Monday, February 1
New Grammy winners!
11 AM
- Best vocal performance: soprano Renee Fleming, for Verismo, Decca B0013279-02. From that album we hear her sing "Senza mamma, o bimbo, tu sei morto" from Puccini's Suor Angelica.
- Best solo performance with orchestra: pianist Evgeny Kissin, for Prokofiev concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, EMI 50999 2 64536. We hear them in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3.
- Best classical album, best choral performance and best engineered classical recording: Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony & Chorus in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (plus his Symphony No. 10: Adagio) on the group's own label, SFS 821936-0021-2. We hear the final 14 minutes of the colossal Eighth.
- Best small ensemble performance: Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices for The Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang, on Harmonia Mundi 807496.
12 N
- Best instrumental solo performance: guitarist Sharon Isbin, for Journey to the New World, Sony 88697-45456. Today we hear Isbin's performance of four Renaissance lute pieces that open the wide-ranging album.
- Best chamber music performance: the Emerson String Quartet for their recording of Janacek quartets, DG B0012770-02. We hear Janacek's String Quartet No. 1 ("after Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata").
- Best surround sound recording: the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus's recording of On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams on Telarc 90673. We hear it.
1 PM
- Best orchestral performance: James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (and Tanglewood Festival Chorus) in the full ballet score Daphnis and Chloe by Maurice Ravel. We hear much of it.
- And two more from guitarist Sharon Isbin's winning solo album: Andecy, by Andrew York; and "Wayfaring Stranger," featuring Joan Baez, vocals. Sony 88697-45456.
