Choral Grammy Nominees 2015

Choral music is especially vibrant live and in person, but a well-made choral recording can also be a source of great beauty. Here are this year’s Grammy nominations for Best Choral Performance (winners are announced on February 8):

  • J.S. Bach: Matthäus-Passion. Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin; Rias Kammerchor & Staats-Und Domchor Berlin, conducted by René Jacobs.
  • Torbjørn Dyrud: Out Of Darkness. Nidaros Cathedral Choir, conducted by Vivianne Sydnes. A remarkable new Passion setting.
  • Gustav Holst: First Choral Symphony; The Mystic Trumpeter. BBC Symphony Orchestra; BBC Symphony Chorus, conducted by Andrew Davis.
  • W.A. Mozart: Requiem. The Dunedin Consort, conducted by John Butt (an excellent reconstruction of how the Requiem might have sounded at the first performance, and as it was played at Mozart's funeral).
  • The Sacred Spirit Of Russia. Conspirare, led by Craig Hella Johnson. Russian Orthodox settings by Tchaikovsky, Kastalsky, Gretchaninov, Tchesnokov, Rachmaninov and others.

Other Grammy categories of particular interest include

  • Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Nominees are
    • Mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie Von Otter, for Douce France, a combination of art and cabaret-style songs by French composers;
    • Countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, for Porpora Arias, arias by Neapolitan composer and singing teacher Nicola Antonio Porpora, whose most famous singing student was the castrato Farinelli;
    • Baritone Florian Bösch, for Schubert: Die Schöne Müllerin;
    • Soprano Joyce DiDonato, for Stella Di Napoli, arias by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti and several lesser-known Italian composers; and tenor Lawrence Brownlee, for Virtuoso Rossini Arias.
  • Best Opera Recording. Nominees are
    • Charpentier: La Descente D’Orphée Aux Enfers by the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble and Vocal Ensemble;
    • Milhaud: L’Orestie D’Eschyle by a large ensemble from the University Of Michigan, conducted by Kenneth Kiesler;
    • Rameau: Hippolyte Et Aricie by the Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment and the Glyndebourne Chorus, directed by William Christie;
    • Schönberg: Moses Und Aron by SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden Und Freiburg; EuropaChorAkademie, Sylvain Cambreling, conductor;
    • Strauss: Elektra by Staatskapelle Dresden and Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden, Christian Thielemann, conductor.
  • Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance includes a nomination for Sing Thee Nowell by the vocal quartet New York Polyphony.

Also noteworthy is the nomination of the popular a cappella ensemble Pentatonix for their track "Daft Punk" in the category of Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella

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Effective Date: 
Monday, January 19, 2015