Carolyn Sampson, Artist of the Year Award at 2024 Gramophone Awards (c) Colin Miller
STAR PIANIST YUNCHAN LIM NAMED YOUNG ARTIST OF THE YEAR AT GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2024
Yunchan Lim (L) and Hilary Hahn (R) (c) Colin Miller
- Lim also victorious in Piano category
- Violinist Hilary Hahn wins prestigious Recording of the Year accolade for Ysaÿe’s solo violin sonatas
- Michael Tilson Thomas awarded Lifetime Achievement, and soprano Carolyn Sampson named Artist of the Year
Gramophone magazine today [2 October 2024] revealed the winners of the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2024 at a glittering awards ceremony in London. Widely regarded as the Oscars of classical music, the Awards – presented with Presto Music – celebrate exceptional recordings, artists and labels of the past year.
20-year-old South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim was named Young Artist of the Year (sponsored by Classeek), acknowledging his rise to stardom after becoming the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition two years ago and the critically acclaimed recordings that have followed. Gramophone stated that “Yunchan Lim is a pianist whose flair and probing musicianship are supported by a phenomenal technique… hallmarks of an exploratory young artist with much to say and consummate means with which to say it.” Lim accepted the Award with an enthralling performance of Liszt’s Petrarch Sonnet No. 104. He was also victorious in the Piano category (sponsored by Shigeru Kawai), winning for his debut recording on Decca of Chopin’s Études – narrowly beating his recording of Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante by one vote, in the first time a pianist has ever had two albums shortlisted in the same category of the Awards.
American violinist Hilary Hahn won the coveted Recording of the Year Award for her album of Ysaÿe’s solo violin sonatas on Deutsche Grammophon. In its Awards issue, Gramophone notes that “whether you are on your seventh listen or your 70th, you will notice new details and feel freshly in awe. This is not just the album of 2024; these Ysaÿe readings will remain a benchmark”. Hahn accepted the Award in-person, stating “I’ve had a summer of recovering from a nerve injury and knowing that people can hear the music when you’re not on stage is so meaningful. Recordings allow people to be heard as musicians, as composers, as performers even when we’re not in the same room. That connection with the audience becomes very personal as the people listening are choosing to listen and they’re inviting that music into their lives.”. The album was also the winner of the Instrumental category.
Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented on the night by actor Simon Callow. Celebrating his transformative career in his 80th year – leading orchestras in London and San Francisco along with composing, education and outreach and a huge commitment to recording – Gramophone Editor Martin Cullingford said: “His legacy lies not just in a remarkable recording catalogue, but in the fact that there are works of music cherished by so many largely thanks to his advocacy, and that there are audience members who might never have been drawn to classical music in the first place were it not for his belief that everyone has the potential to be so.” Artists from around the world including Audra McDonald, Thomas Hampson and Jean-Yves Thibaudet sent in video messages to congratulate Tilson Thomas on his Award.
Artist of the Year (sponsored by Classic FM) was presented to soprano Carolyn Sampson, who this year celebrated her 100th recording. Accepting the Award in-person, Sampson said “I am a product of what was then Bedfordshire County Youth Music. I’m thrilled that Andrew Manze got an Award as well as he is also a product of Bedfordshire County Youth Music. What you see over the years is these services really struggling and there are some really wonderful people in Bedfordshire trying to keep the threads of these things going so that other people can grow and become future Artists of the Year. If we’re ever feeling downhearted in the arts, we must remember we should keep going and do all the things we can to celebrate music and build up these young people”. In addition to the Award and being nominated in the Song category this year, she also performed Duparc’s L’invitation au voyage with pianist and long-term collaborator Joseph Middleton.
Pianist Bertrand Chamayou’s album Letter(s) to Eric Satie pairing works by Satie and Cage– described by Gramophone as “an imaginative and illuminating coupling of the music of two maverick composers” – won the Concept Album Award, and Opera Rara were presented with Label of the Year in recognition of their championing of forgotten gems from the opera archives.
Orchestra of the Year – the only prize to be decided by public vote, with over 15,000 votes cast overall – was awarded to Czech Philharmonic.
In the Category Awards, violinist Isabelle Faust was triumphant in two categories – firstly in the Chamber category (sponsored by Wigmore Hall), winning for her album of Schumann’s Piano Quintet and Quartet with Anne Katharina Schreiber, Antoine Tamestit, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexander Melnikov, and again in the Concerto category for her recording of Britten’s Violin Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Recordings of works by the late Kaija Saariaho on the Radio France label won the Contemporary category (sponsored by PRS/PPL), and the Gabrieli Consort and Players’ recording of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius under Paul McCreesh – the first recording of the work on period instruments – won the Choral category. The Early Music category was won by Capella Pratensis and their Artistic Director Stratton Bull for their fresh take on Obrecht’s Missa Maria zart.
Barrie Kosky’s production of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Jakub Hrůša was victorious in the Opera category (sponsored by Mascarade Opera), and tenor Jonathan Tetelman won the Voice and Ensemble award for his album The Great Puccini with the PKF Prague Philharmonia. In the Song category, baritone Konstantin Krimmel and pianist Daniel Heide’s introspective interpretation of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin took the top prize, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra were triumphant in the Orchestral category (sponsored by Lark Music) for its recording of Vaughan Williams’ Job: A Masque for Dancing and other works under conductor Andrew Manze.
The full list of winners can be found below and in Gramophone’s Awards issue, published 3 October.
Martin Cullingford, Editor of Gramophone magazine, said: “This year’s winners are a powerful demonstration of the sheer breadth of classical music-making today. We celebrate both a conductor whose decades-long career has been transformative for artists and audiences alike, and a phenomenal young pianist whose name was new to us only relatively recently. Our Recording of the Year – Hilary Hahn’s recording of Ysaÿe’s solo violin sonatas – is a truly magnificent achievement, one I believe will long stand out as a compelling example of what the art form can offer. From early music to contemporary, from solo to orchestral and opera, it’s a real privilege to be able to honour the life-affirming work of so many extraordinary classical musicians.”
Full list of winners
Special Awards
RECORDING OF THE YEAR
YSAŸE Solo Violin Sonatas – Hilary Hahn (Deutsche Grammophon)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Michael Tilson Thomas conductor
ARTIST OF THE YEAR (sponsored by Classic FM)
Carolyn Sampson soprano
YOUNG ARTIST OF THE YEAR (sponsored by Classeek)
Yunchan Lim piano
ORCHESTRA OF THE YEAR
Czech Philharmonic
LABEL OF THE YEAR
Opera Rara
CONCEPT ALBUM
SATIE ‘Letters to Eric Satie’ – Bertrand Chamayou (Erato)
Category Awards
CHAMBER (sponsored by Wigmore Hall)
SCHUMANN Piano Quartet and Quintet – Isabelle Faust, Anne Katherina Schreiber, Antoine Tamestit, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov (Harmonia Mundi)
CHORAL
ELGAR The Dream of Gerontius – Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh (Signum)
CONCERTO
BRITTEN Violin Concerto – Isabelle Faust, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Jakub Hrůša (Harmonia Mundi)
CONTEMPORARY (sponsored by PRS/PPL)
SAARIAHO Maan Varjot, Chateau de l’ame, True Fire, Offrande – Olivier Latry, Orchestre Philharmonie de Radio France (Radio France)
EARLY MUSIC
OBRECHT Missa Maria zart – Cappella Pratensis, Stratton Bull (Challenge)
INSTRUMENTAL
YSAŸE Solo Violin Sonatas – Hilary Hahn (Deutsche Grammophon)
OPERA (sponsored by Mascarade Opera)
JANÁČEK Káťa Kabanová – Corinne Winters, Evelyn Herlitzius, David Butt Philip, Vienna Philharmonic, Jakub Hrůša (Unitel; DVD)
ORCHESTRAL (sponsored by Lark Music)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Job: A Masque for Dancing, Old King Cole & The Running Set – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze (Onyx)
PIANO (sponsored by Shigeru Kawai)
CHOPIN Études – Yunchan Lim (Decca)
SONG
SCHUBERT Die schöne Müllerin – Konstantin Krimmel, Daniel Heide (Alpha)
VOICE AND ENSEMBLE
PUCCINI “The Great Puccini” – Jonathan Tetelman, PKF Prague Philharmonia, Carlo Rizzi (Deutsche Grammophon)
Highlights from the ceremony will be available to watch soon on the Gramophone website. The Gramophone Awards issue goes on sale from 3 October.