LSO and Philharmonia triumph at Grammy Awards

Classic FM's partner orchestra's The LSO and Philharmonia were the big British winners in the classical award categories at the prestigious Grammy Awards.

The London Symphony Orchestra picked up the award for Opera Recording for their performance on the disc of Benjamin Britten's 'Billy Budd' with conductor Daniel Harding. The recording features soloists Ian Bostridge, Nathan Gunn, Neal Davies, Jonathan Lemalu, Matthew Rose and Gidon Saks.

The Philharmonia Orchestra also picked up a Grammy Award in the Instrumental Soloist with an Orchestra category for their recording of Prokofiev's Piano Concertos No. 2 and 3. with pianist Evgeny Kissin and conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Indian composer AR Rahman (pictured right), known in his home city as the 'Mozart of Madras', collected two Grammy Awards for best film song and best soundtrack, both compositions for the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. He has already picked up two Oscars, a Bafta and a Golden Globe for the same film.

The big winner of the night in the classical music category was the San Francisco Symphony's recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 and the Adagio from Mahler’s unfinished Symphony No. 10 with three awards including the coveted prize of Best Classical Album.

The recording, which was conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, also won the Grammy for Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Album.

Renee Fleming won the Grammy for Classical Vocal Performance for her album 'Verismo Arias' featuring the Orchestra Sinfonica Di Milano Giuseppi Verdi.

Other winners included James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for their recording of Ravel's 'Daphnis et Chloe', classical guitarist Sharon Isbin for 'Journey to the New World' and Yo-Yo Ma won the classical crossover album award for 'Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace.'
  
Guest's at the glittering ceremony in held at Staples Center on 31 January in Los Angeles, included Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and Placido Domingo.