Classical Brits 2018 - Wednesday 13th June

[Dave]

Thanks for the update Martin, I look forward to reading your further report!

Dave

[Jeff]

[John H]

I thought the Bocelli/Terfel duet was the stand out highlight of the show.
Sounds like they thought so too

[Libby]

I can't imagine it not being so. I don't even know who else performed, but I'm sure he's got them all pretty well beat. Glad to hear that Sarah Brightman was there, too, I saw her post about it, too.

[John H]

Natasha's Classical Crossover Magazine has published an eye-witness account of the event.

www.classicalcrossovermagazine.us/classicbrits2018/

Some of you might know the writer

[Martin]

OK Dave  , but John has just beat me to it. Here then is my summary:

The winners were:

Female Artist of the Year

Renée Fleming

Male Artist of the Year

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Group of the Year

Michael Ball & Alfie Boe

Soundtrack of the Year

The Greatest Showman OST (Benj Pasek & Justin Paul)

Critics’ Choice in association with Apple Music

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Classic FM Album of the Year

Michael Ball & Alfie Boe

Classic BRITs Icon

Andrea Bocelli

Sound of Classical 2018

Jess Gillam

PPL Classic BRITs Breakthrough Artist of the Year

Tokio Myers

Special Recognition Award for Musical Theatre & Education

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lifetime Achievement Award

Dame Vera Lynn

But moving onto the performers, they were:


Alexis Ffrench

British composer and pianist

Beatrice Rana

Classical pianist

Katherine Jenkins OBE

Pretty Yende

South African soprano

Andrea Bocelli

Michael Ball & Alfie Boe

Sir Bryn Terfel

Tokio Myers

Britains Got Talent winner 2017

Meghan Picerno

American soprano

It goes without question that Andrea was the highlight of the evening, in particular the duet with Bryn Terfel singing the "Pearl Fishers" by Bizet. Spine-tingling! He also sang a song from his new album expected later this year.

Other highlights were Katherine who performed ‘Never Enough’ from the UK’s biggest selling album of 2018 so far, the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman, and Meghan Picerno currently starring as Christine in the tour of “Love Never Dies” who sang "Love Never Dies". Finally, Beatrice Rana who played a track from her album of Bach’s Goldberg variations.

There were also a lot of well known celebrities announcing the awards, in particular, Shirley Bassey, Sarah Brighman, Duchess of York (Fergie), Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Danielle de Niese, Aled Jones, Nile Rogers, Amanda Holden and Dame Vera Lynn's daughter.

It was a very enjoyable evening and can be seen tonight at 1030pm on ITV. No sign of the elusive HW though    but as mentioned I did see Kathryn Nash amongst the tables in the Arena.

Martin 

[Dave]

Many thanks Martin and John, having read your comments and watching the ITV programme, I wish I'd been there!

Here is a treat for our Andrea Bocelli fans, of whom I have to admit I am one. If it's viewable, watch it quick as I suspect ITV or Bocelli's people will soon block it either outside the UK, or possibly worldwide (in which case I'm in trouble lol). !

It it survives the night, let me know if you'd like anything else from the show. It is currently "unlisted" and on my personal channel, so you need to know the link.

Dave

[Libby]

I think If Only is essentially the English translation of what the album title is. I don't know Italian, but in Spanish, Si without the accent on the it means If (with the accent means "yes"), so that is possibly the case in Italian, too.

Sarah, Andrea, and Josh all have albums in the fall... Say, why doesn't Hayley join the club??