitement. The CBSO’s playing is of the very highest class, with a meticulous but never mannered attention to dynamics, the chorus is equally fine and both Dame Janet Baker and Arleen Augér are individually on top form and blend ideally. Michael Kennedy
Chamber
Mendelssohn Violin Sonatas
Shlomo Mintz vn Paul Ostrovsky pf (DG)
Producers: Steven Paul and Wolfgang Stengel; Engineer: Klaus Scheibe
Mendelssohn's F minor Violin Sonata bears the influence of Beethoven and Mozart, and that is what one would expect of a German composer in his early teens who was growing up in the 1820s. But the work has an astonishing boldness and maturity as well, and a high quality, a very spring-like vein of inspiration. And if Mendelssohn makes little attempt to conceal his influences, they are translated into a style which is already highly individual.
Mintz and Ostrovsky clearly have much respect for the work's character and substance, and they play in a strong, serious fashion. They form a wonderfully responsive partnership where sensitivity and fine artistry are equally evident, and Mintz plays with the most beautiful quality of tone and an immaculate technique. The F major Sonata is a product of Mendelssohn's maturity, but lay in unpublished obscurity until rescued by Sir Yehudi Menuhin in 1953. It's another fine work, polished and accomplished, but perhaps a little less inspired than the F minor Sonata. Mintz and Ostrovsky again find just the right blend of vitality and sensitivity in their performance, which serves the work to very best advantage. How good it is to have little-known but first-rate Mendelssohn played in such caring and characterful fashion. The recording is outstandingly warm and natural. Alan Sanders
Choral
Verdi Requiem. Opera Choruses
Susan Dunn sop Diane Curry mez Jerry Hadley ten Paul Plishka bass Atlanta Symphony Chorus and Orchestra / Robert Shaw (Telarc/Conifer)
Producer: Robert Woods; Engineer: Jack Renner
So many famous hands have had a go at recording this ever-popular masterpiece, yet most of them have failed with it for one reason or another. Here Robert Shaw, a supreme choral trainer of our day but not an internationally renowned conductor, succeeds with it by dint of his unforced, yet always accurate and noble reading, one that allows the music to speak for itself rather than interpreting it in an egotistical manner. It goes almost without saying that the singing of his own Atlanta chorus is technically superb and totally committed. They are greatly helped by the widest-ranging and most immediate recording I have yet heard of this big-scale work.
To crown the achievement, there is as well-blended a team of soloists as I have heard in the Requiem, which is not to say that they are not impressive on their own. Indeed, Susan Dunn, the highly promising young soprano, sings her solos with both strong, confident tone and sensitivity to Verdi's markings. The other three all contribute to the sense of unassuming dedication that informs this reading throughout. Everything is well prepared so that the overall unanimity of approach can be felt throughout. Alan Blyth
Concerto
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 2
Peter Donohoe pf Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Rudolf Barshai, with Nigel Kennedy vn Steven Isserlis vc (EMI/Warner Classics)
Producer: Andrew Keener; Engineer: Mike Clements
Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto has always been a Cinderella work, dwarfed by its famous big brother in B flat minor. Several generations of music lovers have come to know it in a truncated version made by its earliest advocate, Siloti, who excised the concertante violin and cello contributions to the Andante, which made the work so original and indeed ahead of its time. The inspirational new recording by Peter Donohoe and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Rudolf Barshai removes past accretions at a stroke and reveals the concerto as masterly – much finer than had hitherto been realized.
Barshai's exhilarating Allegro brillante in the first movement transforms the music, while Nigel Kennedy and Steven Isserlis add much to beguile the listener in the concertante sections of the Andante. In partnership with Donohoe they reveal the glowing beauty of Tchaikovsky's principal melody and the imaginative resource of his treatment of it. The recording is a great credit to producer Andrew Keener and balance engineer Mike Clements. Made in the Poole Arts Centre, it is superbly balanced with a firm, realistic piano image placed against a rich yet clearly defined orchestral tapestry. Ivan March
Contemporary
Birtwistle Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum. Silbury Air. Secret Theatre
London Sinfonietta / Elgar Howarth (Etcetera/Harmonia Mundi/NMC)
Producer: Roy Emerson; Engineer: Martin Haskell
The recent successes of Sir Harrison Birtwistle – especially his operas The Mask of Orpheus and Yan Tan Tethera – have had one predictable result: the occasional whisper that such success may have more to do with media hype than genuine merit. But the genuine merit of the music on this disc seems to me beyond dispute. Both Silbury Air and Secret Theatre are exciting as well as imposing compositions, whether one approaches them primarily in terms of their rich instrumental colours and local rhythmic impetus, or whether it is the large-scale balancing and interweaving of formal elements that absorbs one’s attention.
This is a record whose rewards will not be quickly exhausted, not least because the performances have such conviction and the recordings are so spacious and lifelike. The disc may not represent all aspects of Birtwistle: there is nothing vocal or operatic. But it does reveal him at his most ambitious and imaginative, especially in Secret Theatre. The more one hears all three pieces, the more the music's range of moods and resources comes across. Birtwistle tempers an innate seriousness with sharp wit. In its energy, as well as its sheer instinctive assurance, this music reinforces Birtwistle’s claim to the mantle of Stravinsky. Arnold Whittall
Early Music (Medieval and Renaissance)
The Service of Venus and Mars
Andrew Lawrence-King medieval hp Gothic Voices / Christopher Page (Hyperion)
Producer: Martin Compton; Engineer: Tony Faulkner
You can hear why this won an Award right from the beginning of the first band: a rich, clear sound with excitement in virtually every note, as Margaret Philpot and Rogers Covey-Crump rollick their way through Philippe de Vitry’s rhythmical intricacies. Go on through the record, and you can’t help noticing that in each piece the singing has its own colour: it is a virtuoso display of the different approaches (whether in tone production, intonation, tempo or scoring) appropriate to an anthology of works covering over a century of musical history. Gothic Voices seem to have moved into a new gear with this record. And whenever there is the slightest danger that the ear may tire of unaccompanied vocal sound, there is an interlude with Andrew Lawrence-King weaving magic on his harp.
But there is surely another reason for the prize. The record is a ‘concept album’ put together with uncanny skill. Christopher Page’s fascinating notes belong in a special category by themselves, supported with well-chosen pictures to create a mood receptive to this unfamiliar music. And he is lucky to have the support of Hyperion, who clearly do not begrudge the extra cost and care needed for the presentation. David Fallows
Early Music (Baroque)
Leclair Scylla et Glaucus
Donna Brown, Rachel Yakar, Catherine Dubosc, Agnès Mellon, Françoise Golfier sops Howard Crook ten René Schirrer bar Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists / John Eliot Gardiner (Erato/RCA)
Producer: Yolanta Skura; Engineers: Pierre Lavoix and Catherine Lhoste
Leclair's reputation was built almost entirely upon his talent as a violinist and composer for his instrument. Yet in 1746, when Leclair was 50 years old, his one and only opera, the tragédie en musique, Scylla et Glaucus, was premiered by the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris. Like his contemporary Rameau, Leclair handles the disparate elements of French Baroque opera – airs, recitatives, choruses and symphonies – in a masterly and assured way which belies his apparent inexperience in this elaborate form of entertainment. John Eliot Gardiner’s affection for late-Baroque French music is well known, and in this recording his happy blend of intuition, experience and musicianship has resulted in a sparkling performance of an enchanting opera.
The cast is a strong one with notably fine contributions from Rachel Yakar (Circé), Donna Brown (Scylla) and Howard Crook (Glaucus). The Monteverdi Choir sing with effortless vitality and the English Baroque Soloists are unfailingly responsive to the varied demands made upon them by this subtly inflected and beautifully orchestrated music. Erato too are to be congratulated on backing such a major project, on recording it sympathetically, and on presenting it clearly and helpfully. Nicholas Anderson
Instrumental
Poulenc Piano Works
Pascal Rogé pf (Decca)
Producer: Michael Haas; Engineer: John Pellowe
In his review of this disc Michael Oliver was seen to be positively dancing with delight; and I cannot imagine anybody except the most unbending doctrinaire or entrenched curmudgeon reacting very differently. If Poulenc’s music presents a bewildering assortment both of styles (from the gracefully lyrical to the outrageously hectic) and of influences (Chopin, Schubert, Couperin, Stravinsky and the music hall are all detectable) and is short on profundity, it nevertheless somehow manages to combine them in an idiom of impudently engaging charm and freshness; and the occasional over-the-top eruption can be forgiven as one would forgive an occasional naughtiness by a high-spirited child.
Pascal Rogé’s selection here, in any case, leans towards the more poetic Poulenc, and his performances are outstanding for their clarity, tenderness and sensitivity – though there is sheer brilliance where it is called for, as in the Soirées de Nazelles cycle and fireworks like the Toccata from the Trois pièces (which he plays a good deal more tidily than their composer, who went for the hell-for-leather). So much enjoyment is to be found here that I am sure many people will hope that Rogé will follow this up with another selection from Poulenc’s piano output. Lionel Salter
Period Performance
Haydn Mass in D minor, ‘Nelson’. Te Deum in C major
Felicity Lott sop Carolyn Watkinson contr Maldwyn Davies ten David Wilson-Johnson bass-bar The English Concert and Choir / Trevor Pinnock (Archiv Produktion)
Producers: Andreas Holschneider, Charlotte Kreisch and Gerd Ploebsch; Engineer: Hans-Peter Schweigmann
The British admiral had routed the Napoleonic fleet at the Battle of the Nile just as Haydn was putting pen to paper for his Nelson Mass. Of all the composer’s works, this Missa in Angustiis – the ‘Mass in straightened times’, as he called it – begs most loudly to be recorded on period instruments. The dry rattle of the timpani, the pungency of the long trumpets focus keenly the distinctive sonorities and the highly charged tempos of the work, as Trevor Pinnock’s performance so excitingly discloses. The dissonances of the Kyrie bite deep; the finely pointed, near vibrato-less string playing, and Pinnock’s pacing of the Gloria’s fast–slow–fast triptych, re-create exactly its nervous sensibility.
The balance of the young professional English Concert Choir with the instrumental forces is meticulous, with every inflexion and point of phrasing minutely observed. Pinnock’s soloists, too, have been carefully chosen to highlight the tone values of his palette in this bracing and enriching performance. Hilary Finch
Operatic
Britten Paul Bunyan
Pop Wegner bar James Lawless narr Clifton Ware, Vern Sutton, Dan Dressen tens Elisabeth Comeaux Nelson sop Merle Fristad bass Plymouth Music Series Chorus and Orchestra / Philip Brunelle (Virgin Classics/Erato)
Producer: Steve Barnett; Engineer: Preston Smith
It is encouraging and satisfying to learn that this recording has been voted first in the Opera section. Here, beautifully recorded, is an exuberant, witty and touching performance of a score that it still seems almost incredible to believe was virtually abandoned as a failure by its composer. We owe much to Donald Mitchell for having persuaded Britten to look at it again in 1974 and now to Virgin Classics for their enterprise in having made it one of their first releases.
The more I hear Paul Bunyan, the more enjoyable I find it, the more important it seems for a full assessment of Britten, and the more admirable is the whole spirit of this performance. It is not a work that requires ‘star’ singers, but a high level of achievement is very necessary and, even more, a real sense of ensemble. Philip Brunelle has obtained a performance that is polished and yet still has something of the amateur (in the best sense) approach that suits a work written for university undergraduates. A feature of the score which becomes more evident as one listens to this entrancing recording is Britten’s use of a variety of instrumental ensembles to give his music pungency – sometimes no strings, sometimes a full sound, at other times like chamber music. He knew his Mahler, even then! Michael Kennedy
Solo Vocal
Schubert Die schöne Müllerin
Olaf Bär bar Geoffrey Parsons pf (EMI/Warner Classics)
Producer: Horst Kunze; Engineer: Hans-Jürgen Seifert
Olaf Bär had no less than three records in the running for this year’s Award in this section. Any might have won it, since it seems that the young Dresden baritone has captured the hearts of many reviewers just as he has done that of loyal recital aficionados for the high calibre of his Lieder interpretation. As in all his records and live performances, Bär’s innate musicality, as shown in control of tone, natural phrasing and refined legato, can be heard throughout this sensitive performance – sensitive to the youthful eagerness of the young lover and his later vulnerability to emotional stress.
He is sympathetically partnered by his pianist, Geoffrey Parsons, with the accord between the two self-evident and reflected in the finely balanced recording. Making scarcely perceptible breaks between the songs, the artists conceive the cycle as a single span of experience that becomes almost mesmeric in its effect. Though one may still prefer a tenor in this work, Bär’s voice sounds so light and boyish as to convince one on this occasion that a baritone is just as rewarding in it. Alan Blyth
Historical (non-vocal)
Brahms. Sibelius Violin Concertos
Ginette Neveu vn Philharmonia Orchestra / Issay Dobrowen, Walter Susskind (EMI/Warner Classics)
Producer: Walter Legge; Engineer: Arthur Clarke; Remastering Engineer: Keith Hardwick
When Alec Robertson reviewed the Sibelius Concerto in 1946 he called it ‘without doubt a great performance – a performance so incandescent that at the end I felt like bursting into flames myself.’ It was the first to have been recorded after the Heifetz/Beecham account (Anja Ignatius’s wartime set made in Berlin under the baton of Sibelius’s son-in-law, Armas Järnefelt, was never issued here and the 1943 Kulenkampff/Furtwängler was a radio recording). Neveu’s playing is wonderfully alive both here and in the Brahms Concerto recorded the following year.
As I said in my original review: ‘Apart from the panache and brilliance, there is a wonderful sense of freedom and space here; and there is momentum but no sense of the bar-line.’ These are performances of vision and no mean degree of spirituality, charged with feeling, tempered throughout by fine musical discipline. The recordings are further testimony to the musical judgement of Walter Legge and the expertise of Keith Hardwick, who has made such an excellent job of the transfers. Robert Layton
Historical (vocal)
Feodor Chaliapin 1873–1938
Feodor Chaliapin bass with various artists (EMI Treasury mono)
Remastering Engineer: Keith Hardwick
Chaliapin, everyone agreed, had to be seen. But when they said that, they reckoned without two things: his power of acting with the voice, and our ability to see with our ears. The Treasury issue confirms this, as (for instance) in the 1931 recording of Boris Godunov’s Monologue and Clock Scene, the ghost of the murdered Czarevich materializes in the corner of the recording studio – or before our mind’s eyes – as surely as it became a real presence on stage for Chaliapin’s audiences in Moscow, Paris or London.
The first three sides in this selection go to Russian opera, then comes the Italian and French repertoire (magnificent 1912 Robert le diable, gloriously lyrical Lakmé of 1908), then songs, finishing with some of those richly coloured recordings he made with the Russian Choir in Paris. Dates range from 1902 to 1936, which brought the superbly ironical Flea Song recorded in Tokyo. Some have long been cornerstones of any collection of great performances; many are rare; several have been previously unpublished. In all of them, the transfers bring the voice forward with wonderful clarity; and, if the ears need help in visualizing, there are excellent photographs from Victor Borovsky’s book on Chaliapin, published by Hamish Hamilton simultaneously with this handsomely boxed set. John Steane
Remastered CDs
R Strauss Der Rosenkavalier
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf sop Christa Ludwig mez Otto Edelmann bass Teresa Stich-Randall sop Eberhard Waechter bar Ljuba Welitsch sop Choruses; Philharmonia Orchestra / Herbert von Karajan (EMI/Warner Classics)
Producer: Walter Legge; Engineer/Remastering Engineer: Christopher Parker
This separate category, designed to recognize exceptionally successful reissues on CD of recordings dating back 20 years or more, is now in its third year. Technical quality of these reappearances of favourite performances can be disconcertingly variable. Sometimes this may be a simple corollary of the poor sound on the original, and we must suffer the wheezing low-fi whilst enjoying the unique appeal of some vintage performance. In other cases, for which there is less excuse, insufficient care and skill seem to have been directed at the remastering process.
This year’s Award goes to an outstanding transfer to CD of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier in what was, admittedly, a brilliant 1956 Walter Legge production as technically impressive in its day as it was musically captivating. Although the recording has remained available in a succession of LP transfers, the sound-quality of the CD transfer is brilliant in the best sense of the word and adds to the tension and realism of the whole. All credit to engineer Christopher Parker for this digital restoration of his own 1956 stereo original, recorded in another control room, whilst Walter Legge supervised the production in a mono set-up. John Borwick
Engineering & Production
Mahler Symphony No 2
Arleen Augér sop Dame Janet Baker; City of Birmingham Chorus and Symphony Orchestra / Simon Rattle (EMI/Warner Classics)
Producer: David R. Murray; Engineer: Michael Sheady
Producing a short-list of about half-a-dozen recordings deemed to be specially noteworthy examples of today’s best recorded balance and presentation standards does not get any easier. However, as Voltaire put it, ‘the best is the enemy of the good’, and our ‘Sounds in Retrospect’ panel eventually eliminated numerous adequate contenders in favour of a group of star offerings. By a narrow margin we gave top place to Simon Rattle’s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No 2 with his Birmingham forces and Dame Janet Baker and Arleen Augér as soloists.
Technical quality is thrilling in its ability to re-create all the special sensations we associate with attending a live performance, with wide dynamics, spaciousness, integration and precise perspectives for offstage brass and the like. Nothing sounds too close and yet the clarity, fidelity to instrumental timbres and balance are remarkable in such a large-scale work. Watford Town Hall is often used as a recording venue and here the EMI producer and engineer, David Murray and Michael Sheady, have allowed it to contribute a large-sounding but not over-reverberant ambience, helpful to voices and orchestra alike. Relegated to the runner-up position by only the merest whisker was the Chandos recording of Moeran’s Symphony in G minor performed by the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Vernon Handley. John Borwick
