Introducing the 2021 Gramophone Awards

Music, always such an important part of so many people’s lives, took on an even more crucial role during the pandemic. With music venues shut, we turned in our millions to streamed concerts and recorded music like never before.  

Musicians are people driven by a passion: whether you’re a keen amateur or a world-class soloist the need to make music is strong. Some professional musicians embraced the new online world wholeheartedly and it became an essential outlet – just think of Igor Levit’s house concerts or Daniel Hope’s ‘At Home’ series (both incidentally from Berlin where music and musicians are prized, as in few other countries) or the choirs that VOCES8 hosted from their Centre in the City of London. For orchestral players, the pandemic meant long months of silence, separated not just from the music that is their meat and drink, but also from their colleagues. 

But musicians are resilient people and a surprising number of recordings have emerged from the pandemic, invariably for solo players or very small chamber groups. 2022 will almost certainly see a disproportionate number of piano albums being released – but also the return, albeit in small numbers, of studio-recorded opera (something that has been a rarity for some years given the astounding costs involved). A few staged opera productions, robbed of the chance to be seen by live audiences, found the funds and recorded the works: so, a Pelléas et Mélisande from Bordeaux, a Clemenza did Tito from Toulouse and a Mitridate from Berlin are all appearing on record rather than in the theatre. 

This year’s Gramophone Classical Music Awards will, like last year’s, be an online event. And while we’ll miss our friends from the industry gathered together in one room, the positive side is that we’ll be reaching a colossal international audience (330,000 households watched last year’s Awards from Glyndebourne, filmed under rigorous social distancing conditions). This year we are hosted by VOCES8 at their acoustically ravishing Centre, and unlike last year we were able to welcome some of the winning artists to collect their awards and perform for us. So, expect Bach from Sean Shibe and Paganini from Alina Ibragimova (very much her lockdown recording project as it required no musical collaborator, just a producer and an engineer), as well as a Gershwin Prelude played by my co-host Isata Kanneh-Mason, an artist who has been busy over the past months whether as a soloist or a chamber musicians. And many other artists will be beaming in to make the Awards a truly international event.  

The past 18 months have wrought some amazing changes in the way we approach music – and, indeed, the repertoire – and what has been striking, listening to the many acceptances speeches from this year’s winners, is how the future will be shaped by these shared experiences. Dare one detect a different kind of humanity in the way music is now made? Join us tonight and experience a different, and very powerful, series of reflections on the musical world in 2021.  

The Gramophone Awards will be available to watch live on October 5th from 7pm BST via Gramophone's website, YouTube and Facebook pages, by medici.tv, and by Classic FM. The ceremony is available on catch up for 90 days.