The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director JoAnn Falletta are thrilled to announce their nomination for the 2024 GRAMMY Awards in the category of Best Orchestral Performance. The nomination recognizes the high caliber of the orchestra and Maestro Falletta’s recorded performance of two works by composer Alexander Scriabin – The Poem of Ecstasy and Symphony No. 2 – released in February 2023 on the renowned classical music label, Naxos. This category awards both conductor and orchestra, with other nominees including Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Karina Canellakis and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony.
Throughout Falletta’s 25 years as BPO Music Director and an equally long partnership with Naxos, she and the orchestra have shared a dedication to presenting unique, lesser-known compositions with audiences across the globe through their recordings.
Their nominated album upholds this commitment with the music of Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), a composer known for his unconventional approach to music with works that stir both musical controversy and admiration.
Falletta describes Scriabin as “a poet, a visionary, a mystic, a painter of dreams, whose extravagant music is perfectly suited to the deep-throated romantic sound of the Buffalo Philharmonic.” The Poem of Ecstasy (composed 1905-1908) stands as Scriabin’s single-movement Symphony No. 4, rich in its creative expression. His Symphony No. 2 (1901), with lush orchestration and emotional landscapes, showcases his artistic vision throughout a nontraditional five movements.
The album has received rave reviews from many of classical music’s most well-known critics and publications, including:
- Jonathan Blumhofer, The Arts Fuse, March 2023: “Not only do conductor and orchestra have this fare under their fingers; their recording of Scriabin’s second and fourth symphonies holds its own with the best out there.”
- Leslie Wright, MusicWeb International, April 2023: “…Falletta always holds my interest, and the playing of her orchestra and the recorded sound are first-rate.”
- Malcolm Hayes, BBC Music Magazine, May 2023: “JoAnn Falletta’s interpretation brilliantly showcases the music’s strengths…The Buffalo Philharmonic players respond with a virtuoso panache that avoids any trace of brashness.”
- Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare, September 2023: “To promote civic pride, I think Buffalo’s city government should give a copy of this CD to every household within its borders.”
Having received multiple GRAMMY nominations and awards in the past, this nomination upholds Falletta and the BPO’s world-class reputation. Falletta comments, “I am very proud of the achievement of our fantastic BPO musicians in winning this GRAMMY nomination. Their technical excellence, musical artistry, and exuberant personality are on full display in this dramatic repertoire. We wish to express our thanks to our superb engineer and producer, Bernd Gottinger.”
The 2024 GRAMMY Awards will be broadcast on CBS on Sunday, February 4, 2024 at 8 p.m. ET. The GRAMMY Premiere Ceremony, where the majority of the categories are awarded including Best Orchestral Performance, will be streamed live earlier in the day on GRAMMY.com.
The nominated album is available on all major music streaming services, and can be purchased at the Box Office in Kleinhans Music Hall, over the phone at (716) 885-5000, or online at bpo.org/recordings. Learn more about the album repertoire on Naxos.com.
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