Gramophone's Artists of the Year from 2014 to 2024
Monday, October 21, 2024
All of our Artists of the Year from 2014 to 2024 with recommended recordings for each artist
Every year at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards we choose one artist who has made an outstanding contribution to classical music on record and name them our Artist of the Year.
Previous winners of the Award include Luciano Pavarotti (1991), Pierre Boulez (1995), Yo-Yo Ma (1997), Martha Argerich (1999), Marin Alsop (2003) and Joyce DiDonato (2010).
Below are all of our Artists of the Year from 2014 to 2024 with recommended recordings for each artist.
If you want to sample the best of classical music recording from the past decade, there's no better place to start!
2024 - Carolyn Sampson
‘She is a true artist, one who marries a beautiful voice, innate musicality and an appreciation of style that has allowed her to sing a vast range of different music.’ (James Jolly, Awards 2024)
Recommended Recording
‘But I like to sing...’
Carolyn Sampson sop Joseph Middleton pf (BIS)
‘It’s a portrait of an artist who has shown us many faces on those 100 discs but whose voice remains a constant: sweet, flexible, alive to the text. And always intelligent.’ (Alexandra Coghlan, December 2023)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
➤ Gramophone Artist of the Year 2024: Carolyn Sampson
2023 - Véronique Gens
‘Quite simply, French vocal music could not have a finer ambassador.’ (Mark Pullinger, Awards 2023)
Recommended Recording
‘Paysage’
Véronique Gens sop Münchner Rundfunkorchester / Hervé Niquet (Alpha)
‘Gens is in quite splendid voice. Her soprano is in remarkably good shape, supple and elegant, her diction exemplary and her phrasing exquisite, deftly capturing the mood of each song.’ (Mark Pullinger, April 2024)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
2022 - Barbara Hannigan
‘Among Handel sopranos, the younger Hannigan was excellent and one of many. But nobody brought bel canto lyricism to Boulez’s Pli selon pli, or so clearly projected the inner narrative of Dutilleux’s Correspondances, or burst upon an unsuspecting Philadelphia Orchestra audience costumed as a dominatrix in music from Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre.’ (David Patrick Stearns, Awards 2022)
Recommended Recording
Abrahamsen Let me tell you
Barbara Hannigan sop Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Andris Nelsons (Winter & Winter)
‘The Bard’s Ophelia drowned in the brook; this one wanders into the snow, her tread hypnotically evoked by paper softly rubbed around the skin of a bass drum. It’s a tiny, tragic Winterreise, but its final sung echoes are defiant: “I will go on”. The rest is silence.’ (Neil Fisher, March 2016)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
➤ Inside Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks, with Barbara Hannigan
2021 - James Ehnes
‘Had someone asked me to sum up what one could expect from a James Ehnes recording, I would have singled out the flawless technique, the purity of his sound, and the extent to which everything always feels elegant and just right, with no attention-grabbing quirks or determined originalities.’ (Charlotte Gardner, Awards 2021)
Recommended Recording
Bartók Violin Concertos & Viola Concerto
James Ehnes vn/va BBC Philharmonic / Gianandrea Noseda (Chandos)
‘James Ehnes offers us the most “Heifetzian” recording yet, a vibrant, tender-hearted, boisterously youthful account, bittersweet where needs be and eagerly supported by the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda, who are consistently on the ball.’ (Rob Cowan, November 2011)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
➤ Podcast: James Ehnes on his string quartet and recording late Beethoven
2020 - Igor Levit
‘As worldwide events unfolded, Levit’s artistic vision and spontaneity truly came into their own: his response to the consequences of the pandemic, on both a musical and a personal level, confirmed his position as an artist who transcends his art.’ (Tim Parry, Awards 2020)
Recommended Recording
Bach Goldberg Variations Beethoven Diabelli Variations Rzewski The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
Igor Levit pf (Sony Classical)
‘If a finer piano recording comes my way this year I shall be delighted, but frankly also astonished.’ (David Fanning, November 2015)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
➤ Podcast: Igor Levit on the Beethoven piano sonatas
2019 - Víkingur Ólafsson
‘Ólafsson has the gift of making something familiar entirely his own, drawing you into a world where no other interpretation seems possible.’ (Harriet Smith, Awards 2019)
Recommended Recording
Mozart & Contemporaries
Víkingur Ólafsson pf (DG)
‘The recording, made in Reykjavík’s Harpa Concert Hall, is entirely natural and helps set the seal on another winner from one of the most original musical minds around.’ (Harriet Smith, October 2021)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
➤ Víkingur Ólafsson interview: ‘I see all music as contemporary music – I don’t make a distinction’
2018 - Rachel Podger
‘To watch Rachel Podger direct Brecon Baroque at the York Early Music Festival this summer, as I did, was to see an artist so alert, alive and joyous in her music-making, and yet so relaxed and modestly self-confident, that it almost didn’t matter what the music was.’ (Lindsay Kemp, Awards 2018)
Recommended Recording
Vivaldi L'estro armonico
Rachel Podger vn Brecon Baroque
‘There is probably no more inspirational musician working today than Podger, in whose company surely no violinist’s bow could sleep in the hand. She certainly had me reaching for my air-violin.’ (Lindsay Kemp, April 2015)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
➤ Podcast: Bach's Goldberg Variations Reimagined with Rachel Podger and Chad Kelly
2017 - Vasily Petrenko
‘An artist who has clearly made the step up to a new level of musicianship and has the ability to take audiences with him on his musical journey.’ (James Jolly, Awards 2017)
Recommended Recording
Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos 3, 4 & 6
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Vasily Petrenko (Onyx)
‘I commend Petrenko’s as the finest modern cycle of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies currently available.’ (Mark Pullinger, March 2017)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
➤ Podcast: Vasily Petrenko on conducting Elgar
2016 - Daniil Trifonov
‘Whenever I’ve heard him I’ve had the impression he has unlocked the secret of leaving himself open, during the performance to find, and feel, something afresh.’ (Stephen Plaistow, Awards 2016)
Recommended Recording
Transcendental: Daniil Trifonov plays Franz Liszt
Daniil Trifonov pf (DG)
‘It is quite a feat for a single pianist to deliver what are, in effect, top-of-the-pile performances of almost all of the 23 separate titles – but that is what Trifonov offers.’ (Jeremy Nicholas, October 2016)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
2015 - Paavo Järvi
‘Järvi’s inquisitive approach to music-making means he always has something to say. His mastery of the recording process makes him a much sought-after conductor, and his appetite for exploring the repertoire shows little sign of waning.’ (James Jolly, Awards 2015)
Recommended Recording
Schmidt Complete Symphonies
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra / Paavo Järvi (DG)
‘It makes as strong a case for both Schmidt and his symphonies as one could imagine. Essential for the composer’s fans, highly recommended for newcomers.’ (Hugo Shirley, Awards issue 2020)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
➤ A conducting dynasty: in conversation with Neeme Järvi and his sons Paavo and Kristjan
2014 - Leonidas Kavakos
‘Kavakos has made recordings steadily since the early 1990s – for Delos, Finlandia and Sony Classical – but with his signing to Decca two years ago, his reputation having reached a new height, his performances displayed a greater maturity and intensity.’ (James Jolly, Awards 2014)
Recommended Recording
Brahms Violin Sonatas Nos 1-3
Leonidas Kavakos vn Yuja Wang pf (Decca)
‘Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang show how to interpret Brahms’s intentions, their expression precisely tailored to the expressive curves clearly shown in the score. Wang and Kavakos give consistently outstanding performances.’ (Duncan Druce, July 2014)
Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music
➤ Podcast: Leonidas Kavakos on Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin
