Modernists Roll Over Beethoven

It is a striking year for the classical Grammys, with many fresh faces and the domination of 20th century music in nearly every category. Beethoven wasn’t even invited to the party at the Shrine Auditorium on Wednesday.

Still, the Grammys haven’t forgotten their sentimental favorites, and surely the reason that Bartok’s seldom-heard “Cantata Profana” has two nominations for best classical album is that it happens to have been among the last works recorded by two Grammy favorites: Georg Solti, who died in 1997, and Robert Shaw, who died last month. The most musically important album in the top category, however, is the Kronos Quartet’s survey of the complete string quartets by Alfred Schnittke, the Postmodern Russian composer whose music suggests the spiritual chaos during the final years of Soviet society.

In the best orchestral performance category, I would turn to Hans-Werner Henze’s lush, glittering, little-known ballet score from the 1950s, “Undine,” brilliantly conducted by Oliver Knussen, leading an expanded London Sinfonietta. But I wouldn’t be glum if attention were drawn to the complete works of pioneering Modernist Edgar Varese (spectacularly recorded by the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Asko Ensemble under Riccardo Chailly), or to the gritty, raucous early-century American music by Ives and Carl Ruggles (carefully performed by Chirstoph Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra). Even the standard repertory is notable here: Pierre Boulez’s gripping Mahler Ninth and Nikolas Harnoncourt’s provocative survey of the four Brahms symphonies.

The five nominated operas are all fringe, all worth discovering, all superbly performed (even without stellar casts). Most special, I think, is “Maria De Buenos Aires,” the one-of-a-kind existential tango opera by Astor Piazzolla led by violinist/conductor Gidon Kremer.

A hometown favorite tops the list for best choral performance: the alluring music of Morten Lauridsen performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, however much a longshot against more nominations for the Solti and Shaw. Kennedy’s rapturous, over-the-top reading of the Elgar Violin Concerto and Murray Perahia’s crystalline, obsessively controlled Bach deserve votes in the best instrumental soloist categories. All the nominated chamber music discs have given me pleasure, but the standouts are the luminous Brahms playing of violist Kim Kashkashian and pianist Robert Levin, and the fantastic virtuosity of the Steve Reich Ensemble.

Good singers abound, but Renee Fleming is the flavor of the year, and, for the sheer beauty of her soprano, she is an obvious choice for best classical vocal performance.

It is a hard decision among three of the contenders for best contemporary composition. John Adams’ saucy clarinet concerto “Gnarly Buttons” is irresistible, but he wins often; Elliott Carter’s piano miniature “90+” is a small masterpiece, but too small. I would opt, instead, for Arvo Part’s ambitious, mesmerizing chant “Kanon Pokajanen.”

There is but one classical nominee for best historical album or best album notes: In both categories it is the New York Philharmonic’s compilation of historic broadcasts. The set is a treasure and deserves to overwhelm anything, from any genre, thrown against it.