Awards 2009: Baroque - Instrumental

Handel: Organ concertos op.7
Academy of Ancient Music/Richard Egarr Harmonia Mundi

Outstanding, according to Marc Rochester in International Record Review. "Egarr's virtuosity is never in doubt... he is astonishing both in his technical skill and his sense of ownership over the performances. With the Academy of Ancient Music on absolutely smashing form, I have to say that - questions of authenticity and textural niceties apart - no recording of these concertos has ever thrown up such exciting and invigorating performances". Or, as David Hurwitz put it on Classics Today: "This marvelous release sets a new standard as an imaginative recreation of Handel's genius both as composer and performer". One particularly noteworthy feature of this recording is Egarr's ad libitum bits - as Rochester said, "bringing in polytonality of an almost Charles Ivesian blatancy, and throwing in extraordinary key changes and harmonic convolutions which as often as not seem more the territory of Reger and Karg-Elert". Blimey!

Runners-up:
Bach: Brandenburg concertos. English Baroque Soloists/Kati Debretzeni, John Eliot Gardiner [Soli Deo Gloria]
Bach: Flute sonatas. Emmanuel Pahud, Trevor Pinnock, et al. [EMI]
Vivaldi: "Il ballo" - Violin concertos volume 3. Duilio M. Galfetti; I Barocchisti/Diego Fasolis [Naive]
Ward: Consort music for 5 and 6 viols. Phantasm [Linn]