When an overlooked group is in trouble, one way to pretend it isn’t sick is to stage an awards ceremony. So this week the first Classical Brit awards for classical music. The gelled, egregious Kennedy will fiddle, Charlotte Church will weakly warble, Lesley Garrett will effervesce as usual like a shaken bottle of Babycham. The nominees are at best middlebrow, exposing the industry’s abject dependence on movie tie-ins. James Horner’s More Music From Braveheart, competes for Best Orchestral Album against John Williams’s latest brash, blatant marches from Star Wars, while Stephen Warbeck’s pastiched score for Shakespeare in Love has earned him a nomination as Male Artist of the Year. – The Observer (UK)