My Foolish Heart

Dear DG Yellow News Subscribers,

LONDON: It has been a bumper year for Deutsche Grammophon at the 2006 Classic FM Gramophone Awards, widely considered to be one of the classical music industry s highest honours.

At a ceremony in the Dorchester Hotel on September 28, the prestigious Record of the Year Award and the Orchestral Award both went to Deutsche Grammophon s recording of Mahler s Symphony No. 6 with Claudio Abbado conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker (CD 477 5573; 2-SACD set 477 5684). This is the Yellow Label s first Record of the Year Award since 1994, when Krystian Zimerman s 2-CD set of Debussy Pr幨udes (CD 435 7732) was chosen.

Coming top in the Chamber Music category, Deutsche Grammophon s disc of Taneyev Chamber Music with Mikhail Pletnev, Vadim Repin, Ilya Gringolts, Nobuko Imai, and Lynn Harrell (CD 477 5419) was also one of six albums to win Gramophone Awards.

In addition, the Yellow Label s new recording of Mozart s Die Zauberfl飆e, featuring Dorothea R飉chmann, Erika Mikl鏀a, Christoph Strehl, Ren Pape, Hanno M ller-Brachmann, the Arnold Schoenberg Chor and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and also conducted by Claudio Abbado was chosen as Best Opera Recording (2-CD set 477 5789).

Sir Charles Mackerras, whose recording of Mozart s La clemenza di Tito (2-CD set 477 5792) was a finalist in the Opera category, received this year s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Osvaldo Golijov s Ayre, starring Dawn Upshaw and The Andalucian Dogs (CD 477 5414), was one of four prize-winners in the inaugural WQXR Gramophone Awards in America. Held in collaboration with WQXR, the New York Times s classical radio station, these additional awards reflect the vibrancy of the current classical music scene and Gramophone s growing readership in that country.

Gramophone s editor-in-chief and event host James Jolly said of the Record of the Year, Here is a thrilling memento of a great orchestra welcoming back a former music director with playing of titanic power and sensitivity. It s hard to imagine this intense and intensely personal music receiving a greater interpretation by any other living conductor.

Mahler s Sixth Symphony has long been a work of particular significance to me, ever since I conducted it for my Berlin Philharmonic debut nearly four decades ago, noted Claudio Abbado through written remarks read by Fergus McWilliams, a horn player of the Berliner Philharmoniker. At least as much as this award honours my own efforts, it honours the dedication of these marvellous Berlin musicians who have enriched my life, both musically and personally, for so many years. My thanks, too, go to my faithful record company, Deutsche Grammophon, who felt this occasion was worthy of sharing with a wider audience.


Quoted from the Gramophone Awards Issue 2006

Record of the Year:
Abbado s view of this work has developed in the years since his recorded cycle of the Mahler symphonies and has achieved an intensity rare even in such a concentrated work. The Berlin Philharmonic play like gods: rarely have they mustered the intense sadness, the almost crazed power or the sheer translucence they offer here . . . Abbado seems to be staring Fate in the eye, yet he won t surrender: here is a man who has come close to death and survived, and the music-making in this performance seems to draw on a well of experience, both physical and spiritual, rarely glimpsed and even more rarely articulated.

Best Chamber:
Five of today s leading virtuosos join forces to explore the music of a lesser-known Russian, with sumptuously enjoyable results . . . Taneyev s voice is very much his own. There is edginess amid the romanticism and a darkness from which Pletnev and Co do not flinch . . . Taneyev was the king of Russian chamber music . . . He was a musical giant in Moscow. This marvellous disc . . . could help to restore him to international prestige.

Best Opera:
Claudio Abbado cleverly subverts any sense of a routine, big-name performance by doing without big names (his bass, Ren Pape, aside). The cast are chosen seemingly for their skill at slotting into the ensemble and the alertness they bring to their roles. So this does feel like a genuine dramatic and comedic experience . . .

For more informations, artist photos and musical excerpts, please visit our Album Websites at:
www.deutschegrammophon.com/abbado-zauberfloete
www.deutschegrammophon.com/pletnev-taneyev
www.deutschegrammophon.com/mackerras-clemenzaditito
www.deutschegrammophon.com/abbado-mahler6
www.deutschegrammophon.com/golijov-ayre


Your Deutsche Grammophon Web Team
www.deutschegrammophon.com/

For information on how we handle your personal details, please see our Privacy Policy page at the following address:
www.deutschegrammophon.com/yellownews/privacy.htms

To configure your subscription to the DG Yellow News, please click on the link below:
www.deutschegrammophon.com/yellownews/config.htms?ID=57185,3bdfcdea

If you want to unsubscribe from the DG Yellow News please click on the link below:
www.deutschegrammophon.com/yellownews/unsubscribe.htms?ID=57185,3bdfcdea