Gramophone Early Music Award 2022

Josquin ‘Baisiez Moy’

Thélème / Jean-Christophe Groffe

Aparté

This would be a terrific Christmas present for your Josquin-fan friend. Not only are the performances all on an extremely high level but there are quite a lot of pieces here that you cannot otherwise hear. Among them is his most widely distributed song, Plus nulz regretz, to mark the celebrations of the Peace of Calais at Mechelen on January 1, 1508, here performed for the first time with (what I consider) its only possible correct form; and a glorious and joyous experience it is. There is also a first recording of Tant vous aimme, with its bassus voice reconstructed by me (not credited, but that’s probably my fault for not being clear enough in the edition). We also have the very rarely heard Guillaume se va chauffer and the revised New Josquin Edition version of El grillo – one of his most popular pieces but never before recorded in that form. Also the inexplicably rarely recorded motet Ecce tu pulchra es.

‘Just for a bit of fun they have also used modern instruments: an ondes martenot, a Fender Rhodes and a Buchla synthesiser’

Thélème sing everything with four adult male voices, occasionally helped by a lute. Just for his lament for Ockeghem, Nymphes des bois, they augment it to seven singers, again with glorious results. But just for a bit of fun they have also used modern instruments: an ondes martenot, a Fender Rhodes and a Buchla synthesiser. Wisely they have adopted that silliness only for the best-known and most often-recorded pieces: La Bernardina sounding absolutely delicious on ondes martenot, Mille regretz totally shredded with the help of the Fender Rhodes, Adieu mes amours and Bergerette savoisienne with lute and ondes martenot. The only self-indulgence is that the longest track is an improvisation on the Buchla synthesiser. David Fallows

Gramophone Awards 2022 – The Winners

Select an Award-winner below to read full reviews of each of the winning albums and expert insights from our writers. 

Recording Categories

Opera & Recording of the Year

Korngold: Die tote Stadt (Sols; Bayerisches Staatsorchester / Kirill Petrenko)

Instrumental

Ysaÿe: Six Solo Violin Sonatas (James Ehnes)

Early Music

Josquin: ‘Baisiez Moy’ (Thélème / Jean-Christophe Groffe)

Orchestral

Mahler: Symphony No 7 (Bayerisches Staatsorchester / Kirill Petrenko)

Concerto

Bartók. Beethoven. Berg: Violin Concertos (Frank-Peter Zimmermann; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, Kirill Petrenko)

Piano

Beethoven: Diabelli Variations (Mitsuko Uchida)

Concept Album

Enargeia (Emily D'Angelo; Das Freie Orchester Berlin / Jarkko Riihimäki)

Contemporary

Abrahamsen: The Snow Queen (Sols; Chorus and Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera / Cornelius Meister)

Chamber

’Round Midnight (Quatuor Ebène; Antoine Tamestit; Nicolas Altstaedt)

Choral

JS Bach: St Matthew Passion (Sols; Pygmalion / Raphaël Pichon)

Song

Rachmaninov: Songs – ‘Dissonance’ (Asmik Grigorian; Lukas Geniušas)

Voice & Ensemble

‘BariTenor’ (Michael Spyres; Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra / Marko Letonja)

Spatial Audio

Ravel: Orchestral Works (Sinfonia of London / John Wilson)

Special Awards

Label of the Year

Chandos

Artist of the Year

Barbara Hannigan

Young Artist of the Year

Johan Dalene

Special Achievement

Mozart Momentum (Leif Ove Andsnes; Mahler Chamber Orchestra)

Lifetime Achievement

Daniel Barenboim

Orchestra of the Year

Budapest Festival Orchestra