Grammy Nominations Announced

Skimming through the list of this year’s Grammy nominees, the name William Bolcom appears four times in the following categories: Best Classical Album, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Choral Performance, and Best Classical Vocal Performance. Could there be a Nora Jones-style sweep for Bolcom’s Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience? We all have to wait until February to find out.

Also recognized in the Best Classical Contemporary Composition category is Osvaldo Golijov for Ayre, Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream Of America, Nine Episodes For Four Players by Ned Rorem, and Argentinean-American composer Carlos Franzetti’s Corpus Evita. Familiar names pop up in the Best Small Ensemble Performance nominations, which includes Ancient Voices Of Children from the first volume of Bridge Records’ Complete George Crumb series, as well as Collage New Music’s performance of John Harbison’s Mottetti Di Montale released on Koch.

Up against Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra performed by the Fred Sherry String Quartet and Martha Argerich’s rendition of Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 by Beethoven, we find pieces by Kenneth Fuchs and Michael Daugherty in the Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra) category. Whether or not Daugherty’s UFO, with Evelyn Glennie as soloist, or An American Place, featuring Thomas Stacy on English horn, by Fuchs take home a statuette, odds are Naxos will end up a winner. All but the Beethoven were released by the mightiest of budget labels—take that Deutsche Grammophon.

Other notable nominees include Leonard Bernstein’s Mass in the Best Choral Performance category—vs. the Bolcom, of course—and George Antheil’s Symphony No. 3 “American” nominated for Best Orchestral Performance. Award show junkies take note: the ceremony is scheduled to air on CBS at 8 p.m. on February 8, 2006. A complete list of the nominees is available here.