The nominations for the 20th BBC Music Magazine Awards have now been announced, featuring the best classical music recordings from the last year.
Across nine categories, 27 recordings have been selected by our expert jury of BBC Music Magazine critics. Of the nine winners, one will go onto be announced as our Recording of the Year. At our awards ceremony in April, we will also name the BBC Music Magazine Personality of the Year.
The 2025 contenders: star-studded Beethoven and more
The contenders for the Orchestral category include an album of music by Fauré and Schoenberg bursting, said our reviewer, with 'sheer conviction and intensity’. It goes up against a thrilling Czech performance of Smetana's patriotic symphonic poem Má vlast, and a disc of music from the brilliantly talented American composer Augusta Read Thomas that 'has the feeling of a musical treasure trove'.
Over in the Concerto category, our three contenders include a star-studded Beethoven Triple Concerto featuring cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, violinist Nicola Benedetti and Benjamin Grosvenor. Up against that disc are a stellar Elgar Violin Concerto from Vilde Frang and insightful, energetic readings of the Grieg and Schumann Piano Concertos by the 79-year-old Elisabeth Leonskaja.
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The 2025 Opera category pits two contemporary works against a glittering rediscovery from two centuries ago. Louise Bertin's Fausto, pretty much forgotten after its 1831 premiere, gets a scintillating rebirth from conductor Christophe Rousset and others. It goes up against The Hours, Kevin Puts's 'absorbing, harrowing' new opera based on an Oscar-winning film, and Girls of the Golden West, John Adams's tale of the inequality of California’s ‘golden’ dawn, when dreams were made of precious metal.
Thrilling Mozart and a 'Glitter Revolution'
Our three 2025 Choral contenders are a thrilling Mozart Requiem from Pygmalion and their conductor Raphaël Pichon; Nicky Spence and others in Elgar's great oratorio The Dream of Gerontius; and Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil in Gabriela Ortiz's dazzling Revolución Diamantina, inspired by Mexico's 2019 ‘Glitter Revolution’ when thousands protested against police brutality against women. ‘A thing of wonder indeed,’ said our review.
'Grunts, shrieks, hums… this is no ordinary performance.' So says the review of Héloïse Werner's Close-ups, one of this year's Vocal Award contenders. It's joined by ROBESON, a fascinating album of songs performed by American bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and by a revelatory double album of songs by the French composer Rita Strohl, which sees soprano Elsa Dreisig and pianist Romain Louveau in sparkling form.
This year's Chamber category features a delicious album of oboe and piano music by both Schumanns, Clara and Robert; Patricia Kopatchinskaja and friends in music by Bartók, Poulenc and others; and Keel Road, in which the Danish String Quartet survey the sounds and songs of five northern nations. 'Is it folk? Is it world music? Is it classical? Does it matter? Poetic and oh-so memorable.
Captivating Chopin, emotional commemorations
The piano takes centre stage in this year's Instrumental category, where the rising South Korean star Yunchan Lim makes the final three with his daring, captivating debut album of Chopin Études. He goes up against Marc-André Hamelin, whose album of his own recent works for piano was described as ‘endlessly fascinating'; and, for a change of tone, a distillation of 400 years’ worth of French viol repertoire, performed with huge panache by Lucile Boulanger.
There were some memorable premiere recordings this year. The three discs to make the cut for our Premiere Award were Re-Build, a dazzling selection of new works for trombone quartet performed by the boundary-pushing Slide Action; a new violin concerto from British composer Adrian Sutton, deftly performed by Fenella Humphreys; and The Anvil, Emily Howard’s thrillingly immersive and deeply emotional commemoration of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre.
Last but not least is our Newcomer Award, where we meet again two nominees from previous categories: star pianist Yunchan Lim for his revelatory Chopin, and Slide Action for their invigorating album of trombone quartet music. Joining them are the UK-based Echo Vocal Ensemble, whose debut album Innocence, featuring work by everyone from Hildegard of Bingen to Howard Skempton, resulted in a 'deeply satisfying, thought-provoking' listen.
Voting for this year's Awards will be open from Thursday 23 January, and will close at midnight on Friday 28 February, with the winners revealed at our Awards ceremony at King’s Place on Wednesday 23 April.
Many thanks to this year's jury: Berta Joncus, Andrew McGregor, Claire Jackson, Michael Beek and Charlotte Smith.
You can find all the categories and how to vote at https://www.classical-music.com/awards/2025-awards
