No-one disputes the quality of the album, but the inappropriate categorisation has struck a dud note within the classical industry.

As predicted by Limelight, the popular electronic duo Flight Facilities (aka James Lyell and Hugo Gruzman) has won the 2016 ARIA Award for Best Classical Album, despite consternation and protests from members of the classical music industry.

Flight Facilities. Photo courtesy of the ABC

The winning album is a live recording of an outdoor concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, which took place at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne last year. As reported by Limelight, the classical music industry is up in arms that an electronic album should be nominated as Best Classical Album, let alone win the Award, leaving observers asking if there is something wrong with the ARIA’s eligibility criteria and voting system.

“This album consists of Flight Facilities’ original music, with the accompaniment of an orchestra. The Flight Facilities’ compositions sit clearly within the electronic music genre,” Toby Chadd, Label Manager at ABC Classics and Jazz, told Limelight. “I know how much an ARIA nomination or win means to artists – and for classical artists, the Classical category is the only one they would ever have a chance of winning. If we’re going to allow Flight Facilities to enter and win the Classical category, then what place is there for Classical artists within the ARIAs?”.

The ARIA organisation responded by suggesting that it was the judges in the classical category who had allowed the album to be listed as such, leaving some judges disgruntled at what they see as the ARIAs passing the buck. “Voting takes place via an electronic multiple-choice system, and as a judge I was presented with a wide range of fine classical albums,” said Limelight Editor Clive Paget. “At no point was I invited to submit feedback on an album’s eligibility for the category, and by that stage I would have assumed that classification was a done deal already. Frankly I can’t imagine that any of my fellow classical judges would have placed a live electronica concert over Nicole Car’s superb debut album, or the work of the ACO. If, as the ARIAs say, 183 ‘classical specialists’ chose this very fine dance album over the classical recordings on offer, I’d challenge the organisation to reveal the identities of their panel and the actual voting results. Personally I smell both a rat and a cover up.”

Flight Facilities themselves seemed somewhat surprised by their category nomination with Gruzman saying via videolink: “We’re stoked to be nominated for Best Classical Album a year after being nominated for Best Dance – we don’t know how but thanks very much.”

The duo had some serious classical competition in the category from Australian soprano Nicole Car, the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Mozart symphonies and projects by Katie Noonan with the Brodsky Quartet and Joe Chindamo and Zoe Black. Eligible for this year’s ARIA Awards, but missing out on scoring a nomination were many well-received classical albums such as the MSO’s second volume of their Strauss cycle with Sir Andrew Davis, Elena Kats-Chernin’s Butterflying and The Haydn Album from the Australian Haydn Ensemble.

Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album went to Josh Pyke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra recorded live at the Sydney Opera House, again an arguably strange choice of category. Best Jazz Album went to Vince Jones and Paul Grabowsky for Provenance.

The ARIA Awards in the Fine Arts, Artisans and Best Comedy categories were presented at an event in Sydney on October 5 along with the announcement of the nominations for the major ARIA Awards to be presented on November 23.

 

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