| Year | Artist | Performance | |
|---|
| 2009 | JoAnn Falletta (Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra) | Hila Plitmann - Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan | |
| 2008 | Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Peter Lieberson) | Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Sings Peter Lieberson: Neruda Songs | |
| 2007 | Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Peter Serkin) | Rilke Songs | |
| 2006 | Thomas Quasthoff (Rainer Kussmaul; Members Of The RIAS Chamber Choir; Berlin) | Bach: Cantatas Baroque Soloists) | |
| 2005 | Susan Graham | Ives: Songs (The Things Our Fathers Loved; the Housatonic at Stockbridge, etc.) | |
| 2004 | Thomas Quasthoff & Anne Sofie von Otter | Schubert: Lieder with Orchestra performed by Thomas Quasthoff, Anne Sofie von Otter & the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Claudio Abbado | |
| 2003 | Erik Smith (producer), Jonathan Stokes, Neil Hutchinson, Tom Lazarus (engineers), Patrick Summers (conductor), Renee Fleming & Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino | Bel Canto (Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, etc.) | |
| 2002 | Christopher Raeburn (producer), Jonathan Stokes (engineer), Bernhard Forck (conductor), Cecilia Bartoli & the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin | Dreams & Fables - Gluck Italian Arias (Tremo Gra' Fubbi Miei; Die Questa Cetra In Seno, etc.) | |
| 2001 | Christopher Raeburn (producer), Jonathan Stokes (engineer), Cecilia Bartoli & Il Giardino Armonico | The Vivaldi Album (Dell'aura al sussurrar; Alma oppressa, Etc.) | |
| 2000 | Claudio Abbado (conductor), Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Quasthoff & the Berliner Philharmonic | Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn | |
| 1999 | Jeffrey Tate (conductor), Renee Fleming & the English Chamber Orchestra | The Beautiful Voice (Works of Charpentier, Gounod etc.) | |
| 1998 | Cecilia Bartoli | An Italian Songbook (Works of Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini) | |
| 1997 | James Levine (conductor), Bryn Terfel & the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra | Opera Arias - Works of Mozart, Wagner, Borodin | |
| 1996 | Christopher Hogwood (conductor), Sylvia McNair & the Academy of Ancient Music | The Echoing Air - The Music of Henry Purcell | |
| 1995 | Cecilia Bartoli | The Impatient Lover - Italian Songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart | |
| 1994 | Arleen Auger | The Art of Arleen Auger (Works of Larsen, Purcell, Schumann, Mozart) | |
| 1993 | Kathleen Battle & Margo Garrett | Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall (Handel, Mozart, Liszt, Strauss, etc.) | |
| 1992 | Dawn Upshaw | The Girl With Orange Lips (Falla, Ravel, etc.) | |
| 1991 | Zubin Mehta (conductor), Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, & the Orchestra Del Maggio Musicale | Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti in Concert | |
| 1990 | David Zinman (conductor), Dawn Upshaw & the Orchestra of St. Luke's | Knoxville - Summer of 1915 (Music of Barber, Menotti, Harbison, Stravinsky) | |
| 1989 | Emerson Buckley (conductor), Luciano Pavarotti & the Symphony Orchestra of Amelia Romangna | Luciano Pavarotti in Concert | |
| 1988 | Kathleen Battle | Kathleen Battle - Salzburg Recital | |
| 1987 | Andre Previn (conductor), Kathleen Battle & the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart | |
| 1986 | Robert Shaw (conductor), John Aler & the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra | Berlioz: Requiem | |
| 1985 | Pierre Boulez (conductor), Heather Harper, Jessye Norman & Jose van Dam, the BBC Symphony Orchestra & the Ensemble Intercontemporain | Ravel: Songs of Maurice Ravel | |
| 1984 | James Levine (conductor), Marilyn Horne, Leontyne Price & the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra | Leontyne Price & Marilyn Horne in Concert at the Met | |
| 1983 | Zubin Mehta (conductor), Leontyne Price & the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra | Verdi: Arias (Leontyne Price Sings Verdi) | |
| 1982 | Richard Bonynge (conductor), Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland & the New York City Opera Orchestra | Live From Lincoln Center - Sutherland/Horne/Pavarotti | |
| 1981 | Henry Lewis (conductor), Leontyne Price & the Philharmonia Orchestra | Prima Donna, Vol. 5 - Great Soprano Arias From Handel to Britten | |
| 1980 | Luciano Pavarotti & the Bologna Orchestra | O Sole Mio - Favorite Neapolitan Songs | |
| 1979 | Luciano Pavarotti | Luciano Pavarotti - Hits From Lincoln Center | |
| 1978 | Neville Marriner (conductor), Janet Baker & the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields | Bach: Arias | |
| 1977 | Beverly Sills | Herbert: Music of Victor Herbert | |
| 1976 | Janet Baker | Mahler: Kindertotenlieder | |
| 1975 | Leontyne Price | Leontyne Price Sings Richard Strauss | |
| 1974 | Edward Downes (conductor), Leontyne Price & the New Philharmonia Orchestra | Puccini: Heroines | |
| 1973 | Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau | Brahms: Die Schone Magelone | |
| 1972 | Leontyne Price | Leontyne Price Sings Robert Schumann | |
| 1971 | Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau | Schubert: Lieder | |
| 1970 | Thomas Schippers (conductor), Leontyne Price & the New Philharmonia | Barber: Two Scenes From "Antony and Cleopatra"/Knoxville, Summer of 1915 | |
| 1969 | Carlo Felice Cillario (conductor), Montserrat Caballe & the RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra & Chorus | Rossini: Rarities | |
| 1968 | Francesco Molinari-Pradelli (conductor), Leontyne Price, & the RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra | Prima Donna, Volume 2 | |
| 1967 | Francesco Molinari-Pradelli (conductor), Leontyne Price & the RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra | Prima Donna (Works of Barber, Purcell, etc.) | |
| 1966 | Erich Leinsdorf (conductor), Leontyne Price & the Boston Symphony Orchestra | Strauss: Salome (Dance of the Seven Veils, Interlude, Final Scene)/The Egyptian Helen (Awakening Scene) | |
| 1965 | Fritz Reiner (conductor), Leontyne Price & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra | Berlioz: Nuits d'Ete (Song Cycle)/Falla: El Amor Brujo | |
| 1964 | Skitch Henderson (conductor), Leontyne Price & the RCA Orchestra | Great Scenes From Gershwin's Porgy and Bess | |
| 1963 | Leonard Bernstein (conductor), Eileen Farrell & the New York Philharmonic | Gotterd�mmerung - Brunnhilde's Immolation Scene/Wesendonck Songs | |
| 1962 | Francesco Molinari-Pradelli (conductor), Joan Sutherland & the Royal Opera House Orchestra | The Art of the Prima Donna | |
| 1961 | Leontyne Price | A Program of Song - Leontyne Price Recital | |
| 1960 | Jussi Bjorling | Bjoerling in Opera | |
| 1959 | Renata Tebaldi | Operatic Recital | |