More than 80 leading figures from across Britain’s musical landscape came together at the sparkling Critics’ Circle Music Awards, held at the London Coliseum, a ceremony that honoured musicians who made an outstanding contribution in 2024.
The judges wished to highlight the wealth of emerging talent across the country, and celebrate artists for whom 2024 was a notable breakthrough year. These awards – hosted this year by CC music section Chair Claudia Pritchard and author and librettist Jessica Duchen – are unique, decided by the country’s most experienced professional arts journalists and critics on the basis of hearing the widest range of performances across the UK and Ireland.
Jess Dandy received her award from Claire Jackson
The contralto Jess Dandy, won the Female Voice award, presented by CC member and music and environmental journalist, Clare Jackson. The judges said: “There are voices that once you hear them, you don’t forget. The true contralto Jess Dandy is the proud possessor of just such a voice, one with a dark glow and blossoming radiance.”
The Male Voice prize went to tenor John Findon, presented by fellow tenor, Alan Oke. Findon’s commendation said he “impresses with his consistently bold and forthright tone, his fine stage presence and firm dramatic conviction. If the sheer quality and power of his voice is what initially impresses, critics and audiences have equally been drawn by his growing vocal artistry and developing skills as an actor.”
Two tenors: award-winning John Findon and Alan Oke
Pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen won the Piano prize, presented by CC member and editor of Pianist, Erica Worth. The judges said 2024 had represented a special landmark for this artist, including the release of her Hyperion albumReformation, “a magnificently considered and dazzlingly performed collection of British keyboard works of the 16th and 17th centuries.”
Mishka Rushdie Momen, received her award from editor of Pianist, Erica Worth
The Instrumental award – presented by John Gilhooly, artistic and executive director of Wigmore Hall – was awarded to cellist Laura van der Heijden. The judging panel said: “Laura Van der Heijden has in recent years become firmly established as one of UK chamber music’s most interesting and consistently superb musicians, but with 2024 came a crescendo. Much revolved around the critically-acclaimed releases and related live performances of two stunning new additions to her Chandos discography. And Laura’s profile as a concerto soloist grew via interpretations from Elgar to Martinů that drew praise for her nuance, subtlety, range of colours and virtuosity.”
Cellist Laura van der Heijden with Wigmore Hall’s John Gilhooly
The Composer award, presented by Donald Macleod, of BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week, went to Gavin Higgins. The judges felt that 2024 had been his best year yet, “with repeat performances of the thrilling Concerto Grosso, the interestingly mournful Sarabande from BBC NOW, and the world premiere of the wildly virtuosic Horn Concerto.”
Winning composer Gavin Higgins with Composer of the Week’s Donald Macleod
Charlotte Corderoy won the Conductor award, presented by opera specialist and CC member Alexandra Coghlan. The panel said: “Charlotte Corderoy’s story is proof that a career can still be made the old-fashioned way, in the opera pit, far away from judges and cameras. She has the technique and the musicianship to build trust with her colleagues, both on stage and in the pit: they go with her, and take audiences along with them.”
Conductor Charlotte Corderoy with Alexandra Coghlan
Welsh National Opera’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice won the Outstanding Achievement in Opera award, presented by Jessica Duchen. The citation said: “Ambitious, imaginative and musically excellent, Welsh National Opera’s production, conducted by Leo Hussain and directed by Olivia Fuchs, brought clarity and powerful emotion to the composer’s final opera. Reflecting the company’s deep roots in its local community, WNO collaborated with the Cardiff-based company NoFit State, to mix acrobatics and circus elements with Britten’s score, to spectacular and moving effect.
Roderick Williams, Fiorenza Guidi and Mark Le Brocq with their award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, presented by Jessica Duchen
A standing ovation met the announcement of the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, the singer and director Sir Thomas Allen, presented by Claudia Pritchard. The panel applauded Sir Thomas’s half-century of performances on the opera stage, from his debut with Welsh National Opera in 1969 to The Merry Widow at Glyndebourne in 2024. “At the heart of his career was a period of nearly 50 years’ service at the Royal Opera House. By the time of his last Royal Opera performances as an urbane Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in 2019, his mastery of the stage was complete, every word, every raised eyebrow speaking volumes.”
Baritone and director Sir Tom Allen, honoured for his Lifetime Achievement, with Music Section Chair, Claudia Pritchard
The audience heard new music during the ceremony, performed by some of the prize winners. Composer Elena Langercontributed two songs: Stay O Sweet, sung by Jesse Dandy, a heartfelt and moving setting of words by John Donne, in which one lover pleads at dawn for the other to linger longer. Then, in a complete change of gear, John Findon sang Semyon’s Magic Horn, a deliciously comic song in which the singer, tiring of life, decides to study the tuba after spotting a limitless business opportunity – playing solemn music at funerals
John Findon, Laura van der Heijden and Mishka Rushdie Momen perform Sedimentary
Later, Findon joined Laura van der Heijden and Mishka Rushdie Momen in Sedimentary, Gavin Higgins’s setting ofwords by Northumbrian poet Katrina Porteous. They describe the geological conditions that make up the British coalfields; a landscape that would eventually be occupied by towns and communities each with a pit or colliery at its heart. Those pits have now been closed, the mines filled in, and the communities neglected by successive governments. But the landscape remains, “scarred and heaved wide open”.
Hilary and Stuart Williams
The evening was generously supported by the Hilary and Stuart Williams Charitable Trust. It was planned in association with Louise Flew at English National Opera. The Critics’ Circle extends heartfelt thanks to both.
Photographs: Elliot Franks