Choral Award 2023
The nominees for this year's BBC Music Magazine Choral Award
Voting has now closed
Welcome to the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Awards
This year’s nominated recordings for the Opera Award are listed below. Voting has now closed and the winners will be revealed at our Awards ceremony at Kings Place on Wednesday 19 April.
The nominees for the Choral Award
Cage
Choral Works
Latvian Radio Choir/Sigvards Kļava
Ondine ODE 1402-2
Cage’s choral music can be a feat of endurance for performer and listener alike, but here it was in good hands, as our August issue review recognised: ‘You can’t but be stunned by the fearless skill of Sigvards Kļava’s choir as they navigate the most jagged, fragmented notes and pitches – the musical equivalent of climbing Mount Everest just with your hands and feet.’
Handel
Theodora
Lisette Oropesa et al; Il Pomo d'Oro Choir; Il Pomo'd'Oro/Maxim Emelyanychev
Erato 5419717791
‘This is now the benchmark Theodora; it is optimally cast, dramatically intense and luminously beautiful.’ So said our original review in the Christmas issue, and it hits the nail on the head as all involved brought their A-game to Handel’s mighty oratorio.
John Luther Adams
Sila: the Breath of the World
The Crossing; Jack Quartet et al
Cantaloupe CA21177
Reviewed December 2022
The world’s natural wonders are to the fore in John Luther Adams’s epic work, but so too are its ecological nightmares. The composer is on the money with his messaging, but he matches it with seriously great music, performed here by a stellar line-up of artists. ‘This is a profoundly arresting album,’ as our December issue review put it.
