DG recognized with four nominations for the 67th GRAMMY Awards®

Star pianist Víkingur Ólafsson earns a first GRAMMY® nomination  for his exceptional interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations

The nominations for the 67th GRAMMY Awards® were announced on 8th November in a special livestream event. Honouring outstanding artistic and technical achievement, the GRAMMY® is the record industry’s highest accolade, and this year, Deutsche Grammophon recordings have received nominations in four leading classical categories.

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson’s unanimously critically-acclaimed reading of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is nominated for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, just months after he completed his season-long, six‑continent tour of the work.

Meanwhile DG’s world premiere recording of the late Kaija Saariaho’s much-admired second opera, Adriana Mater, is nominated for both Best Opera Recording and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Directed by Peter Sellars, the opera is performed by the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with soloists Fleur Barron, Axelle Fanyo, Nicholas Phan and Christopher Purves, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

The fourth nomination is in the Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film and Television) category, and goes to Maestro: Music by Leonard Bernstein, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the film’s writer, director, producer and star Bradley Cooper.

Finally, there was also a nomination for Producer of the Year for Christoph Franke, whose body of work over the last year includes DG pianist Yuja Wang’s eclectic and virtuosic hit album The Vienna Recital and the Beethoven sonata cycle for violin and piano with Antje Weithaas and Dénes Várjon, a production of the DG-affiliated label CAvi-music.

“It is very humbling and gratifying that Deutsche Grammophon has once again emerged as the classical label with most nominations. Seeing the immense dedication and hard work that goes into our recordings recognised by the Recording Academy means a lot to our artist community, to our respective project partners and to the entire Yellow Label team,” says Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon. “The nominations represent our key areas of focus – exciting new repertoire and world premiere releases such as Saariaho’s Adriana Mater with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony; outstanding production quality, as exemplified by Christoph Franke’s recordings; our desire to reach out to a broader audience, as with Bradley Cooper’s Maestro soundtrack, which celebrates both DG’s past with Leonard Bernstein and its present with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and – last but not least – groundbreaking new interpretations of iconic works, such as Víkingur Ólafsson’s ‘Goldberg’ cycle. This well-deserved first nomination for Víkingur is particularly heartwarming, as it recognises his absolutely unique take on Bach – one that has moved hundreds of millions of listeners across the globe and drawn remarkable crowds on his international 100-concert tour.”

“I am so honoured and happy to receive my first Grammy nomination!” adds Víkingur Ólafsson. “Thank you so much to all of you who listen to and support my work. And thank you to Johann Sebastian Bach for writing this glorious and incomparable piece of music. The Goldberg Variations will always be the music of the future.”

The 67th GRAMMY Awards® ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday 2 February 2025. Aired live on the CBS Television Network, it will also be streamed live and on demand on Paramount+.

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON

Bach: Goldberg Variations

Best Opera Recording

SAARIAHO: ADRIANA MATER

Kaija Saariaho, composer

(Esa-Pekka Salonen, Fleur Barron, Nicholas Phan, Christopher Purves, Axelle Fanyo, San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Orchestra)

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

SAARIAHO: ADRIANA MATER

Kaija Saariaho, composer

(Esa-Pekka Salonen, Fleur Barron, Nicholas Phan, Christopher Purves, Axelle Fanyo, San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Orchestra)

Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media
(Includes Film and Television)

MAESTRO: MUSIC BY LEONARD BERNSTEIN

London Symphony Orchestra,
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bradley Cooper