Congratulations to Julia Bullock and Thomas Adès, who have been nominated for BBC Music Magazine Awards – “celebrating the best new classical music recordings” – Bullock for the Vocal Award for her debut solo album, Walking in the Dark, and Adès for the Orchestral Award his Dante, performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel. (Both albums have been nominated for Grammy Awards as well.)
Winners will be chosen by public vote, which begins today and closes at midnight on Friday, February 23, and announced at an awards ceremony at King’s Place in London on April 18. To have your say, visit classical-music.com/awards and vote for your favorite now.
Classical singer Julia Bullock makes her solo recording debut with Walking in the Dark. On the album, Bullock and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Christian Reif, perform Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and a song from John Adams’s El Niño. She is joined by Reif, on piano, for a traditional spiritual and songs by Oscar Brown, Jr., Billy Taylor, Sandy Denny, and Connie Converse. Bullock is “one of the singular artists of her generation,” says the New York Times, “a singer of enveloping tone, startlingly mature presence and unusually sophisticated insight into culture, society and history.” Walking in the Dark has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
Thomas Adès’ Dante – a ballet score in three acts based on Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia – was recorded by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel in concert at Disney Hall for this premiere recording. Dante was first performed at the Royal Opera House as part of Wayne McGregor’s The Dante Project for the Royal Ballet, with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and with designs by visual artist Tacita Dean. “In any new shortlist of great ballet scores by Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, Prokofiev, Britten, and Bernstein, Dante must newly be included for its musical invention alone,” exclaims the Los Angeles Times. “There is not a second in its 88 minutes that doesn’t delight. All of it is unexpected and wanted.” Dante is nominated for three Grammy Awards: Best Orchestral Performance; Best Contemporary Classical Composition; Producer of the Year, Classical (Dmitriy Lipay).