OPUS KLASSIK is Germany’s most prestigious awards body for classical music. With a distinguished jury selecting both the nominated albums and subsequently the category winners, OPUS KLASSIK has released its list of nominations for the 2026 awards. Among them are two albums from the Naxos Music Group.

The Naxos label is nominated in the category of Audiovisual Music Production of the Year for its recording of Richard Strauss’ opera Intermezzo, a Deutsche Oper Berlin production conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles and featuring soprano Maria Bengtsson in the role of Christine.

Nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year is star violinist Christian Tetzlaff for his recording on the Ondine label of two major, contrasting British violin concertos: the first by Edward Elgar, completed in 1910, and the other by Thomas Adès, subtitled ‘Concentric Paths’, written in 2025.

We send our congratulations to all involved in the production of these exceptional albums, further details of which are shown below. The winners will be announced at the end of June.

Naxos 2.110780
Also available on Blu-ray Video
(NBD0188V)

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STRAUSS, R.: Intermezzo [Opera] (Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2024) (NTSC)

Bengtsson • Jekal • Blondelle • Berlin Deutsche Opera Orchestra • Runnicles • Kratzer

‘[Bengtsson is] magnificent throughout as a singer and actor, the pivot of the whole production. It hardly needs saying how much Runnicles’ profoundly sympathetic direction adds to the evening … A thought provoking, entertaining, musically rewarding experience.’
– MusicWeb International

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Ondine ODE1480-2

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ELGAR, E. • ADÈS, T.: Violin Concertos

C. Tetzlaff • BBC Philharmonic Orchestra • Storgårds

‘Arresting and tautly persuasive, Christian Tetzlaff challenges orthodoxy in this impressive account of Elgar’s great B minor Violin Concerto … Tetzlaff’s riveting account [of the Adès] should win new devotees to this work with this outstanding Ondine recording.’
– BBC Music Magazine