West Coast Shows Its Musical Strength

Last year New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani blew off the Grammys; this year the classical Grammys blew off New York, favoring instead the West Coast. The most nominated classical recording is Michael Tilson Thomas’ latest Stravinsky set with the San Francisco Symphony. Included among picks for best classical album and best engineered classical album, it will also contend with Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Los Angeles Philharmonic recording of the music of Silvestre Revueltas for best orchestral performance.

An interesting battle will occur in the best opera category, nominees for which include Salonen’s recording of Ligeti’s “Le Grand Macabre” and Bay Area conductor Kent Nagano’s new version of Messiaen’s “Saint Francois d’Assise.” An album by the San Francisco-based vocal group Chanticleer is nominated for best chamber music performance. Even the knotty Requiem by UC Berkeley composer Andrew Imbrie wound up with a nomination for best contemporary composition. Robina G. Young, who is based in Los Angeles, got a nomination for classical producer of the year.

In contrast, New Yorkers are not particularly prominent, with but one contemporary composer (Aaron Kernis) and a handful of soloists (Gil Shaham, Hilary Hahn and Murray Perahia) getting nods. The New York Philharmonic appears only for its historical Mahler broadcasts. (Mahler, incidentally, is the composer of the year, better represented than Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms combined.)

Many Grammy favorites are back in force: Pierre Boulez, Simon Rattle, Anne-Sophie Mutter, John Eliot Gardiner and the late Robert Shaw. But new favorites now include such outstanding artists as baritone Thomas Quasthoff, violinist Gidon Kremer, pianist Martha Argerich and composer Thomas Ades. Indeed, this year’s nominations seem, remarkably, more interested in genuine quality than placement on the charts. Carl Neilsen’s obscure if irresistible “Maskarade,” for instance, is the only opera to get two nominations.