GRAMOPHONE CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARDS 2025 - DG Artists María Dueñas, Joana Mallwitz and Krystian Zimerman Take Home Four of This Year’s Prestigious Prizes
Berlin/London, 16 October 2025. The Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2025 gala ceremony took place last night at the De Vere Connaught Rooms in central London. Renowned as the Oscars of classical music, the Gramophone Awards – presented with Presto Music – celebrate the finest recordings of the previous twelve months, recognising the outstanding achievements of artists, ensembles and labels. This year, no fewer than four of the prestigious awards were presented to Deutsche Grammophon artists and recordings.
There was a dual victory for Spanish violinist María Dueñas. Not only did her second DG album Paganini: 24 Caprices win the Instrumental Award but she was also named Young Artist of the Year (an award sponsored by Classic FM). Gramophone summed up Dueñas’s readings of Paganini as “dazzling”, going on to praise her “luminously radiant and golden-toned, fluidly quicksilver technique”, as well as hailing the “joys” of the album’s companion disc (works by Berlioz, Cervelló, Kreisler, Gabriela Ortiz, Saint-Saëns, Sarasate and Wieniawski). Dueñas also treated the ceremony to a performance from that album and stated in her acceptance speech “it’s a great pleasure and honour… thank you for believing in the power of youth and curiosity in the arts, thank you so much for this recognition.”
The Chamber Award (sponsored by Wigmore Hall) went to the album featuring Brahms’s Piano Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 made by pianist and DG artist Krystian Zimerman with violinist Maria Nowak, violist Katarzyna Budnik and cellist Yuya Okamoto. Gramophone called it an “outstanding recording”, noting how it contains “fervour, angst and lyricism in Shakespearean proportions”. Maria Nowak and Yuya Okamoto accepted the award on behalf of the quartet.
“I am deeply honoured – and truly touched – that our recording of Brahms’s Piano Quartets has been chosen for this year’s Gramophone Award,” says Krystian Zimerman. “My warmest thanks to Gramophone for this recognition, to Deutsche Grammophon for their faith and patience, and to our audience - for listening, with open hearts. And, not being such a serious person after all, please allow me to put it in the language of today: We are happy to have made Brahms great again!”
Conductor Joana Mallwitz and the Berlin Konzerthausorchester, meanwhile, took home the Orchestral Recording of the Year Award for The Kurt Weill Album. Featuring the Berlin composer’s two symphonies as well as the “sung ballet” Die sieben Todsünden, this is the debut DG album from Mallwitz, recently named OPUS KLASSIK’s Conductor of the Year 2025. “This Weill collection, polished but never slick, merits the very strongest recommendation,” said Gramophone.
“On behalf of the musicians of the Konzerthausorchester and all those who have contributed to this CD – on and behind the stage – I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this award,” says Joana Mallwitz. “It honors us very much and we are very happy about it, also because it helps to bring Kurt Weill’s great works back into focus.”
There was further success for Universal Music in the shape of the Opera Award. This was given to Norwegian National Opera’s recording of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, conducted by Edward Gardner and starring soprano and Decca Classics artist Lise Davidsen as Senta. The landmark album captures this “true Wagnerian” live in a role she is unlikely to revisit.
“We are delighted that our artists and recordings have once again been recognised by Gramophone in major categories and that the Yellow Label has garnered around a quarter of the total awards presented tonight“, says Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon and New Business Strategy Global Classics. “María Dueñas’s expressive and technical abilities shine in her tribute to Paganini and his successors, and it’s hugely gratifying to see her exceptional talent recognised in the Young Artist and Instrumental categories. Krystian Zimerman and his colleagues’ interpretations of Brahms are the perfect exemplar of collaborative musicianship, while Joana and Konzerthausorchester have done fantastic work in championing Kurt Weill’s symphonic music in the studio as well as on the concert platform. My warmest congratulations to all our winners.”
DETAILS OF UNIVERSAL MUSIC’S AWARD-WINNERS:
1 | Deutsche Grammophon
Krystian Zimerman, Maria Nowak,
Katarzyna Budnik, Yuya Okamoto
Chamber Recording of the Year
Brahms: Piano Quartets Nos. 2 & 3
2 | DG
María Dueñas
Instrumental Recording of the Year
Paganini: 24 Caprices, etc.
3 | DG
Joana Mallwitz/Berlin Konzerthausorchester
Orchestral Recording of the Year
The Kurt Weill Album
4 | DG
María Dueñas
Young Artist of the Year
5 | Decca Classics
Lise Davidsen, Orchestra & Chorus of
Norwegian National Opera/Edward Gardner
Opera Recording of the Year
Der fliegende Holländer
