The Association of Belgian Music Press not only underwent important rejuvenation, but after a year of pause, took the initiative to award the Cecilia Prizes annually again and continue the long-standing tradition. The association was hosted in the Foyer of De Munt to announce the awarded CDs and the Musician of the Year and present them with flowers.
The young chairman Jasper Croonen, who once earned his first credits as a reviewer at Klassiek Centraal, smoothly led the bilingual evening where one prize followed another. Some of the laureates sent a video message in which sincere gratitude always resonated, while other laureates were present or were represented.
It was an outstanding CD harvest. The "Young Female Musician of the Year 2025", soprano Gwendoline Blondeel, was moreover the musical surprise of the ceremony with her performance of two refined arias by Gabriel Fauré, accompanied by Julien Libeer. She also deserved a medal for her noted CD "Amor Eterno". An original choice of songs by among others Caccini, Charpentier, Desprez, Marais, Monteverdi. Great art in small format, wrote a jury member about it. On Klara called "a jewel". In this Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, which suits her perfectly, she can rely on the lute and harp of Quito Gato. Trained at the Royal Institute for Music and Art (IMEP) in Namen, she had the opportunity to gain professional experience at the MM Academy of De Munt. And then it went quickly, with the Opéra Royale de Versailles now often as her musical home base.
In this edition of the Cecilia Prizes, a total of 12 CDs were awarded from major labels such as Harmonia Mundi and Warner/Erato. A remarkable recording for example with "Songs of Passion" by John Dowland and Henry Purcell by Lea Desandre and Thomas Dunford with the Jupiter Ensemble. During a melancholic mood you will undoubtedly get goosebumps listening to it. Another Erato production with none other than Joyce DiDonato and Michel Spyres received a Cecilia Medal. This "Dido and Aeneas" CD turns out to be a strikingly energetic and theatrical interpretation. For the same label, two top pianists played four-hand works by Schubert: Bertrand Chamayou and Leif Ove Andsnes. With their astonishing rapport, this outstanding French and Norwegian duo also counted among the deserving laureates.
Pianist Beatrice Rana achieved with her surprising and convincing interpretation of Bach's "Keyboard Concertos" on a modern grand piano, also the list of honor. That in perfect symbiosis with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. "Visiting Rachmaninoff" is an awarded CD that can appeal to many lovers of this composer, with Alexander Melnikov at the piano with his "Variations on a Theme by Chopin" and soprano Julia Lezhneva with the "Romances". He subtle as always, she as it were giving a singing lesson.
CD productions from Belgian labels rightfully won prizes. The Colonna-Händel CD with the Missa Concertata and the Dixit Dominus with among others the Choeur de Namur under the sparkling direction of Leonardo García-Alarcón, all recorded, soloists, choir members and instrumentalists, in the Grand Manège of Namen. The double album, released by Cypres, with lesser-known piano work by Debussy with Elodie Vignon. is a monument of rare coherence for her favorite composer. A first milestone in a new complete edition of that piano work. Elodie Vignon played for those present a short excerpt from her recording "l'œuvre pour piano" by Claude Debussy. That was a coup de coeur prize, just like the Cecilia Prize for the Franco-Egyptian violist Sindy Mohamed. It is a first album together with pianist Julien Quentin. She is nowadays active in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra of Barenboim and a rare example of a successful fusion.
The Irish composer-pianist John Field deserved a new recording of his complex nocturnes and it earned the German pianist Alice Sara Ott with her subtle tonal shifts and refined pedal use a Cecilia Prize. The French violinist Stéphanie-Marie Legrand brilliantly brought to life the violin concertos of her virtuoso predecessor Jean-Marie Leclerc (1697-1764) together in intense harmony with La Diane Française.
It is a list of honor that deserves to be seen and heard and is based on more than 100 submissions from reviewers and members of the Association of Belgian Music Press. It is a pity that they did not pay more attention to the many excellent Belgian productions that existed in 2025 and among which perhaps some gems are still to be found. But all praise to the winners. It was nice to be able to hear a number of video messages from artists such as Béatrice Rana, Sindy Mohamed, Isabelle Faust, Joyce DiDonato and a couple of label representatives at the awards ceremony, who expressed their thanks for the prize received.
[playlist type="video" ids="54669"]
Below you will find the list of laureates as the jury carefully selected and compiled everything.
Jury composition
- Jasper Croonen, Chairman VBMP, De Standaard, BRUZZ
- Roger Creyf, Klassiek-Centraal
- Helena Gaudeus, Klassiek-Centraal
- Patrice Lieberman, Crescendo
- Martine Dumont-Mergeay, La Libre, Musiq3
LAUREATES
CD
Amor Eterno (1 CD Harmonia Mundi)
Caccini, Calestani, Capirola, Certon, Charpentier, d'Ambruys, Del Biado, del Encina, Desprez, Janequin, Kapsberger, Marais, Marín, Milán, Monteverdi, Mudarra, Ortiz, Piccinini, Spinacino, Vásquez
Gwendoline Blondeel, Quito Gato, Mathilde Vialle, Pernelle Marzorati, Laurent Sauron
Songs of Passion - John Downland, Henry Purcell (2 CD Erato)
Lea Desandre, Thomas Dunford
Jupiter
Henri Purcell - Dido & Aeneas (1 CD Erato)
Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres, Fatma Said, Beth Taylor, Hugh Cutting, Laurence Kilsby
Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
Johann Sebastien Bach - Keyboard Concertos BWV 1052 à 1054 et BWV 1056 (1 CD Harmonia Mundi)
Beatrice Rana, Amsterdam Sinfonietta
George Frideric Handel - Dixit Dominus & Giovanni Paolo Colonna - Missa Concertata (1 CD Ricercar)
Elizaveta Sveshnikova, Mariana Flores, Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, Valerio Contaldo, André Morsch
Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur
Leonardo García-Alarcón
Jean-Marie Leclair Complete Violin Concertos (3 CD NoMadMusic)
Stéphanie-Marie Degand et La Diane Française
John Field - Complete Nocturnes (1 CD Deutsche Grammophon)
Alice Sara Ott
Visiting Rachmaninoff (1 CD Harmonia Mundi)
Sergei Rachmaninov - Variations on a Theme by Chopin. Romances
Alexander Melnikov, Julia Lezhneva
Franz Schubert - 4 Hands (1 CD Erato)
Fantasie D.940, Allegro D.947 « Lebensstürme », Fuge D.952, Rondo D.951
Bertrand Chamayou, Leif Ove Andsnes
György Ligeti - Concertos (1 CD Harmonia Mundi)
Isabelle Faust, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger
Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Favorites
Farasha (1 CD BR Klassik)
Bréville, Hindemith, Mendelssohn, Al Kammar, Saint-Saëns
Sindy Mohamed, Julien Quentin
Claude Debussy (2CD - Cypres)
Soirs d'or, Monsieur Debussy, l'oeuvre pour piano (vol. 1)
Elodie Vignon
Young Musician of the Year Award
(In collaboration with BOZAR)
The Young Musician of the Year Award is awarded alternately to a Dutch-speaking and a French-speaking or German-speaking musician.
Gwendoline Blondeel, soprano
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Soprano Gwendoline Blondeel, accompanied by pianist Julien Libeer © PK/KC[/caption]
Gwendoline Blondeel broke through in 2021 in Titon et l'Aurore by Mondonville, under the direction of William Christie at the Opéra-Comique, where she demonstrated her impressive stage presence, her radiant vocal color and her vocal mastery. She studied at the IMEP in Namur, studied at the Académie du Théâtre de La Monnaie and subsequently joined the Young Ensemble of the Grand Théâtre de Genève. In 2019 she won first prize at the Concours de Froville.
Although she is a much sought-after interpreter of music from the 17th and 18th centuries, she explores a much broader repertoire. She is a master of the French baroque repertoire (Sangaride in Atys by Lully, Jonathas in David et Jonathas by Charpentier, Alphise in Les Boréades by Rameau, etc.), but also excels in Italian masterpieces (La Musica in L'Orfeo by Monteverdi, Almirena in Rinaldo, Dalinda in Ariodante and Morgana in Alcina by Händel, etc.). In later roles, Gwendoline Blondeel thrilled audiences as Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Mozart, Frasquita in Carmen by Bizet, Marie in La Fille du Régiment by Donizetti, Clorinda in Cendrillon by Rossini or in Mendelssohn's Second Symphony.
The Opéra Royal de Versailles (a true musical home for her), the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, the Festival of Beaune, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Zurich Opera, the Concert Halls of Amsterdam and Bruges, or the Konzerthaus in Vienna: Gwendoline performs in the most prominent musical institutions and collaborates with leading conductors such as Leonardo García-Alarcón, Stéphane Fuget, Christophe Rousset, Diego Fasolis, Philippe Herreweghe, Sébastien Daucé, Thomas Hengelbrock, Emmanuelle Haïm and Kazushi Ono.