CANNES, France, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadcast live for the first time on the France Musique radio station, MIDEM's showcase classical evening – the MIDEM Classical Awards – took place last night in the Debussy Auditorium at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. The sixth edition, hosted by the British journalist James Jolly and the Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, saw awards going to 16 discs and three DVDs, chosen from 111 entries from international labels from 20 countries.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100108/NY34916LOGO )
Frederic Chopin and his native Poland were honoured to mark the bicentenary of the composer's birth with a live performance by the Sinfonietta Cracovia orchestra conducted by John Axelrod and the teenage prodigy pianist Jan Lisiecki, who brought the evening to a close with his brilliant and poetic interpretation of Chopin's Concerto No 1 for Piano in E minor. The jury of the MIDEM Classical Awards gave two special Chopin prizes, in collaboration with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute. The Special Chopin Award– Best Ever was attributed to EMI's recording of Chopin's waltzes by Dinu Lipatti, while the Special Chopin Award – New Recordings went to Nikolai Demidenko for his disc of the composer's preludes, released by Onyx.
Another high-point of the MIDEM Classical Awards was the moving tribute to the Italian soprano Mirella Freni, whose dazzling career follows in the footsteps of the great cantatrices like Maria Callas and Christa Ludwig. The audience showed their appreciation with a rousing standing ovation as she received the Lifetime Achievement award from Paul Zilk, Chairman and CEO of Reed MIDEM.
The young clarinettist Jose Franch Ballester, voted revelation of the year, performed a magisterial Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra by Claude Debussy. The Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca and the German baritone Christian Gerhaher, voted respectively Female and Male Vocalist Artist of the Year, enchanted the audience with their interpretations of La Habanera by Georges Bizet and Gustav Mahler's lied Ich hab' ein gluhend Messer.
Another great voice resonated last night on stage at the Palais des Festivals, as contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux gave her rendition of the beautiful Chanson Triste by Henri Duparc. The celebrated King Singers, who won the DVD Concert award for their "Live at the BBC Proms" on Signum Records, interpreted Recipe of Love by Harry Connick Jr.
The MIDEM Classical Awards also bestowed prizes on some of the great figures of the classical music scene, including the conductors Bernhard Kontharsky, Jonathan Nott and Sylvain Cambreling, the pianist Ronald Brautigam, the viol player Jordi Savall, the sopranos Montserrat Figuerras and Sandrine Piau, the quartet Ebene, and Patrick Zelnik, founder and head of naïve, voted label of the year.
The sixth edition of the MIDEM Classical Awards, one of the highlights of the 44th MIDEM global music market, was once again distinguished by its dazzling artistic line-up and its prestigious list of award-winners.
The winners of the MIDEM Classical Awards 2010
EARLY MUSIC
Jerusalem, La Ville des deux Paix - La Paix Celeste et la Paix Terrestre
Montserrat Figueras, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Al-Darwish, Hesperion XXI, Jordi Savall
Alia Vox
BAROQUE MUSIC
Telemann - Brockes-Passion
Birgitte Christensen, Lydia Teuscher, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Daniel Behle, Donat Havar, Johannes Weisser, RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, Rene Jacobs
Harmonia Mundi
VOCAL RECITALS
Handel - Between Heaven & Earth
Sandrine Piau, Accademia Bizantina, Stefano Montanari
Naive
CHORAL WORKS
Zimmermann - Requiem for a Young Poet
Claudia Barainsky, David Pittman-Jennings, Lutz Lansemann, Michael Rotschopf, Jan Hage, Joao Rafael (Live Electronics), Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, Slovac Philharmonic Choir, EuropaChorAkademie, Eric Vloeimans Quintet, Holland Symfonia, Bernhard Kontarsky
Cybele
OPERA
Shostakovich - The Nose
Vladislav Sulimsky, Alexei Tanovitski, Tatiana Kravtsova, Andrei Popov, Sergei Semishkur, Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus, Valery Gergiev
Mariinsky
SOLO INSTRUMENT
Paganini - 24 Capricci
Thomas Zehetmair
ECM
CHAMBER MUSIC
Ravel, Debussy, Faure - String Quartets
Quatuor Ebene
Virgin Classics
CONCERTOS
Beethoven - Piano Concertos WoO4 & No. 2
Ronald Brautigam, Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Parrott
BIS
SYMPHONIC WORKS
Mahler - Symphony No. 9
Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott
Tudor
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Messiaen - The Works for Orchestra
Roger Muraro, Yvonne Naef, EuropaChorAkademie, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Sylvain Cambreling
Hanssler Classic
FIRST RECORDING
Rigel - Symphonies
Concerto Koln
Berlin Classics
HISTORICAL
Friedrich Gulda - The Early Recordings
Friedrich Gulda, Klavier, RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Igor Markevitch
Audite
DVD: OPERA / BALLET
Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin
Mariusz Kwiecien, Tatiana Monogarova, Margarita Mamsirova, Andrey Dunaev, Anatolij Kotscherga, The Bolshoi Theatre Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Chloe Perlemutter, Alexander Vedernikov
Bel Air Classiques
DVD: CONCERTS
The King's Singers Live at the BBC Proms
Signum Records
DVD: DOCUMENTARIES
Sergiu Celibidache - You don't do anything - You let it evolve
A film by Jan Schmidt-Garre
Arthaus Musik
CLASSICAL DOWNLOAD
Classicsonline.com
OUTSTANDING YOUNG ARTIST (in cooperation with IAMA)
Jose Franch- Ballester
JURY NOMINATION
Bach- 6 solos
Sonatas & Partitas
Viktoria Mullova
Onyx
ARTIST OF THE YEAR – INSTRUMENTALIST
Angela Hewitt *
Piano (Canada)
ARTIST OF THE YEAR – FEMALE VOCALIST
Elina Garanca *
Mezzo soprano (Latvia)
ARTIST OF THE YEAR – MALE VOCALIST
Christian Gerhaher *
Baritone (Germany)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Mirella Freni *
Soprano (Italy)
LABEL OF THE YEAR
Naive Classique (France) *
RECORDING OF THE YEAR
Zimmermann - Requiem for a Young Poet
Claudia Barainsky, David Pittman-Jennings, Lutz Lansemann, Michael Rotschopf, Jan Hage, Joao Rafael (Live Electronics), Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, Slovac Philharmonic Choir, EuropaChorAkademie, Eric Vloeimans Quintet, Holland Symfonia, Bernhard Kontarsky
Cybele
SPECIAL CHOPIN AWARD – BEST EVER
(in cooperation with the National Chopin Institute Warsaw)
Frederic Chopin: 14 Waltzes, Barcarolle, Nocturne in D flat, Mazurka in C sharp minor
Dinu Lipatti, piano
EMI/Angel
SPECIAL CHOPIN AWARD – NEW RECORDING
(in cooperation with the National Chopin Institute Warsaw)
Frederic Chopin: 24 Preludes op. 28, Sonata No.3 in B minor, op.58
Nikolai Demidenko, piano
ONYX
Note to the editors:
ABOUT REED MIDEM
Founded in 1963, Reed MIDEM is a leading organiser of professional, international tradeshows. Reed MIDEM events have established themselves as key dates in professional diaries. The company hosts MIPTV, MIPDOC, MIPCOM, and MIPJUNIOR for the television and digital content industries, MIDEM for music professionals, MIPIM, MIPIM Asia, MIPIM HORIZONS and MAPIC for the property and retail real estate sectors.
Reed Exhibitions is the world's leading events organiser, with over 470 events in 37 countries. In 2008 Reed brought together over seven million industry professionals from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and organised by 38 fully staffed offices.
Reed organises a wide range of events, including exhibitions, conferences, congresses and meetings. Its portfolio of over 470 events serves 44 industry sectors, including: Aerospace & aviation, automobiles, broadcasting, building & construction, electronics, energy, oil & gas, engineering, manufacturing, environment, food service & hospitality, gifts, healthcare, interior design, IT & telecoms, jewellery, life science & pharmaceuticals, machinery, medical education, printing & graphics, property & real estate, security & safety, sports & recreation, travel.
For further information about Reed MIDEM visit www.reedmidem.com
SOURCE Reed MIDEM
Share this article