Julius Drake has received a nomination in the 2019 Gramophone Awards for his work on the album LISZT: Complete Songs Vol 5 under the category of Solo Vocal. The Winner of the award shall be announced on October 16 at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London.
This album is the fifth in a series to feature Drake and in contrast to the previous release, which was formulated around the later pieces in Liszt’s career, this is a disc focuses predominantly on Liszt’s Weimar years (1848-61) and the pieces that preceded them.
Tim Ashley from Gramophone writes “In the fourth ‘Lorelei’ from 1860, with its weighty, turbulent piano-writing, Drake unleashes a virtuoso storm as the boat founders on the rocks and Clayton’s rapt vocal line fragments into terrified, expressionist parlando.” Ashley continues to say “Drake, meanwhile, invests every phrase with weight and meaning, and is, as ever, outstanding. Another fine disc in an exceptional series.”