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