The results of the first stage of the “Pure Sound” International Award are announced

The voting took place at the qualifying stage of the international award in the field of sound recording of academic music “Pure Sound”, organized by Russian Musical Union with the assistance of the National Fund for Copyright Holders’ Support, the International Music Council, the European Music Council, the “Novy Vek” Bank, the Orpheus radio station, the CineLab studio, Sennheiser and other partners.

The shortlist of the Award includes 40 releases in eight nominations: Opera, Choral Works, Orchestral Music, Chamber Vocal Music, Chamber Instrumental Ensemble Music, Chamber Instrumental Solo Music, Restoration of Archival Audio Recordings, Mixed Nomination (a collection of audio recordings with various performers).

In total, over 150 applications from both Russian and foreign copyright holders were submitted for the 2020–2021 competition. The long list includes 132 releases from the applications that meet all the requirements of the competition. The jury evaluated the audio recordings according to the following criteria:

• the content of the audio recording;

• sound quality, including technical and artistic aspects;

• artistic level of performance and interpretation of music.

Sound engineer Pavel Lavrenenkov, who evaluated the work of the nominees at the qualifying stage of voting, noted the unconditional increase of interest in the Award: “A huge number of people realized the importance and high level of the competition. There were many interesting releases; the share of highly professional works of the contestants has increased significantly compared to the first award, which was held in 2019”.

The final stage will last until mid-August. The final jury, chaired by the Artistic Director of the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic, composer Alexander Tchaikovsky, included Mikhail Bryzgalov, Director General of the Russian National Museum of Music; Irina Gerasimova, Director General of the Russian State Music TV and Radio Center; Erdo Groot, Director of Polyhymnia International record company; jazz pianist Daniil Kramer; Maria Soboleva, professor at Russian State University of Cinematography; Yulian Makarov, host of the Culture TV channel; Oliver Dohnanyi, chief conductor of the National Opera House in Prague, and others.

The main intrigue of the award – the names of the winners – will be kept secret for everyone until the end of the competition. In the shortlist, the nominees who made it to the final are presented under their code names. The results will be announced and the winners will be awarded on September 3 in Moscow at the Theatre “School of Modern Drama”.

More detailed information about the award can be found on the official website of the project sound-pure.com.