NEWS - 26 September 2008

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has been awarded the 2008 Gramophone Award for Best Contemporary Classical Recording, for its performances of music by its Composer in Association, Jonathan Harvey.

The winning recording, Body Mandala, features five works by Jonathan Harvey, and is conducted by the orchestra’s Chief Conductor, Ilan Volkov. The recording also features soprano Anu Komsi and the orchestra’s Associate Guest Conductor, Stefan Solyom. It was produced by the orchestra’s Senior Producer Simon Lord, and balanced and edited by its Programme Manager Graeme Taylor.

Presented today at the Dorchester Hotel in London, the Classic Fm Gramophone Awards are regarded as the world’s most influential classical music prize, and are now in their 30th Year.

The BBC SSO was also nominated twice in the concerto category at this year’s awards for its recordings of Viola Concertos by Walton and Rubbra with violist Lawrence Power, and for Tippett’s Piano Concerto with pianist Steven Osborne. This is the third Gramophone Award presented to the BBC SSO; in 1992, the orchestra took the award for Best Concerto Recording, with pianist Nikolai Demidenko, and in 1993 won best Contemporary Recording for James MacMillan’s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie.

Body Mandala is released on the NMC label, an independent charitable company set up in 1988 which has become one of the UK’s most significant producers of CDs of new, recent and neglected composers.

Director of the BBC SSO, Gavin Reid, said, "This award is a wonderful testament to the achievements of Jonathan Harvey and I am delighted for him, for our friends at NMC, for our magnificent production team of Simon Lord and Graeme Taylor and of course, the incredible musicians of the BBC SSO."