Local musicians have seized four nominations at this year’s prestigious Grammy awards, presented every year by the American Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The Mariinsky label’s recording of Rodion Shchedrin’s opera The Enchanted Wanderer performed by the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Valery Gergiev is a finalist in two categories: “Best Opera” and “Best Work by a Contemporary Classical Composer.”
St. Petersburg conductor Mariss Jansons, who began his career at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and now spends most of his time abroad, has also been nominated in the “Best Classical Album” and “Best Orchestral Performance” categories for a recording of Bruckner’s Third and Fourth Symphonies with the world-renowned Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, where he is principal conductor.
James Mallinson, producer of The Enchanted Wanderer and of a recording of the opera Parsifal by Mariinsky Theater soloists and the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Valery Gergiev, received a Grammy nomination for “Producer of the Year in Classical Music.”
“Among this year’s nominees we see musicians of exceptional talent and outstanding professionalism,” said Neil Portnow, president of the American Academy of Recording Arts. “I am proud that this year the academy has once again succeeded in compiling an impressive list of candidates for the award, covering an incredibly broad range of music.”
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In “Best Classical Album” Jansons is up against Riccardo Muti (Verdi’s Requiem), Giovanni Antonini (Sacrificuim album), Giancarlo Guerrero (Deus Ex Machina by Michael Daugherty) and Gil Rose (Dreamhouse by Steven Mackey).
“Bruckner is a signature composer for the Concergebouw orchestra, which firmly holds the third position in the world’s rating of symphony orchestras,” said Gyulara Sadykh-zade, a musical reviewer with Infox.ru news resource and Vedomosti newspaper. “For that reason the nomination is all the more important for Jansons, who feels the heart and soul of this famous orchestra perfectly.”
“Mariinsky is a very young recording label — it had its first release in 2009 — and it has been noticed by the Grammies since its very first release, which is most encouraging,” Sadykh-zade said. “Usually, new or small recording labels go completely unnoticed by such giants as the Grammy awards.”
The prize-giving ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on Feb. 13, 2011.