Ladies und Gentlemen, Welcome to the 2007 Annual Gramophone Awards!

Record of the Year

Brahms: Piano Concertos nos. 1 & 2

Nelson Freire (piano)

Outstanding performances of rare depth and humanity by a soloist and conductor, and an orchestra, with a deep tradition in this music.

Artist of the Year - Julia Fischer

-Young Artist of the Year - Vasily Petrenko

Vasily Petrenko is the Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

-Lifetime Achievement - Montserrat Caballé (hooraaay!)

-Label of the Year - Deutsche Grammophon

Record of the Year Category Winners

-Handel: Concerti Grossi

AAM, Richard Egarr

-Handel: Messiah (Dublin version)

Dunedin Consort, John Butt

-Janacek, Haas: String Quartets

Pavel Haas Quartet

-Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem

Berliner Philharmoniker, Simon Rattle

"The prolonged hush from Berlin's sophisticated audience following the dying fall of the final notes in Berlin's Philharmonie spoke for itself.”

Paul Moor, Musical America

-Anderson: Alhambra Fantasy

BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oliver Knussen

-Julian Bream: My Life in Music

-Byrd: Laudibus in Sanctis

The Cardinall’s Musick

-Wagner: Götterdämmerung

Joseph Keilberth, Bayreuth Festival Chorus & Orchestra

This is the last opera to be released on Testament of the first-ever stereo recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

-Moeran: Symphony, Sinfonietta & Overture for a Masque

Sir Adrian Boult

-Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6

Steven Isserlis (cello)

-Rossini: Matilde di Shabran

Riccardo Frizza

"...driving the Pesaro audience bananas with his pinging high notes and thrilling volleys of coloratura"

The Times, London on Juan Diego Florez

-Prokofiev: The Complete Symphonies

LSO, Valery Gergiev

"Valery Gergiev is a born Prokofiev interpreter...he made the LSO sound like the ideal musicians for this repertoire."

The Guardian

-Simon Keenlyside - Tales of Opera

Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Ulf Schirmer

“In a league of his own” –

Sunday Telegraph

-Strauss, R: Lieder

Jonas Kaufmann (tenor) & Helmut Deutsch (piano)

With the exception of the Heine setting, all the songs on the present CD date from the fertile period of composition of 1885-1900.