A number of Rayfield Allied artists have been nominated for the 2022 Gramophone Awards across a variety of genres including choral, early music, contemporary, instrumental and chamber music.
Choral Category
The King’s Consort / Purcell's Birthday Odes for Queen Mary
Featuring three of Purcell’s finest odes written to celebrate the birthday of Queen Mary, Matthew Brook and Carolyn Sampson join The King’s Consort for this recent disc, praised for the exemplary singing of all involved. Also recorded with the ensemble on the Vivat label in 2021 was Purcell: Royal Odes, for which Gramophone praised the disc for “another crack team of singers”.
Early Music Category
Echoes of an Old Hall
Gothic Voices’ latest disc features a programme of music from the late 14th and early 15th Centuries from the Old Hall Manuscript, by composers such as Dunstaple, Power and Cooke, contrasted with music from the same period on the continent by Dufay, Binchois, Lymburgia and others. Previously chosen as Gramophone’s Editor’s choice, Fabrice Fitch applauded them by saying “the account of Dunstable’s four-voice Veni Sancte Spiritus (one of the best-known, oft-recorded pieces of the 15th century) is unquestionably one of the finest yet made”.
Contemporary Category:
Irish Chamber Orchestra / Andre de Ridder / Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
For this acclaimed recording of Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Underground, Hilary Summers reprised her roles as White Queen, Dormouse and Cook. The opera is described as the ‘perfect match’ for Lewis Carroll’s topsy-turvy world, with the music shifting from curious pastiche to hip-hop, via Schoenbergian Sprechstimme. As the only member of the original cast, Summers receives particular acclaim for her ‘doleful’ Dormouse.
Instrumental Category:
Six Keyboard Partitas, BWV825-830
Mahan Esfahani’s latest disc in his Bach cycle for Hyperion, of his Six Partitas published as Clavier-Übung I, is shortlisted for the Instrumental category. The disc received widespread acclaim, with critics lauding Esfahani’s interpretive flair, expressive freedom, and meticulous scholarship. Jed Distler writes for Gramophone: “there’s no questioning Esfahani’s inquiring musical mind and absolute mastery of his instrument”.
Chamber Category:
Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale
Jörgen van Rijen plays as part of a septet alongside violinist Isabelle Faust for Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale released by Harmonia Records in August 2021. The disc was Edit's Choice for Gramophone Magazine in November 2021, Recording of the Month for BBC Music Magazine in December 2021 and Presto Recording of the Week from 27 August 2021.
"This is as lively and characterful a performance as you’re ever likely to hear – as well as the most historically authentic that I’m aware of Each member of the septet plays on an instrument dating from the period of the work’s composition (with the exception of Faust’s Stradivarius and Wies de Boevé’s double bass). This is particularly noticeable in the wind and percussion, where the soundworld is distinctively different from what modern instruments would create." - David Smith, PrestoMusic
