Perlman, Close to Host Ovation Awards

Itzhak Perlman and Glenn Close will host the third annual Ovation Awards--honoring current recordings of classical music and the performers who make them--at Carnegie Hall in New York City Oct. 26.

The awards show will be taped for later broadcast on radio and television, according to Sharon Dec, coordinator of the awards for Ovation magazine. In 1988, the awards program was shown on cable (Arts & Entertainment). This year, Dec says, the management is seeking sponsors for network distribution.

With awards scheduled in 14 categories, voting by a 250-member panel made up of music professionals and Ovation readers, begins this week.

“The voting, in a window of time between Saturday and Aug. 15,” says Dec, “is by a computerized telephone system. The voters have an access code as a group, and each one has another, individual access code. After each participant has voted, the separate code will be destroyed.”

The voters fall into two groups. The first, which Dec refers to as the “credentialed group,” comprises 125 professionals--music critics from newspapers and magazines, professional record buyers from retail outlets and program directors from classical music radio stations. This group’s votes are “weighted two to one,” Dec says, against the votes of the second group of 125 music-lovers who are subscribers to Ovation magazine.

None of the names of the voters can be revealed, another spokesman for the awards show told The Times last week. This in accordance with the rules laid down by the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse, which will tabulate the results and keep them secret until the Oct. 26 event.

The nomination procedure, according to Dec, was this: More than 55 record companies submitted more than 300 recordings for consideration. A panel of six judges from the national music community--Robert Conrad, Dave Conant, Israel Horowitz, Denise Pineau, Paul Turok and John von Rhein--listened to these recordings and submitted their rankings. From these, the list of competitors in 14 categories was made up.

What each of the 14 winners--plus 11 recipients of special, uncategorized awards--will take home is a silver sculpture designed by Vivianne Bulow-Hube of Georg Jensen Silversmiths.

The nominees:

Recording artist of the year

Leonard Bernstein

Neeme Jarvi

Charles Mackerras

Anne-Sophie Mutter

Roger Norrington

Recording of the year

Barber: Symphony No. 2, etc.; Andrew Schenck/New Zealand Symphony.

Beethoven: Nine Symphonies; Overtures; Riccardo Muti/Philadelphia Orchestra.

Berlioz: “Symphonie Fantastique”; Roger Norrington/London Classical Players.

Kern: “Show Boat”; John McGlinn/London Sinfonetta.

Mahler: Symphony No. 2; Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic.

Debut recording artist of the year

Yefim Bronfman

Evgeny Kissin

Ute Lemper

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Melvyn Tan

Orchestral

Barber: Symphony No. 2, etc.

Berlioz: “Symphonie Fantastique”

Ives: “Central Park in the Dark”; Michael Tilson Thomas/Chicago Symphony

Mahler: Symphony No. 2

Mahler: Ten Symphonies, “Das Lied von der Erde;” Eliahu Inbal/Frankfurt Radio Symphony

Opera

Britten: “Paul Bunyan”; Philip Brunelle/Conductor

Mozart: “Die Zauberflote”; Nikolaus Harnoncourt/Zurich Opera

Strauss, R.: “Ariadne auf Naxos”; Kurt Masur/Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Strauss, R.: “Die Frau ohne Schatten”; Wolfgang Sawallisch/Orchestra and Chorus of Bavarian Radio

Wagner: “Die Walkure”; James Levine/Metropolitan Opera

Concerto

Brahms: “Haydn” Variations; Horacio Gutierrez, piano: Andre Previn/Royal Philharmonic.

Glazunov: Violin Concerto; Oscar Shumsky, violin: Neeme Jarvi/Scottish National Orchestra.

Lutoslawski: “Chain 2”: Partita; Stravinsky: Violin Concerto: Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin: Witold Lutoslawski/BBC Symphony (Lutoslawski); Paul Sacher/Philharmonia Orchestra (Stravinsky).

Mozart: Horn Concertos; Lowell Greer, horn: Nicholas McGegan/Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto; Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No. 2; Joshua Bell, violin: Vladimir Ashkenazy/Cleveland Orchestra.

Chamber

Bartok: Six String Quartets; Emerson Quartet.

Dvorak: Piano Trios; Emanuel Ax, piano; Young-uck Kim, violin; Yo-Yo Ma, cello.

Mozart: Piano Trios; Beaux Art Trio.

Music of Gabrieli and his Contemporaries: Empire Brass and friends.

Shostakovich: Sonata for Cello and Piano; Emanuel Ax, piano; Isaac Stern, violin; Yo-Yo Ma, cello.

Instrumental solo

Albeniz: “Iberia”; Alicia de Larrocha, piano.

Bach: Sonatas and Partitas; Itzhak Perlman, violin.

Beethoven-Liszt: Symphonies; Cyprien Katsaris, piano.

Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas, Andras Schiff, piano.

Weber: Complete Piano Sonatas; Garrick Ohlsson, piano.

CONTINUITY: The board of directors of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has extended the present contract of music director Iona Brown for another two years, through the 1991-92 season. At the same time, it has announced its 21st season, Oct. 20-May 11.

In addition to its performances with Los Angeles Music Center Opera in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, LACO will give separate series in this 1989-90 season at Ambassador Auditorium, Royce Hall, the Wiltern Theatre and Japan America Theatre.

In her third season at the helm of the orchestra, Brown will conduct five of the 13 programs and appear as violin soloist twice, the second time in the world-premiere performance of a piece specifically written for LACO by the American composer Jacob Druckman.

Guest conductors for this season include Christof Perick, Nicholas McGegan, Sergiu Comissiona, Frans Brueggen and Helmuth Rilling. Among the soloists are pianists Bella Davidovich and Ursula Oppens, sopranos Alicia Purcell and Karen Smith Emerson. clarinetist Sabine Meyer and violists Kim Kashkashian and Nobuko Imai.