The annual honours of classical recording, first presented in 1977, were named at tables in the Grade II* listed De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms on Great Queen Street.
The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, the annual honours of classical recording, were presented at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden on Wednesday 7 October 2026.
The awards were first presented in 1977, and Alfred Brendel was among the first winners. Their central prizes go to recordings, so the roll of winners reads as a history of the catalogue.
Claudio Abbado’s Bruckner Ninth with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra took Recording of the Year in 2015. Hilary Hahn won in 2024 with Ysaÿe’s six sonatas for solo violin. In 2025 the prize went to Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion for Bach’s Mass in B minor.
The 2026 shortlist ran to 66 recordings across 11 categories. Isabelle Faust, who won Recording of the Year in 2017 with Mozart’s violin concertos, appeared on three of them, in Bach, Ligeti and Telemann. Pichon and Pygmalion returned with the St John Passion.
The evening also named an Artist, a Young Artist, an Orchestra and a Label of the Year, and gave a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The ceremony was held at tables in a Grade II* listed building that has hosted events since 1775 and once housed the original Freemasons’ Tavern.