For those interested in the classical categories at the Grammy Awards, there’s a recent rivalry set to play out again this year.
When the 2025 nominations were announced last week, way down on the list — in category 87, Best Orchestral Performance — you could spot the West Coast’s two big orchestras once more going head-to-head.
The San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic have both garnered numerous Grammy Awards in the past. The SF Symphony has won 16 of 31 nominations, most during the tenure of former Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, while the LA Phil has won five under Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel. But this time, there’s something extra on the line.
The music directors of both orchestras are leaving soon. Esa-Pekka Salonen declined to renew his contract with the SF Symphony, which expires at the end of the current season; Dudamel is slated to leave Los Angeles for the New York Philharmonic in 2026.
In the category of Best Orchestral Performance, Salonen and the SF Symphony are nominated for their recording of Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird. For their part, Dudamel and the LA Phil are in the running with Gabriela Ortiz’s ballet score Revolución diamantina, which is also nominated for Best Engineered Album (Classical), Best Classical Compendium, and Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
What’s more, both orchestras will face off in the category of Best Opera Recording. Salonen and the SF Symphony are nominated for performances of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater, which also gets a nod for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The LA Phil is nominated for its recording of John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West.
Before looking at the other classical nominations, here is what the headlines will cover when the results of the 67th Grammys are announced on Feb. 2, 2025, in Los Angeles.
With Beyonce on top, receiving her 99th nomination — she scored 11 in total this year for her first country album, Cowboy Carter — the overwhelming majority of artists nominated for Record of the Year are women, all of whom received multiple nominations: Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift, and Charli XCX.
Back to SF Classical Voice’s main (but not exclusive) interest:
Also nominated for Best Orchestral Performance are Marin Alsop and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (for music by John Adams), JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic (for music by Zoltán Kodály), and Susanna Mälkki and the Helsinki Philharmonic (for music by Jean Sibelius).
Contesting the opera award are Lyric Opera of Kansas (for Paul Moravec’s The Shining) and the Metropolitan Opera (nominated for both Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas and Kevin Puts’s The Hours).
The chamber music nominees include the JACK Quartet; the trio of Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, and Emanuel Ax; composer Christopher Cerrone and Lorelei Ensemble, directed by Beth Willer; the Miró Quartet; and composer Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion.
In the running for Best Choral Performance are Skylark Vocal Ensemble (for Clear Voices in the Dark), True Concord Voices & Orchestra (for music by Jake Runestad), Apollo’s Fire (for Handel’s Israel in Egypt), The Crossing (for Ochre), and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Artefact Ensemble, and NOVUS NY (for Benedict Sheehan’s Akathist).
And the nominees for Best Classical Instrumental Solo include percussionist Andy Akiho; pianist Víkingur Ólafsson; cellist Seth Parker Woods and conductor Christopher Rountree (with new-music ensemble Wild Up); guitarist Mak Grgic (with Ensemble Dissonance); and violinist Curtis Stewart and conductor James Blachly (with the Experiential Orchestra).
