Not the Grammy Awards ...

Were your favourite new releases of 2005 among the 13 Grammy classical winners last week? If not add your own nominations for a 'Not a Grammy Award' to this article using the 'Post a comments' link below.

Here for starters are four of the best new classical releases featured On An Overgrown Path in the last twelve months which didn't appear among the Grammy winners, or even the nominations coming to that.

* Douglas Boyd conducting the Manchester Camerata in Erwin Stein's chamber arrangement of Mahler's symphony No. 4 with soprano Kate Royal recorded for enterprising new label Avie which I wrote about in Magnificent Mahler-lite from Manchester

* Francis Jacob's superb recording for French label Zigzag Territoires of Bach's Clavier-übung III on the wonderful new organ in the church of St-Louis-en-l'Ile in Paris. Take An Overgrown Path to Mortal defeat for the mob in Paris for the full story and an audio sample.

* And to show I do really love Naxos I nominate for a 'Not a Grammy Award' their excellent release of medieval sacred music from the Notre-Dame school featuring works by Leonin and Perotin. The performers are Tonus Peregrinus directed by Antony Pitts, and this noteworthy CD featured in both my Jerry Springer rebel grabs Gramophone accolade and Raindrops are falling on my chant articles. The good news is that although this disc didn't make the Grammys it is the only early music recording shortlisted for the 2006 BBC Music Magazine Awards.

* To complete the journey from medieval to modern there is another release featuring Antony Pitts (below), this time with him both as conductor and composer. Seven Letters is an always topical choral setting of St John’s damning indictment of the depravity of the first-century church in Asia Minor from the Book of Revelations. It was composed in 1998 but was not recorded until last year, and is scored for SSAATTBB. All credit to Hyperion for investing in new choral music, and for reminding everyone that recorded contemporary choral music is alive and kicking on both sides of the Atlantic. It was a Gramophone Editor's Choice, but wasn't on the radar of the Grammy Recording Academy. Take An Overgrown Path to Jerry Springer rebel grabs Gramophone accolade for more about Seven Letters and a four minute audio sample of this fine contemporary composition.

Image credit - Toy gramophone from Grammophon.ch, Bach Clavier Übung III from Zigzag Territoires , Antony Pitts from Faber Music.
Image owners - if you do not want your picture used in this article please contact me and it will be removed. Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Full listing of Grammy classical winners - but ... and Industry awards are a sore point.

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