This year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Awards Ceremony was as glittering and star-studded event as ever; the great and the good of classical music turned out at London’s Dorchester Hotel to honour the most important musicians/organisations/initiatives of the past year. Faber Music was delighted to be represented by three award-winners.
George Benjamin scooped the Large-Scale Composition prize (his third!) for his opera Written on Skin, which received its UK premiere at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The jury saluted Benjamin’s “technical skill in the service of expression, depth of emotional impact, vividly colourful orchestration and a brilliant libretto” by Martin Crimp. Faber Music’s composers have won this award an impressive 9 times in the last 24 years. David Matthews’s A Vision of the Sea was also shortlisted in this category this year.
Britten100, an “unprecedented collaboration between the Britten-Pears Foundation and partners” – including Faber Music – to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten, won the RPS Music Award for Audiences and Engagement. Britten100 was applauded by the jury for its “scale, ambition and diversity” and for the “exceptional number of performances, projects and resources drawing new, appreciative audiences to Britten worldwide”.
Welsh National Opera was awarded the RPS Music Award for Opera and Music Theatre for a season featuring three “bold, contrasting productions” – Lulu, Lohengrin and Paul Bunyan (a Britten work published by Faber Music) – “each of the highest musical and theatrical standard” with the work of its ensemble, orchestra, chorus and of Welsh National Youth Opera, including boys choir – Only Boys Aloud – all commended by the jury.
A special programme devoted to the RPS Music Awards will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday
18 May at 10pm.