One of the world’s great pianists, Grigory Sokolov has declined the 2015 Cremona Music Award as it had been previously awarded to author, blogger and classical music gossipmonger Norman Lebrecht. In a hand written open letter directed at the award’s organisers, which was reproduced in Italian and Russian on the pianist’s website, Sokolov stated simply, “According to my ideas about elementary decency, it is shameful to be in the same award-winners list with Lebrecht.”

Norman Lebrecht is a prolific British writer and has over the course of his career authored 12 books covering a range of areas within musicology, as well as writing extensively as both a commentator and critic, formally for The Daily Telegraph and then at The Evening Standard as the paper’s assistant editor. Recently Lebrecht’s writings have been largely published online, either on Universal Music’s Sinifi website or his own classical news and gossip site Slipped Disc which primarily features brief, bite-sized articles in Lebrecht’s uniquely personal voice.

Pianist Grigory Sokolov

Lebrecht is no stranger to controversy and his writing has often been divisive. His sometimes surprisingly unguarded opinions, unapologetically biased angles and often acerbic...