Julia Fischer & Sol Gabetta: Gramophone & Echo Award
A double strike by two young performers has heralded a turn of the tides on the classical scene. At the beginning of this month, German violinist Julia Fischer secured herself the title of “Artist of the Year” at the Gramophone Awards. Now, just three weeks later, Cellist Sol Gabetta took home similar honours ("Instrumentalist of the Year") on the night of the highest German distinction in the field of classical music, the Echo. For both Julia Fischer and Sol Gebatta, the awards crown highly succesful recording and touring sprees and were won against a fierce lineup of competitors. Julia Fischer, for exampe, lept ahead of long-standing stars such as Rolando Villazon, Bryn Terfel and the freshly appointed Messenger for Peace Daniel Barenboim, as well as up and rising talents such as Joyce DiDonato.
Quite obviously, Julia Fischer was delighted about securing victory at the Gramophone Awards’ Readers Poll: “I am very happy to receive this award, especially in the UK where I began my career by winning my first competition when I was eleven years old. I deeply appreciate the belief of everyone who voted for me!”, adding she would go on with her work, despite a temporary absence of her personal site from the web: “I continue my work energized by their support!” Julia Fischer’s record company Pentatone were equally satisfied, adding the video to the recording sessions of her last CD to their homepage. And Gramophone editor James Inverne strongly supported the decision of his magazine’s readership: “This award for Julia Fischer points to the fact that this is the most exciting time ever for young classical music stars, who of course bring with them fans of their own generation. “
The triumph of Sol Gabetta at the Echo can certainly be considered a similar success. Even though this award is strongly influenced by the record industry itself, there was no doubt whatsoever that the achievment was based on talent alone. After her eponymous debut album, Sol Gabetta recently released “Il Progetto Vivaldi”, a dedication to the Italian composer and an unexpected, vigorous and vivid move to original practise. On the night, she chose to play the finale of that album, a Cello-transcription of the “Winter” movement taken from “The Four Seasons” – a musical statement, which naturally did not remain without criticism, as it was accused to harking back to the good old favourites.
In the end, this proved to be an academical debate. For anyone who actually saw Sol Gabetta perform the piece, the furiosity, fun and controlled frenzy with which she took the crowd’s attention, all smiles and hair flying, was contageous. Even if some of the older names of the business will have been disappointed – the changing of the guards by Julia Fischer and Sol Gabetta was a sympathetic and amiable revolution.
Homepage: Julia Fischer
Homepage: Sol Gabetta
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