Brahms, Howells and Poulenc: Choral Category

It’s now less than a month until the 2012 Gramophone Classical Music Awards, presented this year in association with EFG International and Steinway & Sons, take place on September 27. The winning recordings in each category will be announced together with the Recording of the Year – as well as other accolades including Artist of the Year (as voted by Gramophone magazine and website readers), Label of the Year, Young Artist of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Between now and the ceremony we're publishing two Podcasts a week in which we discuss the three shortlisted discs in one of the categories with one of our critics, along with musical excerpts. The latest Podcast features Martin Cullingford and Adrian Edwards discussing the Choral category. The discs in contention are: Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (SDG); a disc of Howells choral works conducted by Stephen Layton with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge (Hyperion), and Poulenc’s 'Half Monk, Half Rascal', also from Layton, with the Danish National Vocal Ensemble (OUR Recordings).

You can stream the Podcast below, but to download our Podcasts - or to subscribe for free - visit our iTunes page. By doing so, you'll automatically receive the Awards Podcasts as soon as they are published, as well as our usual monthly Podcasts – the latest one features The Sixteen's founder-conductor Harry Christophers, pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, and an insight into life at Wells Cathedral School.