Recordings of contemporary music, mostly works by US composers, swept this year’s classical Grammy Awards.
Winning recordings featured works by the Americans Terence Blanchard, Jessie Montgomery, Caroline Shaw and Teddy Abrams, as well as pieces by the British composer Thomas Adès and the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who died last year.
Soprano Julia Bullock’s album “Walking in the Dark” was this year’s only Grammy-winning classical recording to include a standard-repertory work (Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville, Summer of 1915”).
The awards, judged by music-industry professionals, are more prestigious and publicized in popular, jazz, folk, ethnic and religious musics than in classical music, whose winners are tapped off-camera and typically acknowledged at the end of long listings of winners.
This year’s classical Grammy winners:
Best Orchestral Performance: Thomas Adès: “Dante” – Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel conducting (Deutsche Grammophon).
Best Opera Performance: Terence Blanchard: “Champion” – Metropolitan Opera, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting, et al. (Metropolitan Opera “Live in HD” transmission).
Best Choral Performance: Kaija Saariaho: “Reconaissance” – Uusinta Ensemble & Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek conducting (BIS).
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: “Rough Magic” – Roomful of Teeth (New Amsterdam).
Best Classical Instrumental Solo: “The American Project” – Yuja Wang, piano; Louisville Orchestra, Teddy Abrams conducting (Deutsche Grammophon).
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album: “Walking in the Dark” – Julia Bullock, soprano; Christian Reif, piano & conductor; Philharmonia Orchestra (Nonesuch).
Best Contemporary Classical Composition: Jessie Montgomery: “Rounds” – Awadagin Pratt, piano; A Far Cry (New Amsterdam).
Best Classical Compendium Album: Jeff Scott: “Passion for Bach and Coltrane” – Imani Winds, Harlem Quartet, et al. (Imani Winds).
Best Engineered Album, Classical: David Frost & Charlie Post: “Contemporary American Composers” – Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti conducting (CSO Resound).
Producer of Year, Classical: Elaine Martone.
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