Gramophone's Orchestra of the Year Award is the only Gramophone Classical Music Award decided by public vote (vote here). The 10 orchestras nominated this year are:

BBC Philharmonic (UK), Berliner Philharmoniker (Germany), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (USA), Le Concert des Nations (Spain), Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Germany), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Finland), London Philharmonic Orchestra (UK), Orchestre de Paris (France), National Symphony Orchestra (USA)

This week, we focus on ...

BBC Philharmonic (UK)

One of the jewels in the BBC’s crown, the Manchester-based Philharmonic, now in the care of John Storgårds, has a long pedigree of making superb records for Chandos. (As a radio orchestra, the studio is its main habitat and it clearly relishes the set-up.) We’ve long come to expect playing of passion and character, often in repertoire that each chief conductor (notably Yan Pascal Tortelier, Gianandrea Noseda or Juanjo Mena) has introduced. Reviewing Storgårds’s very fine recent Shostakovich coupling, Edward Seckerson summed it up as ‘another terrific release from this source’. And Rumon Gamba’s Malcolm Arnold album (4/23) was ‘an altogether outstanding release’.

Shostakovich Symphonies Nos 12 & 15 John Storgårds (Chandos, 4/23)

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Playlist

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