Limelight’s top gong goes to the Canadian Baritone’s Vocal Category winning album.

Canadian Baritone Gerland Finley’s recording of Shostakovich’s Six Romances on Verses by English Poets, and Suite on Poems by Michelangelo, has been named Limelight Magazine’s Recording of the Year 2014.

Limelight critic William Yoeman’s five star review, featured in the September issue, described the recording as “the sort of release that warms my heart: intelligent artists at the top of their game exploring obscure but important repertoires.”

Finely’s recording, which also features the Helsinki Philharmonic conducted by Thomas Sanderling, was also named the winner of the Vocal Categrory of the Limelight Recording of the Year Awards. In an exclusive interview, Finley told Limelight what had drawn him to record these little known songs by the great Russian 20th century composer Shostakovich.

“It was three years ago that Ondine asked if I’d sing a program with the Helsinki Philharmonic and Thomas Sanderling, who is such a flag bearer for Shostakovich. The only other Shostakovich I had done were his orchestrations of the Mussorgsky Songs and Dances of Death. Although Shostakovich was steeped in what I would call the...