Benjamin Grosvenor has won the Gramophone Concerto Award for his recording of the Chopin piano concerti with Elim Chan and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
In her review for Gramophone Magazine (Recording of the Month) Harriet Smith commented:
“[Grosvenor’s] playing beguiles from the off; as the dynamics sink, his lines are full of poetry but they unfold with utter naturalness. Chan follows his every gesture unerringly — there’s no doubting the musical chemistry at play here … It’s the kind of disc that makes you rethink these works and appreciate them all over again.”
In 2012, Grosvenor also received Gramophone’s Instrumental Award and was name its Young Artist of the Year.
Speaking about this latest accolade, he comments: “I am honoured to receive this award for my recording of the Chopin piano concerti. These works have been important to me from a very young age, and it was an enormous pleasure to record them last year with such sympathetic partners as Elim Chan and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. I’d like to thank them, producer John Fraser, engineer Philip Siney and piano technician Peter Salisbury, as well as the whole team at Decca Classics for making this recording happen.”
Released in February 2020, the recording came to fruition following a successful performance of the Piano Concerto No.2 with Elim Chan and the RSNO in 2018. The recording was awarded a Diapason D’Or and Gramophone Magazine’s Recording of the Month in March 2020, and featured as Album of the Week on Classic FM and in the Sunday Times. Read more reviews here.
Grosvenor signed to Decca Classics in 2011, becoming the youngest British musician ever, and the first British pianist in almost 60 years to do so. Other releases on the label include: Homages (2016); Dances (2014); Rhapsody in Blue (2012); Chopin, Liszt & Ravel (2011).