GRAMMY Awards 2024: Editor’s Picks

Classical musicians always get short shrift at the Grammys. While the pop awards ceremony is a great spectacle watched by millions ever year, the awards for classical music and other non-mainstream categories are not even televised (though this year they will be live-streamed). In anticipation of the 2024 GRAMMY Awards on February 4, read our editor's picks for the classical categories and listen to recommended selections.

Best Orchestral Performance

• Adès: Dante; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
• Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Four Pieces; Karina Canellakis, conductor (Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra)
• Price: Symphony No. 4; Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor (The Philadelphia Orchestra)
• Scriabin: Symphony No. 2; The Poem of Ecstasy; JoAnn Falletta, conductor (Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra). Read our interview with conductor JoAnn Falletta about this recording here.
• Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor (San Francisco Symphony)

Best Opera Recording

• Blanchard: Champion; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Ryan Speedo Green, Latonia Moore & Eric Owens; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
• Corigliano: The Lord of Cries; Gil Rose, conductor; Anthony Roth Costanzo, Kathryn Henry, Jarrett Ott & David Portillo; Gil Rose, producer (Boston Modern Orchestra Project & Odyssey Opera Chorus)
• Little: Black Lodge; Timur; Andrew McKenna Lee & David T. Little, producers (The Dime Museum; Isaura String Quartet)

Best Choral Performance

• Carols After a Plague; Donald Nally, conductor (The Crossing)
• The House of Belonging; Craig Hella Johnson, conductor (Miró Quartet; Conspirare)
• Ligeti: Lux Aeterna; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor (San Francisco Symphony Chorus)
• Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil; Steven Fox, conductor (The Clarion Choir)
• Saariaho: Reconnaissance; Nils Schweckendiek, conductor (Uusinta Ensemble; Helsinki Chamber Choir)

 

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance

• American Stories; Anthony McGill & Pacifica Quartet
• Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 6, ‘Pastorale’ and Op. 1, No. 3; Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax & Leonidas Kavakos
• Between Breaths; Third Coast Percussion
• Rough Magic; Roomful of Teeth
• Uncovered, Vol. 3: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still, & George Walker; Catalyst Quartet

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album

• Because; Reginald Mobley, soloist; Baptiste Trotignon, pianist
• Broken Branches; Karim Sulayman, soloist; Sean Shibe, accompanist
• 40@40; Laura Strickling, soloist; Daniel Schlosberg, pianist
• Rising; Lawrence Brownlee, soloist; Kevin J. Miller, pianist
• Walking in the Dark; Julia Bullock, soloist; Christian Reif, conductor (Philharmonia Orchestra)

 

Honorable mention: Listen to this charming song about a café encounter by Lori Laitman from Laura Strickling and Daniel Schlosberg’s 40@40:

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

• Adams, John Luther: Darkness and Scattered Light; Robert Black, double bass
• Akiho: Cylinders; Andy Akiho, percussion
• The American Project; Yuja Wang, piano; Teddy Abrams, conductor (Louisville Orchestra)
• Difficult Grace; Seth Parker Woods, cello
• Of Love.; Curtis Stewart, violin

 

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

• Adès: Dante; Thomas Adès, composer (Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Philharmonic)
• Akiho: In That Space, at That Time; Andy Akiho, composer (Andy Akiho, Ankush Kumar Bahl, & Omaha Symphony)
• Brittelle: Psychedelics; William Brittelle, composer (Roomful of Teeth)
• Mazzoli: Dark With Excessive Bright; Missy Mazzoli, composer (Peter Herresthal, James Gaffigan, & Bergen Philharmonic)
• Montgomery: Rounds; Jessie Montgomery, composer (Awadagin Pratt, A Far Cry, & Roomful of Teeth)

 

Best Classical Compendium

• Fandango; Anne Akiko Meyers; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Dmitriy Lipay, producer
• Julius Eastman, Vol. 3: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?; Christopher Rountree, conductor; Lewis Pesacov, producer
• Mazzoli: Dark with Excessive Bright; Peter Herresthal; Tim Weiss, conductor; Hans Kipfer, producer
• Passion for Bach and Coltrane; Alex Brown, Harlem Quartet, Imani Winds, Edward Perez, Neal Smith & A.B. Spellman; Silas Brown & Mark Dover, producers
• Sardinia; Chick Corea; Chick Corea & Bernie Kirsh, producers
• Sculptures; Andy Akiho; Andy Akiho & Sean Dixon, producers
• Zodiac Suite; Aaron Diehl Trio & The Knights; Eric Jacobsen, conductor; Aaron Diehl & Eric Jacobsen, producers

Best Engineered Album, Classical

• The Blue Hour; Patrick Dillett, Mitchell Graham, Jesse Lewis, Kyle Pyke, Andrew Scheps, & John Weston, engineers; Helge Sten, mastering engineer (Shara Nova & A Far Cry)
• Contemporary American Composers; David Frost & Charlie Post, engineers; Silas Brown, mastering engineer (Riccardo Muti & Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
• Fandango; Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, engineers; Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, mastering engineers (Gustavo Dudamel, Anne Akiko Meyers, Gustavo Castillo & Los Angeles Philharmonic)
• Sanlikol: A Gentleman of Istanbul – Symphony for Strings, Percussion, Piano, Oud, Ney, & Tenor; Christopher Moretti & John Weston, engineers; Shauna Barravecchio & Jesse Lewis, mastering engineers (Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, George Lernis, & A Far Cry)
• Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Schulhoff: Five Pieces; Mark Donahue, engineer; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)