In the Contemporary category, we have three nominations, Stefan Asbury, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta.

Conductor Stefan Asbury has been shortlisted for the following recording: Liza Lim: Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus, on Kairos label.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sol Gabetta and Camerata Bern’s ​‘Plaisirs illumines’ album is also nominated. The album, recorded on Alpha label, featuring two Camerata Bern commissions: Sandor Veress’ Musica concertante (1966) and Francisco Coll’s Les plaisirs illumines, a double concerto for Patricia and Sol. It also features works by Bartók, Ginastera, Kurtág and Ligeti.

Bringing us to the Piano category, we have two nominees in this category, Behzod Abduraimov and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

Bezhod Abduraimov is nominated in this category for his recent recital album for Alpha Classics which included Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Debussy’s Children’s corner, and Chopin’s Preludes op.28. Praised for highlighting ​“clear, if subtle links between three composers’ yet creating a ​‘distinct sound world for each of them” (Gramophone 2021), this album was highly acknowledged in the press and acclaimed as the Gramophone​’s Best New Classical Album and The Sunday Times’ Album of the Week. Behzod performs extensively with renowned orchestras and solo recitals worldwide and opens the season with Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under Tugan Sokhiev which will be broadcast live on Medici TV.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has been nominated in the Piano Category for his album ​‘The Beethoven Connection’ which presents sonatas by Beethoven’s contemporaries: Clementi, Dussek, Hummel, and Wölfl. The album has already received numerous accolades including from BBC Music and Choc-Classica magazines and the New York and Financial Times. Bavouzet records exclusively for Chandos. With the label, he has completed a number of major projects including recording all Beethoven piano concertos with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (play/​direct) and all the Beethoven piano sonatas.

Moving on to the Concerto category, Pablo Heras-Casado is shortlisted for his recording of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, featuring Isabelle Faust on violin, Jean-Guihen Queyras on cello and Alexander Melnikov on piano. Recorded in June 2020 in Berlin, under a socially-distanced set-up, the album is part of Heras-Casado’s series of recordings celebrating the work of Beethoven for the label harmonia mundi.