I mean, these are all deserving nominees. And I'd suggest that these nominees actually do have better surround engineering than anything in the pop arena. And this is a constant pretty much in any era, that what's being done for classical (and increasingly jazz, as it retreats into an even smaller niche).
The solution seems pretty obvious, and it's something the academy has been doing for decades on engineering - have separate categories for classical and non-classical. I'd include jazz in the classical mix and change the names, but otherwise I think it would make everyone happy.
I appreciate this post. There is indeed a fair amount of overlap between the "Surround" and "Classical Production" categories, so maybe there was also a certain degree of laziness involved when it came to nominating :
SURROUND SOUND FIELD
Best Surround Sound Album:
Early Americans — Jim Anderson, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Jim Anderson & Jane Ira Bloom, surround producers (Jane Ira Bloom) -- WINNER
Kleiberg: Mass For Modern Man — Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Eivind Gullberg Jensen & Trondheim Symphony Orchestra And Choir)
So Is My Love — Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Nina T. Karlsen & Ensemble 96)
3-D The Catalogue — Fritz Hilpert, surround mix engineer; Tom Ammermann, surround mastering engineer; Fritz Hilpert, surround producer (Kraftwerk)
Tyberg: Masses — Jesse Brayman, surround mix engineer; Jesse Brayman, surround mastering engineer; Blanton Alspaugh, surround producer (Brian A. Schmidt, Christopher Jacobson & South Dakota Chorale)
PRODUCTION, CLASSICAL FIELD
Best Engineered Album, Classical:
Danielpour: Songs Of Solitude & War Songs — Gary Call, engineer (Thomas Hampson, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)
Kleiberg: Mass For Modern Man — Morten Lindberg, engineer (Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Trondheim Vokalensemble & Trondheim Symphony Orchestra)
Schoenberg, Adam: American Symphony; Finding Rothko; Picture Studies — Keith O. Johnson & Sean Royce Martin, engineers (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio — Mark Donahue, engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) -- WINNER
Tyberg: Masses — John Newton, engineer; Jesse Brayman, mastering engineer (Brian A. Schmidt, Christopher Jacobson & South Dakota Chorale)
But as someone pointed out back when the nominations were announced (I think): for your work to be considered for a nomination, it has to be submitted by a member of the voting panel. (And just about anyone in the industry--artist, composer, engineer--can become a voter if they want to.) But you have to play to win. It's not clear to me how many of the surround albums that QQ members would
like to have seen honored were even submitted for consideration.
That said: the Grammys are what they are, just like the Oscars, etc. It's a happy accident when something truly outstanding wins an award, and we can all name plenty of mediocre and/or ephemeral stuff that's taken home a trophy over the decades. Yet at the risk of feeding the trolls: I'd hesitate to write off a single one of this year's "Album of the Year" nominees as mediocre. And I'd
love to hear Kendrick Lamar's
DAMN. mixed for surround!