The winners of the prestigious classical music awards have been announced ahead of the ceremony on 17th September where the hotly contested Recording of the Year will be announced.

Special awards like Artist of the Year (nominations listed below), Young Artist of the Year, Label of the Year and Lifetime Achievement have not been unveiled and will also be revealed at the ceremony.

The winners are:

Baroque instrumental
Bach: Cello Suites – David Watkin (vc)

Baroque vocal
Monteverdi: Vespers – Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini

Chamber
Smetana: String Quartets 1 2 – Pavel Haas Quartet

Choral
Elgar: Sea Pictures. Dream of Gerontius – Sarah Connolly (mz), BBC PO / Andrew Davis

Concerto
Beethoven: Piano Concertos 3 4 – Maria Joao Pires (pf), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Daniel Harding

Contemporary
Nørgård: Symphonies 1 8 – Vienna Philharmonic / Sakari Oramo

Early Music
The Spy’s Choirbook: Mouton, de la Rue, Desprez, Strus, Therache, Fevin, Isaac, Ghiselin, Josquin etc – Alamire, The English Cornett Sackbut Ensemble / David Skinner

Instrumental
Bach: English Suites 1, 3, 5 – Piotr Andersewski (pf)

Opera
Strauss: Elektra – Soloists, Orchestre de Paris / Esa-Pekka Salonen (prod. Patrice Chéreau)

Orchestral
Bruckner: Symphony No 9    – Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Claudio Abbado

Recital
‘A French Baroque Diva’ Arias for Marie Fel – Carolyn Sampson (sop), Ex Cathedra / Jeffrey Skidmore

Solo Vocal
Schubert Lieder – Nachtviolen – Christian Gerhaher (bar), Gerold Huber (pf)

Artist of the Year nominees (voted for by the public)

Edward Gardner
Iván Fischer
Paavo Järvi
Igor Levit
Ingrid Fliter
Mahan Esfahani
Arabella Steinbacher
Christiane Karg
Carolyn Sampson
Christian Gerhaher

Classic FM will be covering all the action from the Gramophone Awards ceremony on 17 September