Violinist James Ehnes wins Gramophone award
Last Updated: Thursday, September 25, 2008 | 2:26 PM ET
CBC News
Violinist James Ehnes has won a prestigious Gramophone Award. Brandon, Man.-born violinist James Ehnes has won a prestigious Gramophone award for best concerto of the year.
Ehnes won the award Thursday in London for his recording of Elgar's Violin Concert with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London.
The Gramophone Awards, with winners selected by industry members and critics for U.K.-based Gramophone magazine, are one of the most prestigious awards in the classical music world.
"James Ehnes brings to this great concerto a rapt identification, tingling temperament and glowing ardour," Gramophone said of the violinist, who now makes his home in Florida.
"Not only is Ehnes's technical address impeccable and intonation miraculously true, his contribution is remarkable for its intrepid emotional scope, athletic agility and jaw-dropping delicacy."
It has been a banner year for Ehnes. Trained at the Juilliard School, he is now in demand in concert halls around the world.
He won a Grammy Award and a Juno Award earlier this year for best classical album for his recording of the Barber, Korngold and Walton concertos with the Vancouver Symphony conducted by Bramwell Tovey.
Ehnes will be in Winnipeg Friday to play Korngold's Violin Concerto with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, in the opening concert of the WSO season.
Ehnes will perform on the "ex-Marsick" Stradivarius of 1715, which he has on loan from the Fulton Collection amassed by private collector David Fulton.
His next recording project, Homage, will be an exploration of the world's most celebrated violins. He will play on 12 of the greatest ever made by Antonio Stradivari, Pietro Guarneri, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, Andrea Guarneri, Giuseppe Guadagnini, and Gasparo Bertolotti (Gasparo da Salò), all belonging to the Fulton Collection.
The Gramophone ceremonies Thursday also honoured André Previn, former conductor of the London Symphony and the Royal Philharmonic, with a lifetime achievement award.
