The 38th Annual Grammy Nominations : Needed: Early Music Category : Classical

In the 12 categories in which classical music competes, two in 1996 are notable for nominations that really hit the “best of” mark: best classical contemporary composition--in which the works of four living writers (John Adams, Gyorgy Ligeti, Gunther Schuller and Ellen Taafe Zwilich) and one deceased composer (Olivier Messiaen) are recognized.

And going against John Coltrane, “Live at the BBC,” “30 Years of Rhythm & Blues” and “Early Ellington” is the century’s great violinist, Jascha Heifetz, represented by “The Heifetz Collection” in the best historical album field.

No big surprises loom among other nominations, with the possible exception that many Baroque and early music possibilities, including the two otherwise much-awarded Purcell operas released in 1995 by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, were totally ignored. With the popularity of so many early music albums, the genre may need its own category.

One nomination, in the best classical album category--for conductor Martin Neary’s “Music for Queen Mary”--does recognize other-than-mainstream repertory. The rest of the field, though, goes to ubiquitous music and conductors (Boulez twice, Dutoit and Rostropovich).

The same two Boulez albums, one with the Chicago Symphony, the other with the Cleveland Orchestra, pop up in best orchestral performance, along with Wolfgang Sawallisch, Simon Rattle and Andre Previn with their respective symphonic connections.

Among nominated instrumental soloists, along with familiar names are rising piano stars Maria Joao Pires and Konstantin Lifschitz. And, happily, in best classical vocal performance are five singers who ought to hit their primes in the next century: Sylvia McNair, Bryn Terfel, Wolfgang Holzmair, Roberto Alagna and Sergei Leiferkus.