Our relationship with recorded music this year, according to industry statistics, became ever closer. We all consumed (and never has that word seemed so appropriate) more music than ever before. When it comes to classical music, the quality has been astoundingly high. And that is where the annual Gramophone Classical Music Awards come in: to stop the clock and deliver a health check. The diagnosis is that the 2020-21 vintage was a good one, with a good injection of new repertoire to supplement the ‘core’ works. Explore this year's winners in-depth by selecting a category below.

– Recording Category Winners –

Chamber

Beach. Elgar Piano Quintets (Takács Quartet; Garrick Ohlsson)

Choral

Dussek Messe Solemnelle (Stefanie True, Helen Charlston, Gwilym Bowen, Morgan Pearse, Choir of the AAM, Academy of Ancient Music / Richard Egarr)

Concerto

Shostakovich Violin Concertos (Alina Ibragimova; State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ / Vladimir Jurowski)

Contemporary

Pickard The Gardener of Aleppo and other chamber works (Susan Bickley; Nash Ensemble / Martyn Brabbins)

Early Music

Josquin Masses – Hercules Dux Ferrarie, D'ung aultre amer & Missa Faysant regretz (The Tallis Scholars / Peter Phillips)

Instrumental

Bach Lute Suites (Sean Shibe)​

Opera & Recording of the Year

Britten Peter Grimes (Stuart Skelton, Erin Wall, Roderick Williams, Susan Bickley, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Robert Murray, James Gilchrist, Marcus Farnsworth; Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choirs / Edward Gardner)

Orchestral

Schmidt Complete Symphonies (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra / Paavo Järvi)

Piano

JS Bach Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2 – Excerpts (Piotr Anderszewski)

Song

‘El Nour’ (Fatma Said, Malcolm Martineau, Rafael Aguirre, Burcu Karadağ, Tim Allhoff, Itamar Doari, Henning Sieverts, Tamer Pinarbasi, vision string quartet)

Voice & Ensemble

Verdi (Ludovic Tézier; Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna / Frédéric Chaslin)

– Special Awards –

Label of the Year

Deutsche Grammophon

Lifetime Achievement

Gundula Janowitz

Young Artist of the Year

Fatma Said

Spatial Audio

The Golden Renaissance: Josquin Des Prez (Stile Antico)

Concept Album

Cello 360 (Christian-Pierre La Marca)

Artist of the Year

James Ehnes

Special Achievement

Boston Modern Orchestra Project

Orchestra of the Year

Minnesota Orchestra

– The Winners Playlist –

Listen to our Gramophone Awards 2021 – The Winners playlist, exclusively on Apple Music. If you are not yet a subscriber to Apple Music, it is free for the first month, boasts a catalogue of more than 75 million songs and offers lossless streaming, as well as albums in Spatial Audio. We've produced a guide to introduce the immersive listening experience of Spatial Audio here: Apple Music's spatial audio with Dolby Atmos – what is it and how do you get it?

Gramophone Awards Archive