Among hundreds of award recipients at the 2009 Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night, winners in the classical categories were announced. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra won Best Orchestral Performance for its recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4, conducted by Bernard Haitink, on the orchestra’s own CSO Resound label. Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording went to the Los Angeles Opera’s production of Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, conducted by James Conlon on the EuroArts label, with Anthony Dean Griffey, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, and Los Angeles Opera Chorus. John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems Of Bob Dylan was named Best Classical Vocal Performance; Corigliano’s new music for Dylan’s lyrics was sung by Hila Plitmann, with the Buffalo Philharmonic conducted by JoAnn Falletta (Naxos). Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra won Best Surround Sound Album for Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on Bald Mountain, and Prelude to Khovanshchina engineered by Michael Bishop (Telarc). Best Engineered Album (Classical) went to David Frost, Tom Lazarus, and Christopher Willis for Traditions And Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago on the CSO Resound label, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma, Wu Man, and the Silk Road Ensemble, led by Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Alan Gilbert. David Foster won Producer of the Year (Classical) for four recordings, including the Silk Road album as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique led by Gustavo Dudamel (Deutsche Grammophon). Best Chamber Music Performance went to the Chicago-based Pacifica Quartet’s recording of Elliott Carter String Quartets 1 and 5 on the Naxos label. Pianist Gloria Cheng won Best Instrumental Soloist (without orchestra) for her Telarc recording of music by Witold Lutoslawski, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Steven Stucky. Violinist Hilary Hahn’s recording of Schoenberg and Sibelius concertos won Best Instrumental Soloist (with orchestra), with the Swedish Radio Symphony led by Salonen (DG). A complete list of this year’s awards can be found at grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/51st_Show/list.aspx#30
