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A recording by violinist Andrew Wan and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano has taken double honours in the 2021 Juno Awards.
AN 2 9820 Ginastera – Bernstein – Moussa
The Analekta release from October 2020 won the Juno for Classical Album of the Year: Large Ensemble. One of the selections, the Violin Concerto “Adrano” by Montreal-born Samy Moussa, also won the Juno for Classical Composition of the Year. Other works on the MSO recording, both featuring the concertmaster as soloist, are Bernstein’s Serenade and Ginastera’s Violin Concerto.
The orchestra was in the interesting position of beating itself. A BIS recording of Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion (led, like the Analekta recording, by the former MSO music director) was also nominated in the “large ensemble” category.
In fact, all the “large ensemble” Juno nominees involved Quebec musicians. The other nominated recordings were: Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 22 and 24 (pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin with Les Violons du Roy conducted by Jonathan Cohen); Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concertos Nos. 3 and 5 (pianist Louis Lortie with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Edward Gardner); and concertos by Jacques Hétu (pianist Jean-Philippe Sylvestre and trombonist-conductor Alain Trudel with the Orchestre symphonique de Laval).
Junos awards announced on the first night of festivities include Mosaïque, Ensemble Made In Canada (Canadian Music Centre) for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber; and Massenet’s Thaïs, Erin Wall, Joshua Hopkins, Andrew Staples, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis (Chandos) for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral.
The complete list of first-night Juno winners is available here.
From an MSO communiqué on the Juno victory:
Recorded live in concert at the Maison symphonique de Montréal in 2019 by the OSM under its now Conductor Emeritus Kent Nagano, the album brings together powerful works performed by the orchestra’s Concertmaster Andrew Wan: Alberto Ginastera’s Violin Concerto Op. 30 – featuring no fewer than seven percussionists playing some 50 instruments – Leonard Bernstein’s towering Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion, inspired by Plato’s Symposium, and the Violin Concerto “Adrano” by Samy Moussa, a world premiere recording and OSM-commissioned work.
This album was launched in October 2020 on the Analekta label.
This is the 18th Juno Award for the OSM and another witness to the orchestra’s rich discography of over one hundred recordings. Below is a list of all Junos awarded to the OSM in the category Classical Album of the Year—Large Ensemble and/or Voice or Choir:
2021 GINASTERA – BERNSTEIN – MOUSSA
2020 THE JOHN ADAMS ALBUM
2017 L’AIGLON
2016 SAINT-SAËNS, MOUSSA, SAARIAHO: SYMPHONY AND NEW WORKS FOR ORGAN AND ORCHESTRA
2012 DAUGHERTY: FIRE AND BLOOD
2009 BEETHOVEN: IDEALS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
2003 BRUCH: VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 2 AND SCOTTISH FANTASY
2002 BRUCH: VIOLIN CONCERTOS NOS. 1 AND 3
2000 RESPIGHI: LA BOUTIQUE FANTASQUE
1997 BERLIOZ: LA DAMNATION DE FAUST
1996 SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONIES NOS. 5 & 9
1995 BERLIOZ: LES TROYENS
1992 DEBUSSY: PELLEAS ET MELISANDE
1991 DEBUSSY: IMAGES & NOCTURNES
1989 BARTÓK: CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA
1987 HOLST: THE PLANETS
1985 RAVEL: MA MÈRE L’OYE
1982 RAVEL: DAPHNIS ET CHLOE
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