Esa-Pekka Salonen picks up one Grammy award and a share in another

Hilary Hahn

Esa-Pekka Salonen

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Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and American violinist Hilary Hahn received Grammy awards in the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra category, in which the award is given both to the instrumental soloist and to the conductor.
      The orchestra was the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Hahn was the soloist for the Schönberg and Sibelius Violin Concertos. The recording was released by Deutsche Grammophon.
     
The Hahn/Salonen recording was also a nominee in the Best Classical Album category, in which the award is given to the artists and to the producers of the album.
      The winner in this category was conductor James Conlon’s recording of Kurt Weill’s opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, which won another Grammy in the Best Opera Recording category.
      Esa-Pekka Salonen was also mentioned as a composer in the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance category, when Gloria Cheng received a Grammy award for her recording of piano music by Salonen, Lutoslawski, and Stucky.
      The number of award categories for classical music was 11, while the total number of Grammy Awards was 110.
     
Salonen is the second Finn to receive a Grammy award, as opera singer Karita Mattila won Grammys in 1997 and 2004.
      However, Finns have also contributed to a number of other prize-winning recordings in the past. For example, Matti Salminen sang in the opera recording of Richard Wagner’s tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung, which was given the opera award in 1992.
      Finnish stars of classical music are among the Grammy nominees almost every year. The number of nominees is usually five in each category.
      According to the New York Times, the significance of the Grammys has declined, amid the withering music business.
      According to the newspaper, the sales of records have dropped by as much as 45% since 2000, and as for albums, the drop overthe past year has been 14 %.
     
In Finland the fall has been less noticeable. According to the information given by the IFPI Finland, in terms of euros the decline in the sales of albums last year was 7.5 % relative to the level of 2007.
      The IFPI Finland is the Finnish National Group of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).


Links:
  Grammy Awards
  Hilary Hahn official website
  Esa-Pekka Salonen official website
  Deutsche Gramophon

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