Non Disc Award

A newly created Award, in partnership with The Times, recognises an inspiring individual in the voluntary music sector

A public vote declared Streetwise Opera the popular winner of the new Music in the Community Award. Streetwise Opera gives homeless and formerly homeless people opportunities to further their personal development through music, with a weekly music Workshop Programme in 11 homeless centres around the country and an annual production. Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared Streetwise to be “one of the most innovative charities of the decade”.

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DG’s recent signing, Yuja Wang, is a young pianist of astonishing talent

“A combination of blazing technique and a rare instinct for poetry” – those were the words we wrote above the review of Yuja Wang’s debut disc for Deutsche Grammophon in our August issue.

In the previous issue we had featured this exceptional young pianist on our One to Watch page. It was clear to us, as to an increasingly large number of people in the music world, that she was a remarkable talent. And now we name her our 2009 Young Artist of the Year.

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Stephen Kovacevich battled back from illness to master the Diabellis again

It was the Diabelli Variations that first lifted Stephen Kovacevich’s career into the highest echelons, and it is the same work that has reconfirmed his place there – at least to himself.

Two years ago he suffered a stroke and seemed to have recovered fully, until his playing suddenly felt different. “I lost my sense of security,” he says. “It was as if I was driving a car but the controls weren’t where I expected.”

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Tabloid tie-in with Covent Garden grabs the imagination and reaches new audiences

It was certainly one of the music world’s most unexpected collaborative partnerships of the year: the Royal Opera House and The Sun uniting to give the newspaper’s readers discounted tickets to Don Giovanni.

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We honour the founder of the much-loved label Harmonia Mundi

Bernard Coutaz, the founder and patron for the past half a century of Harmonia Mundi, is unique in the record industry in that he’s steered his company not as someone concerned with day-to-day A&R but as a genuinely visionary leader.

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This year has seen the launch of The Specialist Classical Chart – and a new award marks the disc that dominated it

Gramophone started publishing The Specialist Classical Chart at the beginning of the year, the culmination of a longstanding desire to provide a dynamic list of each week’s highest-selling pure classical releases.

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Pierre-Laurent Aimard pays tribute to Nikolaus Harnoncourt, a true visionary

Musical life is interesting if you are nourished and enlightened by strong personalities, and in this case it seemed to me hugely enriching to work with somebody who had such a very creative attitude. He has a way of combining a great knowledge, working with the text with a great freedom in vision, intuition and dramaticism.

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What a remarkable year The Sixteen have had – and what a superb way for the much-loved and consistently excellent choir to celebrate their 30th anniversary season!

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Gramophone salutes a unique German independent record label that reflects the exquisite taste and vision of one man

In an age of increasing standardisation, it’s good to salute genuine individuality. Each year we pay tribute to a record label that demonstrates a winning blend of creativity, imagination, business acumen, style – all adding up to that word again: individuality. This year we turn the spotlight on a label that has been ploughing its particular furrow with notable success for 40 years, ECM, and more particularly for “classical music” fans, its New Series.

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