Non Disc Award

The Cobweb Orchestra

Dame Janet Baker, mezzo-soprano

Pianist Graham Johnson pays tribute to a great and dignified artist

Award Image: 

The Bach Cantata Pilgrimage on SDG

Award Image: 

Miloš Karadaglić

Many young classical artists – pianists, singers, violinists – find themselves forging careers in well-structured worlds, with established audiences for their chosen instrument. It’s not quite like that for young guitarists, however. Despite the pioneering advocacy of Andrés Segovia and, following him, the likes of Julian Bream, John Williams and David Russell, there is still something of the outsider about the guitar. 

Award Image: 

Wigmore Hall Live

Award Image: 

Miloš Karadaglić – The Guitar

The Specialist Classical Chart, compiled from UK CD and download sales, offers an insight into how the discerning record-buying public’s views compare to those of our critics. Older albums are not included, nor are recordings which are not classical music as Gramophone readers might recognise it.

Award Image: 

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Serial winners of awards tend to talk often about wanting to “give something back”. Quite often, let’s be honest, that means donating money to some deserving cause and being done with it, and that’s not nothing. But in Gustavo Dudamel’s case, giving something back is simply a continuation of his life, of the philosophy that has governed every day since he first discovered music through Venezuela’s El Sistema.

Award Image: 

“Fischer really breathes in the atmosphere of Mahler’s precipitous flight to eternity. The crowning glory is, as it should be, the finale. The ‘special effects’ of Mahler’s elaborate Judgement Day fresco have rarely been so magically realised.” Edward Seckerson (Awards issue 2006)

To a younger generation he is the man who shepherded Cecilia Bartoli into the limelight, while for a previous generation he was the man who brought András Schiff to Decca. His production credits adorn such staples of the catalogue as the legendary Sutherland/Pavarotti/Caballé Turandot, Karajan’s Madama Butterfly with Freni and Pavarotti, and the original Three Tenors Concert from Rome. He is Christopher Raeburn and 2008 marks his 50th year as a producer for Decca and his 80th birthday.

It’s hard to think of a more important job than bringing new audiences to classical music. Of course it’s wonderful, and indeed essential, to have the support of the traditional concert-going public but the future of classical music lies with the audiences of tomorrow – and the work of building those audiences begins today.

Fortunately, it’s work that is well advanced among the UK’s great orchestras. Thanks to their efforts to present their concerts as an attractive and life-enriching experience, the UK’s classical audience is bigger and broader than it has been for years.