Every year the Caecilia prizes are awarded for cd's and DVD's released in the previous year.
During the extraordinary General Meeting of 3 November 1974, the Association of the Belgian Music Press decided to award several prizes annually to the best musical recordings, regardless of the musical carrier or sales figures on the Belgian market from the previous year.
The award ceremony of the Caecilia Prizes took place on 25/03/2022 at Flagey in Brussels. The programme was opened with a performance by Duo Goggles, Wim Pelgrims & Esther-Elisabeth Rispens, the winners of the Supernova competition, which we previously conducted an interview with, you can read it in this article.
The jury also selects a Young Musician of the Year, this time it is Sarah Defrise, read more about Sarah in this article.
How does the Association of the Belgian Music Press decide on the allocation of the prizes?
- Each member of the Association of the Belgian Music Press submits a list of his/her favourites - cd and dvd - that were released in the course of the previous year (in this case from 15 December 2020 to 31 December 2021), with a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 40 recordings.
- The jury collates the votes and ranks them. The jury then takes time to supplement information (ordering, distributing and listening to nominated recordings that some may not have received yet).
- During a second meeting, it is decided which 10 recordings (both cd and dvd) are awarded a Caecilia Prize. To this can be added: the Snepvanger Prize for a Belgian production, a special prize for a 'coup de coeur' of the jury and the Albert De Sutter Prize for a historical recording. Without wishing to exclude major international prestigious productions, the jury of the Caecilia Prizes aims to highlight new talent, exceptional repertoires and daring projects.
Jury composition
- Roger Creyf, Klassiek-Centraal
- Patrice Lieberman, Président de l'Union de la Presse Musicale Belge / Chairman of the Association of the Belgian Music Press, Crescendo
- Martine D. Mergeay, La Libre Belgique, Musiq'3
- Stephan Moens, De Morgen
- Bernard Schreuders, ForumOpera.com
The laureates 2021 - CD /DVD
Josquin Desprez
- Josquin The Undead
- Graindelavoix, Björn Schmelzer
- Glossa
Desprez: Josquin the Undead
Josquin Desprez suffered the same fate as Rembrandt. When he died, he was so famous that he, as a contemporary wrote, "now that he is dead produces more works than during his lifetime". Nothing was better to make a mass, motet or chanson popular than to attribute it to Josquin. Björn Schmelzer and his ensemble Graindelavoix do precisely that with this uncertainty in their contribution to the Josquin year 2021. In the edition that the Antwerp printer Tielman Susato prepared twenty-five years after his death, they dig into the late works of the "master of notes" (Luther), which he wrote after his glorious career. Their consistently 'anti-historicist' approach, which "reflects the profound contradictions of the time in which the repertoire originated", transforms them into sparse meditations. Music by an almost dead person for the dead of then and the living of now. (Stephan Moens)
Rameau: Achante et Céphise
Although Achante et Céphise cannot be counted among the greatest works, it is the work of a musical giant. Until now, there has been no complete recording of this pastorale which, however, offers more invention and theatre - as in the incredible intensity of certain parts of the Third Act - than is found in many an opera by minor masters that have been vainly dragged out of the obscurity of music history. Any recording would deserve our gratitude, but this performance does justice to the score. Under the equally dashing and refined leadership of Alexis Kossenko, Les Ambassadeurs-La Grande Écurie bring the opulent orchestra of the Paris Opera as it could be heard in the 1750s back to life, and they can rely on a suitable cast that articulates the text clearly and with a sense of subtle rhetoric. (Bernard Schreuders)
Jean-Philippe Rameau
- Achante et Céphise
- Sabine Devieilhe, Cyrille Dubois, David Witczak, Judith Van Wanroij
- Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, Les Ambassadeurs – La Grande Écurie, Alexis Kossenko
- Erato
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
- Beyond The Limits – Complete String Symphonies
- Gli Incogniti, Amandine Beyer
- Harmonia Mundi
Bach, C. Ph. E.: Beyond The Limits
What luck that Gottfried van Swieten not only recommended the old Bach (Johann Sebastian) to Mozart and Haydn but also asked his son Carl Philipp Emanuel to write some symphonies for him. With van Swieten, all composers knew, you could let yourself go. Technically difficult, harmonically daring, formally innovative: anything was possible. The first critics were also already impressed by the "original, daring stream of ideas and the great variety and novelty in the forms and modulations". There are already quite a few recordings of these string symphonies available, but that of Amandine Beyer and her ensemble Gli Incogniti perhaps captures best of all the piquant contrasts in tempo and dynamics and the unpredictable capriciousness of this music. Mendelssohn is not far away. (Stephan Moens)
El Nour
Attempts to bring East and West together in music are certainly numerous but rarely successful. Yet while this remains true, the apparently effortless way in which the Egyptian singer Fatma Said and her musicians -of all kinds- tackle this repertoire with virtuosity and naturalness towers head and shoulders above everything in the discography to date. Combine Schwarzkopf with Oum Kalsoum with a touch of sparkle à la Jodie Devos (to give just one example). Add a tessitura of two and a half octaves, plus an irresistible chic and sensuality. (Martine D. Mergeay)
Abd al-Rahïm, Hector Berlioz, Georges Bizet, Fernando Obradors, Maurice Ravel, etc.
- El Nour
- Fatma Said, Malcolm Martineau, Rafael Aguirre, Burcu Karadag,
Vision String Quartet - Warner
Franz Liszt
- Sonate, Berceuse, Tre Sonetti di Petrarca, Réminiscences de Norma, Ave Maria
- Benjamin Grosvenor
- Decca
Liszt
There are indeed more demonic or philosophical versions of Liszt's Sonata, but this recording by Benjamin Grosvenor demonstrates a rarely heard intelligence and refinement. Phenomenal technique and intellectual clarity provide an exceptional performance of a work that has been recorded so many times. The rarely performed Berceuse, the Three Sonnets of Petrarca and Liszt's arrangement of Schubert's Ave Maria are rendered with genuine poetry and finesse. Grosvenor shines in Réminiscences de Norma and displays stunning virtuosity in this impossibly difficult score. (Patrice Lieberman)
Lassen: Lieder - Mélodies
This unexpected release provides a double discovery, both of an unjustly forgotten Belgian composer and of works of surprisingly high quality. Edouard Lassen (1830-1904) was born in Copenhagen but the family settled in Brussels as early as 1833. Lassen studied piano and composition at the Brussels Conservatory. Liszt took him under his wing and helped him secure a position as conductor in Weimar, where he enjoyed great prestige as Kapellmeister for almost 40 years. This did not, however, prevent him from continuing to compose, and his more than 260 songs enjoyed great popularity. Reinoud Van Mechelen and Anthony Romaniuk offer us a fine selection from this extensive oeuvre. We can thus discover a refined and sensitive composer, an artist with a pronounced melodic gift in the line of Schumann and Mendelssohn. (Patrice Lieberman)
Édouard Lassen
- Lieder - Mélodies
- Reinoud Van Mechelen, Anthony Romaniuk
- Musique en Wallonie
Sergei Lyapunov
- 12 Études d'exécution transcendante
- Florian Noack
- La Dolce Volta
Lyapunov: 12 Études d'exécution transcendante
Sometimes the luck of discovery lies in recognition: everything is new, but actually it already existed and came with the brightest long-forgotten happiness. That is what the world of Sergei Lyapunov (1859-1924) looks like, a world where excessive virtuosity transforms into pure poetry, dream or epic. The Belgian pianist Florian Noack accomplishes it with stunning technique, and equally knows how to enchant with a natural and unforced play full of light and color. (Martine D. Mergeay)
Ives: Complete Symphonies
Listening to Ives' four symphonies one after another is to follow a crash course in the evolution of American music. The First - written for his composition final exam at Yale - is still strongly influenced by Dvořák and Brahms. This also applies to the Second, although Ives here already distances himself from his European models in an attempt to arrive at his own American musical language. After the Third with its intimate and serene character, comes the extraordinary Fourth - certainly the greatest American symphony ever. The grandeur and depth of the work often hide behind a remarkable atmosphere of joyful anarchy. Gustavo Dudamel conducts the excellent Los Angeles Philharmonic with a steady hand. (Patrice Lieberman)
Charles Ives
- Complete Symphonies
- Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel
- Deutsche Grammophon
DVD: Erich Wolfgang Korngold
- Die tote Stadt
- Jonas Kaufmann, Marlis Petersen
Chor und Orchester der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Kirill Petrenko, Simon Stone - BSOrec
Korngold: Die tote Stadt
Korngold's opera Die tote Stadt has long been freed from the stigma of "sounds like film music". With us, this was proven at the latest since its performance at the Munt, in the middle of the Covid19 pandemic. Its dual lead role, Marie/Marietta, was in the hands of Marlis Petersen: an ideal casting (she is an equally strong Lulu or Salome). In Munich she stood opposite the star tenor of the moment, Jonas Kaufmann, who revealed himself as an engaged actor in the somewhat older but still convincing, hyperrealistic staging by Simon Stone. But perhaps the strongest element was the musical interpretation by Kirill Petrenko. No film music at all but a simultaneously luxurious and clear, glittering and modernist 'Viennese' sound image that recalled Mahler or early Berg more than Puccini. Korngold as the Klimt of music? (Stephan Moens)
And Love Said...
Jodie Devos leaves Offenbach to explore a new musical world with these English Songs. The Belgian soprano has been familiar with this poetic universe since her studies in London and chooses a broad range of composers of both sexes here. Two monodrams by Patrick Leterme - dedicated to the singer and friend - complete the programme. In close collaboration with pianist Nicolas Kruger, Jodie Devos demonstrates both imagination and crystal-clear technique in a magnificent sequence of masterpieces ranging from Benjamin Britten to Freddie Mercury. (Martine D. Mergeay)
DVD: Patrick Leterme, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, Freddie Mercury, etc.
- And Love Said
- Jodie Devos, Nicolas Krüger
- Alpha
Snepvangersprijs: For an excellent Belgian production
Édouard Lassen
- Lieder - Mélodies
- Reinoud Van Mechelen, Anthony Romaniuk
- Musique en Wallonie
Lassen: Lieder - Mélodies
This unexpected release provides a double discovery, both of an unjustly forgotten Belgian composer and of works of surprisingly high quality. Edouard Lassen (1830-1904) was born in Copenhagen but the family moved to Brussels in 1833. Lassen studied piano and composition at the Brussels Conservatorium. Liszt took him under his wing and helped him secure a position as conductor in Weimar where he enjoyed high esteem as Kapellmeister for almost 40 years. However, this did not prevent him from continuing to compose, his more than 260 lieder enjoying considerable popularity. Reinoud Van Mechelen and Anthony Romaniuk offer us a beautiful selection from this extensive oeuvre. Thus we can discover a refined and sensitive composer, an artist with a pronounced melodic gift in the tradition of Schumann and Mendelssohn. (Patrice Lieberman)
Prijs Albert de Sutter: Historical recording
Poot: Symphonies Nos. 1-7
The memory preserved of Marcel Poot (1901-1988) is that of a man who was a true pillar of Belgian musical life for more than half a century, including as director of the Brussels Conservatory and as long-time jury chairman of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. As a composer, Poot unfortunately fell into oblivion, and we can certainly be grateful to Naxos for this complete reissue of his symphonies. The first two are the work of a young, playful and enthusiastic artist, while the last three show us a musician who has mastered the craft perfectly and sometimes comes across as a bit academic. The Third and Fourth Symphonies demonstrate remarkable depth and sobriety. The excellent performances are provided by various orchestras and conductors. (Patrice Lieberman)
Marcel Poot
- Symphonies Nos. 1-7
- Antwerp Philharmonic, Léonce Gras
- BRTN Philharmonic Orchestra, Hans Rotman
- Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Frédéric Devreese
- Belgian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Franz André
- Naxos