Hyperion Records

Last updated

Hyperion Records
Parent company Universal Music Group
Founded1980
FounderGeorge Edward Perry
Genre Classical music
Country of originFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  UK
Location United Kingdom
Official website hyperion-records.co.uk

Hyperion Records is a British classical music record label. It was independent until February 2023, when it was acquired by the Universal Music Group. Under Universal, Hyperion is one of the three main classical record labels, alongside Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.

Contents

History

Hyperion is a British classical label established in 1980, showcasing recordings of music of all genres from the 12th century to the 21st. The company is eponymous with Hyperion, one of the Titans of Greek mythology. George Edward Perry (known as "Ted") founded the company. Early LP releases include rarely recorded 20th-century British music by composers such as Robin Milford, Alan Bush and Michael Berkeley. The venture's success was sealed with a critically acclaimed and popular disc of music by Hildegard of Bingen, A Feather on the Breath of God (1985), directed by the medievalist Christopher Page and his group Gothic Voices.

After the death on 9 February 2003 of Hyperion Records founder Ted Perry, his son Simon Perry took over as director.

Acquisition by Universal Music Group

Entries at Companies House show that, on 14 February 2023, ownership of Hyperion moved to Universal Music Operations Limited, a primary British subsidiary of Universal Music Group (UMG), who later officially announced the acquisition on 15 March 2023, [1] making Hyperion a sister label of Deutsche Grammophon and Decca.

Recognition

Hyperion became renowned for recording lesser-known works, particularly Romantic piano concertos that had fallen from the repertory, works by Scottish Romantic composers, and English music of the Renaissance to the Baroque. They are especially known for their series of recordings of Franz Liszt's complete music for solo piano recorded by Leslie Howard, their complete edition of Franz Schubert's lieder [2] prepared under the supervision of the accompanist Graham Johnson OBE, and many of Handel's oratorios and Henry Purcell's choral works under the direction of Robert King.

More recently, Stephen Hough CBE, recorded Rachmaninov's complete piano concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody using the composer's original score. Hyperion is also noted for the breadth of its recorded repertoire, including music from the 12th to the 21st centuries. The label is renowned for complete recordings of lieder by Carl Loewe, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss, and Franz Liszt. More recently, Hyperion launched the Romantic violin concerto and Romantic cello concerto series.

Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt OBE recorded a complete cycle of Bach's keyboard works for the label (including the Well-Tempered Clavier twice over), while Christopher Herrick recorded his complete organ works.

Hyperion's recordings have won many awards, among them several Gramophone Awards, including Record of the Year in 1996, 1998, 2002, and 2010. Ted Perry was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in April 2012. [3]

Sawkins lawsuit

In 2004, Hyperion became embroiled in a legal dispute with Lionel Sawkins, a music editor whose editions of works by Michel-Richard de Lalande had been used in Hyperion's recording of the composer's music. Sawkins sued the company for royalties accruing from his musical copyright in these editions.

Hyperion maintained that the editions were not original compositions and therefore were not subject to copyright, and further that Sawkins did receive payment in the form of a hire fee from the performers for their rental. The case came to court in May 2004, and the judgment went largely in Sawkins's favor. Hyperion appealed in March 2005, and the court upheld the original judgment.

While the damages Sawkins sought were thought to be small, the legal costs of the case were estimated to result in a liability to the company of hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling, making its future uncertain at the time. [4] By 2006, Hyperion had received financial support from musicians, consumers, and composers to enable its survival. [5] As a precedent-setting case, the judgment was criticized by many musicologists.

Peter Phillips, the director of the Tallis Scholars and a music editor, said: "All the music I perform has to be edited, or we couldn't read it. But copyright should be there to reward creativity, not scholarship or diligence. How much an editor did or did not write should never be asked and judged during a million-pound lawsuit involving a small and innovative recording company." [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deutsche Grammophon</span> German classical music record label

Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of labels in 1999. Deutsche Grammophon is the world's oldest surviving established record company. Presidents of the company are Frank Briegmann, Chairman and CEO Central Europe of Universal Music Group and Clemens Trautmann.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ex Cathedra</span> British choir and early music ensemble

Ex Cathedra is a leading British choir and early music ensemble based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. It performs choral music spanning the 15th to 21st centuries, and regularly commissions new works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc-André Hamelin</span> Canadian pianist and composer

Marc-André Hamelin, OC, OQ is a Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer who has received 11 Grammy Award nominations. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naxos (company)</span> Record label specializing in classical music

Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about 17 labels including Naxos Records, Naxos Audiobooks, and Naxos Books (ebooks). There are about an additional 50 labels that are independent of the Naxos Musical Group with a wide range of offerings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Hewitt</span> Canadian classical pianist

Angela Hewitt, is a Canadian classical pianist. She is best known for her Bach interpretations.

Graham Johnson OBE is a British classical pianist and Lieder accompanist.

Nikolai Demidenko is a Russian-born classical pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Howard (musician)</span> Musical artist

Leslie John Howard is an Australian pianist, musicologist and composer. He is best known for being the only pianist to have recorded the complete solo piano works of Franz Liszt, a project which included more than 300 premiere recordings. He has been described by The Guardian as "a master of a tradition of pianism in serious danger of dying out".

Peter Donohoe CBE is an English classical pianist.

Classic Produktion Osnabrück is a record label founded in 1986 by Georg Ortmann and several others. Its declared mission is to fill niches in the recorded classical repertory, with an emphasis on romantic, late romantic, and 20th-century music. The label also aims to release complete cycles of recordings, such as complete sets of symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and so forth. It is the house label of online retailer jpc.

Li Yundi is a classical pianist born in Chongqing, China on October 7, 1982. He is also popularly known as Yundi Li. His discography contains 6 studio albums. He has also made four contributions to compilation albums not under his name and featured in two video items, a 2004 concert and a documentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberto Szidon</span> Brazilian pianist

Roberto Szidon was a Brazilian classical pianist who had an international performing and recording career, and settled in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahan Esfahani</span> Musical artist

Mahan Esfahani is an Iranian-American harpsichordist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brilliant Classics</span> Dutch classical music record label

Brilliant Classics is a classical music label based in the Dutch town of Leeuwarden. It is renowned for releasing super-budget-priced editions on CD of the complete works of J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and many other composers. The label also specialises in new recordings of early music, chamber, organ and piano music.

Der Sturm is a German-language opera in three acts and an epilogue by the Swiss composer Frank Martin to a libretto based on the Schlegel/Tieck German translation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Michael Dussek is an English pianist specialising in chamber music and song accompaniment.

Ēriks Ešenvalds is a Latvian composer, mainly of choral music. From 2011 to 2013 he was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

Arcangelo is a UK-based early music ensemble founded by Jonathan Cohen in 2010. It performs and records music from the Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic repertoire, ranging from Monteverdi to Beethoven. It is noted for its approach based on the collaborative tradition of chamber music making.

Hai-Kyung Suh is a South Korean classical pianist living in New York. She is known for her rich, round tone, and singing voice-like phrasing, characteristics of the Romantic style of piano playing that was predominant in the Golden Age of pianism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniil Trifonov discography</span>

The recording career of Russian pianist and composer Daniil Trifonov initially focused on the music of Frédéric Chopin. His first three albums, recorded in 2010 and released in 2011, exclusively consisted of works of Chopin: the first album, Daniil Trifonov plays Frédéric Chopin, consisting of music performed live in recitals in Italy, was released by Decca Records in April; his second album, Chopin: Mazurki; Konzert, containing performances from the 16th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, was released in May; and finally, his third album, Chopin, a studio recording, was released in July. Trifonov's next album, Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1, released in 2012, included a performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.

References

  1. ↑ "UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF LEGENDARY CLASSICAL LABEL HYPERION RECORDS". Universal Music Group. 16 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  2. ↑ "Andrew Clements, "Schubert: The Complete Songs, 60 soloists/Johnson" (CD review). The Guardian, 28 October 2005". London. 28 October 2005. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  3. ↑ "Ted Perry (record label founder)". Gramophone. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  4. ↑ "Ed Vulliamy, "£1 m legal bill rocks a musical institution". The Guardian, 23 December 2005". London. 23 December 2005. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  5. ↑ Thompson, James (26 October 2006). "Michael Church, " Why cutting-edge classical music is the preserve of the minors". The Independent, 26 October 2006". London. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  6. ↑ Ed Vulliamy (23 December 2005), "£1m legal bill rocks a musical institution: Classical record firm at risk after court defeat; Bill for copyright action a 'self-inflicted wound'", The Guardian.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.