Vinner av Gramophone Classical Award for Opera

Gramophone, det ledende internasjonale tidsskriftet for klassiske innspillinger, annonserte i dag at vår innspilling av Benjamin Brittens opera Peter Grimes er kåret til vinner av den prestisjetunge Gramophone Classical Award for Opera 2021. Innspillingen samt framføringene av operaen i Bergen, Oslo, Edinburgh og London har blitt mottatt med nærmere hundre strålende omtaler og kritikker. Selve prisseremonien (som blir digital) finner sted i London 5. oktober.

- I’m so happy and proud that our cd with Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes has won the 2021 Gramophone Classical Music Award for the best opera recording. Peter Grimes has been an adventure and a success story all the way since we performed it for the first time at the Bergen International Festival in May 2017 and took it to the Edinburgh International Festival in August that same year. In Edinburgh we were met with rave reviews and the performance was hailed as an artistic highlight of the year. We revived it in 2019 with performances in Bergen, Oslo and London (Royal Festival Hall), and we were once more met with praise and amazing reviews. The performance was listed as one of the main classical events in the UK that year. In November 2019 we recorded the opera in Grieghallen, Bergen, and I couldn’t be happier with the result and its fantastic reception internationally.

Album of the Week, Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times
The BEST Peter Grimes – Yes, The Best!, Robert Levine, Classics Today

- This giant project could not have been done without the joining together of so many artistic forces in Bergen; Bergen National Opera, Edvard Grieg Kor, Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Collegium Musicum Choir, Chorus Master Håkon Matti Skrede and, of course, the Bergen Philharmonic. So many great soloists gave their all to the performances – Stuart Skelton, the late and great Erin Wall, to whom we dedicate this award, Roderick Williams, Susan Bickley, Hanna Husahr, Vibeke Kristensen, Robert Murray, Neal Davies, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, James Gilchrist, Marcus Farnsworth, Barnaby Rea and Samuel Winter. Thanks also to Royal Northern College of Music Chorus, Bergen International Festival, our sponsors and last, but not least Chandos and Ralph Couzens who believed in our project, sjefdirigent Edward Gardner.

This insightful recording is up there with this opera’s finest, The Guardian
Top 10 – This year’s best classical releases, The Guardian
This new recording under Edward Gardner is as superb as one would expect from this brilliant line-up, The Independent

- Vår versjon av Peter Grimes på scenen i Bergen, Oslo, Edinburgh og London har vært en formidabel suksess fra ende til annen, kanskje Bergen Filharmoniske Orkesters største satsning og bragd gjennom tidene. At vår innspilling av denne storslagne operaen nå krones med Gramophone Award understreker den høyst bemerkelsesverdige kraften og kvaliteten i det opera-symfoniske samarbeidet i Bergen, direktør Bernt Bauge.

If you want to convert a novice to the joys of opera, buy them this set. A definitive modern Grimes, Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk

22. september 2021