Our annual Recording of the Year Awards saw Limelight critics scrutinising a shortlist of 50 outstanding recordings reviewed during the past 12 months. This year, only one of the five categories had a runaway winner, and competition for the top prize was particularly fierce. In the end, it was a coup for independent labels, who came first in every genre.

It was an especially notable year for Harmonia Mundi. The label, founded in 1958, won three awards, including two for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Gustavo Gimeno whose recording of Olivier Messiaen’s colourful Turangalîla-Symphonie carried off the coveted Recording of the Year. It was especially auspicious for the label as it marked its first major collaboration with a North American orchestra. The recording (Harmonia Mundi HMM905336) is also honoured as our Orchestral Recording of the Year.