12 HarrisonParrott and Birdsong Artists Nominated for 2024 Opus Klassik Awards
29/5/2024
The nominations for the OPUS KLASSIK awards 2024 have been announced, with 12 of our artists featured across HP and Birdsong
Conductor, organist and pianist Aurel Dawidiuk is nominated in both the Instrumentalist of the Year and Solo Recording Instrument of the Year categories for his debut album B‑A-C‑H “Hommage à …” released on Genuin, which explores major organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Krebs, Franz Liszt, Zsigmond Szathmáry, and Max Reger.
Sol Gabetta’s and Bertrand Chamayou’s latest collaboration, a double album released on 19 January 2024 under Sony Classical label featuring the complete works of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy for cello and piano, alongside new Songs without Words by contemporary composers, is nominated for the Chamber Music Recording of the Year award. The album features the Variations concertantes, Chanson sans paroles, both sonatas in B‑flat major op. 45 and D major op. 58 and the rarely performed Assai tranquillo. The duo added a contemporary flair by commissioning four esteemed composers of our time to contribute their own Songs without Words for cello and piano — Heinz Holliger, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann and Francisco Coll. Their compositions serve as poetic modern additions to Mendelssohn’s oeuvre.
Bertrand Chamayou is also nominated in two other categories: Instrumentalist of the Year and Solo Recording Instrument of the Year for his album Letter(s) to Erik Satie, where he pays tribute to two composers: Erik Satie and John Cage.
Birdsong composer Aaron Zigman is nominated in the World Premiere Recording of the Year category for his oratorio Émigré. Recorded by Deutsche Gramophon with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Yu Long, Émigré is a story of love, war, community and acceptance.Set in 1939, it honours the role Shanghai played in welcoming hundreds of Jewish refugees.
With lyrics by Mark Campbell and Brock Walsh, Émigré features soloists Andrew Dwan, Arnold Livingston-Geis, Diana Newman, Shenyang, Matthew White, Meigui Zhang, and Huiling Zhu, plus the Lanzhou Concert Hall Choir and members of New York Philharmonic Chorus.
Daníel Bjarnason has received three nominations for A Prayer to the Dynamo, released on Deutsche Grammophon, with Iceland Symphony Orchestra. The premiere recording of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s A Prayer to the Dynamo was inspired by the composer’s fascination with technology. The album also features two suites from his film scores for Sicario and The Theory of Everything. Bjarnason’s recording has been nominated in the Symphonic Recording of the Year, Innovative Listening Experience of the Year and New Classic/Neoclassic categories.
Gautier Capuçon’s new release Destination Paris for Warner Erato is nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year. The album includes popular film melodies to French chansons to classical pieces — recorded with pianist Jérôme Ducros, the Maîtrise de Radio France, and Orchestre de chambre de Paris under conductor Lionel Bringuier. The album includes a new song by Jean Jacques Goldman, one of France’s most popular songwriters and composers, Pense à nous, for cello, children’s choir and orchestra and a special arrangement of Envole-moi.
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, where Maestro Paavo Järvi has been a chief conductor for 20 years, is nominated as Orchestra of the Year. Paavo Järvi was awarded the Opus Klassik Award as Conductor of the Year in 2019.
Klaus Mäkelä is nominated as Conductor of the Year for his recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and The Firebird with Orchestre de Paris. This album was his first with the orchestra since starting as Music Director in September 2021, and is the first in his exploration of Stravinsky’s pivotal ballet scores with the orchestra.
Renowned champion of twentieth-century music Pierre-Laurent Aimard has been nominated in the Concert Recording of the Year category for his recording of Bartók’s complete piano concertos with San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, recorded on Pentatone.
