First published in The Herald on 24 September, 2014
It was a good year for Scotland at the Gramophone Awards. Of the 12 trophies handed out at a swish industry ceremony in London last week, two went to Scottish recipients. John Butt and the Dunedin Consort won the choral category with their recording of Mozart’s Requiem on the Glasgow label Linn. That disc was one of three in final contention for the magazine’s coveted Recording of the Year, which eventually went to Ricardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus for their Brahms symphony cycle on Decca. In terms of industry clout and financing, the awards hardly compare like with like.