The German label wins the award for Label of the Year at the 2015 International Classical Music Awards (ICMA)!
The German label, which was founded five years ago in Leipzig, Germany, was awarded the prestigious distinction by the jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA). With this award the independent members of the jury, including print and radio journalists from across Europe, honour the exceptional work of the German label and production firm.
“With an impressing number of nominations and winning productions, Accentus is one label we have closely observed during the last few years and we certainly appreciated its careful and judicious release policy. The title Label of the Year is therefore truly deserved”, says jury president Remy Franck.
Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Daniel Barenboim, Andris Nelsons, Simon Rattle, Pierre Boulez, Herbert Blomstedt and Alan Gilbert – the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, New York Philharmonic and Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra – Evgeny Kissin, Joshua Bell, Martha Argerich, Nikolaj Znaider, Zhu Xiao-Mei and Hélène Grimaud – they have all worked with Accentus Music, confirming the label’s reputation for extraordinary concert and opera recordings as well as documentaries and portraits of the highest technical and artistic quality.
Amongst the label’s most recent releases figure noteworthy productions such as the last concert recording with Claudio Abbado and the memorial concert with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for the great conductor as well as Bach recordings with the pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei. Daniel Barenboim’s Bruckner Cycle and Riccardo Chailly’s Leipzig Mahler Cycle, which will be completed by 2017,
stand out as unique examples of artistically homogenous documentations and already serve as the prominent point of reference for similar projects. A CD box set with Herbert Blomstedt’s new recordings of all of Beethoven’s symphonies with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra will be released just in time for the conductor’s 90th birthday in two years.
One of the most unique features of Accentus Music is the fact that the production of all releases is managed in-house. Each production carries Accentus’ very distinctive thumbprint and documents some of the most important events of recent musical history. In previous years, Accentus Music won international prizes including Echo Klassik award, FIFA Prix du Meilleur Portrait, International Classical Music Award, Gramophone Award, Golden Prague Award, BBC Music Magazine Award, Diapason d’Or and Choc Classica de l’année.
The ICMA award ceremony will take place in Turkey’s capital Ankara on 28 March 2015. Various artists who are closely linked to Accentus Music will take part in the ceremony, including pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei, who will receive a Special Achievement Award for her two most recent Bach recordings with Accentus Music, and conductor Alexander Liebreich. The musical accompaniment to the ceremony will be providedby the winners of this year’s ICMA Awards and the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra.