Brit Award for Classical Recording


The Brit Award for Classical Recording was an award given by the British Phonographic Industry, an organisation which represents record companies and artists in the United Kingdom.

Criteria

The accolade used to be presented at the Brit Awards, an annual celebration of Music of [the United Kingdom|British] and international music. The winners and nominees are determined by the Brit Awards voting academy with over one-thousand members, which comprise record labels, publishers, managers, agents, media, and previous winners and nominees.

History

The award was first presented in 1982 as "Classical Recording" which was won by Simon Rattle. The accolade has been defunct as of 1993.
New Zealand opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa became the only female winner in 1984. Only two other women were nominated for the award; Jane Glover for her recording of Violin Concerto by Richard Strauss and another violin concerto by Christopher Headington in 1992, and Cecilia Bartoli for her recording of Heroines by Giacomo Puccini in 1993. Te Kanawa was also one of only four non-British winners, along with Australian guitarist John Williams in 1983, Indian conductor Zubin Mehta for Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert in 1991 and Hungarian-born conductor Georg Solti for his recording of Otello by Giuseppe Verdi, though Solti had been a British citizen since 1972. At least two musicians were nominated posthumously; Puccini in 1984, 60 years after his death, and Leonard Bernstein for his operetta Candide in 1992, two years after his death. The only musician nominated for two recordings in the same year was Colin Davis, who was nominated for his recordings of The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and The [Turn of the Screw (opera)|The Turn of the Screw] by Benjamin Britten in 1985.

Winners and nominees

YearRecipientNominees
1982

Multiple nominations and awards

NominationsArtist
6Simon Rattle
4Nigel Kennedy
3John Eliot Gardiner
3Julian Lloyd Webber
3Trevor Pinnock
2André Previn
2Bryden Thomson
2Christopher Hogwood
2Colin Davis
2Georg Solti
2Jeffrey Tate
2Vernon Handley

AwardsArtist
2Nigel Kennedy
2Simon Rattle