For the fourth consecutive year, Gramophone has invited readers to vote for the performers, producers, engineers and label executives who have shaped the classical music recording industry. In thefollowingpagesyou can discover the 10 names we welcome into the Gramophone Hall of Fame, joining an already illustrious list ofmembers GRAMOPHONE flALn A T LT Ur rAMr, MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS GM944) Conductor Celebrating 20years at the helm of the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas has held posts with the London Symphony Orchestra and founded the New World Symphony in Miami. He has recorded extensively for DG, RCA and the SFS's own label. MEMBERS OF THE LSO i r~¥~~She LSO was always swashbuckling. And Michael helped us channel those energies! He saw the bigger picture - that people needed to work together more - and the LSO made some good decisions with him.' (Andrew Marriner, clarinet.) 'Many people talk about breaking down barriers between the listener and the performer and finding new avenues. But Michael has done it! He's made it all happen. MTT is in his element sharing music with people.' (David Alberman, second violin. 'How he communicates is amazing. At rehearsals he always says hello to everyone. And if you are a new face he always says: "Hello friend. What's your name?" and finds out about them. That's so refreshing.' (Belinda McFarlane and Maxine Kwok-Adams, violinists.) RECOMMENDED RECORDING Mahler Symphony No 6 San Francisco Symphony / Michael Tilson Thomas SFS Media/Avie ® © 8Z.926 :-"'1-2(5/02: GRAMOPHONE HALL OF FAME SIR NEVILLE MARRINER U>1924) Conductor Founder, in 1958, and conductor of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Marriner has also held posts with the Los Angeles Chamber, Minnesota and Stuttgart Radio orchestras. With the ASMF, he has probably made more recordings than any other conductor. USE DE LA SALLE Pianist grew up with Sir Neville's recordings: his music has been with me since my childhood. Also, when I discovered the I film Amadeus, at the age of 10, it was almost like a drug! I watched it every night over and over; and the music obviously played a leading role. It was only later that I learnt that the soundtrack was recorded by Sir Neville. I remember the day my agent told me I was going to tour with him - what joy! I was obviously nervous before the first rehearsal. We did not talk, he just smiled at me and started the opening tutti of the D minor Concerto, No 20, by Mozart. Everything just disappeared: only the music mattered. Sir Neville is one of those rare conductors who convey - with both force and simplicity - all the grandeur of the music. Recently we played Mozart's Piano Concerto No 23 togedier; working with Sir Neville is a great joy, everything seems so natural. He combines tradition, spontaneity, freedom and fidelity to the text in a unique way. R E C O M M E N D E D R E C O R D1NG Rossini II barbiere di Siviglia Sols; ASMF / Neville Marriner BUttlMWmam%i NUILU Hmim Decca © © 478 2497DB2 (6/83R) ANGELA HEWITT (01958) Pianist Celebrated for her Bach recordings, Hewitt's repertoire is broad and takes in Mozart's piano concertos, Beethoven's piano sonatas, Schumann and French piano music. She records for Hyperion. HANNU LINTU Conductor performance with Angela Hewitt is always a joy, shared by her colleagues and audience. Her airy, inventive A and bright touch never ceases to amaze me. She crowns her visionary feel for tempo by adding colour to the texture in precisely the right way. For Angela, the foundation for everything is Bach, but despite - or maybe precisely because of- this, she is at home in works by all the great composers: as an interpreter, she is a true match for Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt and Messiaen. Personally, I particularly prize the Schumann Piano Concerto we recorded together. From her I have learnt the importance of paying infinite attention to the notes on the page, and just how much a successful performance depends not only on inspiration and skill but also on endless background work. Angela is one of the few whose discs have the feel of a live performance. The overall picture is crystal-clear. Her vision and dialogue with the composer's spirit are astoundingly well-balanced. If and when the record industry still has a future, it will be thanks to musicians like Angela Hewitt. RECOMMENDED RECORDING Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor Angela Hewitt pf Hyperion © CDA68067 (3/15) gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE JUNE 2015 17 HALL Ol FAME SIRANDRAS SCHIFF GM953) Pianist The Hungarian pianist (and increasingly often conductor) recorded extensively for Decca before moving to ECM, where he focuses on a repertoire that ranges from Bach to Beethoven and Schubert. JED DISTLER Reviewer ndras Schiff may be the Busoni of his generation. His physically and intellectually demanding programmes Agrow more epic in size and scope as they sharpen in focus, from the Bach Goldberg and Beethoven Diabelli variations in one evening to Schumann marathons and volumes of Schubert sonatas. Yet for all his uncompromising vision and scholarship, Schiff is never pedantic. Eschewing received opinion and easy interpretative solutions, his fastidious attention to detail nearly always puts a fresh spin on works we think we know well. Schiff is also aware of how timbral and tactile distinctions between piano brands and vintages can lend themselves more to certain works dian others. At the same time, he consistently strives to 'sing' at the piano. Schiff approaches the concerto repertoire as a collaborator rather than as a star soloist, and the same holds true for his work as a conductor, either at the keyboard or on the podium. RECOMMENDED RECORDING Schubert Piano Sonatas Nos 18 and 21, etc Andras Schiff fp ECM New Series © © 4811572 (see page 22) KATHLEEN FERRIER (1912-53) Contralto Though she died at 41, Feriier established herself as one of the greatest singers of her age, leaving classic recordings of Gluck's Orfeo, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and the folksong 'Blow the wind southerly'. NATHALIE STUTZMANN Contralto and conductor he contralto voice is a voice from the shadows. Kathleen Ferrier was the first woman who managed TJ. to bring it into the light. At a time when taste tends increasingly to the brilliance, the artifice and the registers of the high voice, listening to Kathleen Ferrier is like a soothing balm for the soul. It's a rare voice, strange, disturbing. Often disliked by those who do not understand it; adored by those open to its prime quality: the natural proximity, the intimacy that resonates within you as if you were physically and directly connected to all the vibrations inside the body of the singer. Kathleen Ferrier - because of her nature, the obvious sincerity of her personality, her ability to move us, her musicality, her kindly and radiant simplicity that is reflected so well in the colours of her voice - has become a myth. It still inspires us. To quote the poet Yves Bonnefoy: 'It seems that you know both sides, the extreme joy and extreme pain there, down among the grey reeds in the light, it seems that you dSjl Mshler Da* I itti von tht E.ile draw from the eternal.' VVy ra»m- wapS R ECO M M EN I) ED R ECO.R D1NG Mahler Das Lied von der Erde Kathleen Ferrier contr VPO / Bruno Walter Decca ® 466 576-2DM (6/05) 18 GRAMOPHONE JUNE 2015 gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE IHlWIlllliWIil MARC-ANDRE HAMELIN mastery and an intensely musical (61961) Pianist virtuosity. The legend continued The Canadian player's Hyperion catalogue with 'In a State of Jazz' and a recital grows by the month, offering an astounding of Hamelin's own Etudes. range of repertoire that embraces music Today such dazzle is complemented of remarkable virtuosity. by more intimate and introspective but no less memorable offerings of music by BRYCE MORRISON Reviewer Mozart, Haydn, Debussy and Janacek. ew pianists have created a more Hamelin's range is limitless and with astonishing discography than discs on the horizon of Rachmaninov, J_ Marc-Andre Hamelin. Who else Ravel and, hopefully, Schubert, what else would, or could, have launched their could one wish for? career on record with William Bolcom's Etudes, Stefan Wolpe's Battle Piece and RECOMMENDED Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatte's RECORDING six sonatas? Discs of Alkan, complete Debussy Images, Books cycles of Scriabin and Medtner sonatas 1& 2. Preludes, Book 2 and the Chopin-Godowsky Etudes Marc-Andre Hamelin pf (to mention but a few) followed, all Hyperion © played widi a seemingly nonchalant CDA67920 (11/14) HANS HOTTER the way I wanted to sing. He coached me (1909-2003) Bass-baritone at one time on the role of Gurnemanz, The leading Wagnerian bass-baritone of and I came to understand the hugeness his generation, his finest acheivements on. of his voice and the extraordinary skill disc range from Bach cantatas to Strauss with which he could refine it. The and Wagner operas and Schubert Lieder. emotional impact of it was similar to the image of a very big man nursing ROBERT LLOYD Bass a newborn baby. At the other extreme V'ans Hotter was a remarkable few will forget how he could shake the I™ -fj singer, endowed with a uniquely rafters with Wotan's Farewell. He was JL A resonant, free throated voice a giant among singers. We are unlikely which is always instantly identifiable. to see his kind again. As a young singer I had two recordings of Wmterreise, one of Dietrich Fischer- RECOMMENDED Dieskau and the other of Hans Flotter.