New awards for the Mariinsky label

iTunes in Germany has referred to Richard Wagner’s opera Die Walküre – the first release of the grandiose Ring des Nibelungen cycle on the Mariinsky label – as “Best Recording of 2013”.

The release of Die Walküre with an unprecedented cast of lead Wagnerian singers – Anja Kampe, Jonas Kaufmann, René Pape, Nina Stemme, Mikhail Petrenko and Ekaterina Gubanova and other Mariinsky soloists and the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev – took place on 11 February last year, the recording quickly winning the hearts and minds of listeners and music critics alike. The Mariinsky’s Walküre has already received such awards as the Diapason d’Or, the Opera Diamond and five stars from Audiophile Audition magazine as well as Germany’s most prestigious classical music award, the ECHO Klassik, as “Best Opera Recording of the Year”. Recently it received a nomination (alongside Das Rheingold, the Mariinsky’s second release from Wagner’s tetralogy) for the acclaimed International Classical Music Awards in the category “Best Opera”.

The recording of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto featuring the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev and the young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, prize-winner at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition, was named “CD of the Week” by the leading British classical music broadcaster Classic FM.