Made available today, 200 albums from much-hailed classical record label Hyperion. A big deal judging by what I observed on social media today (I’m mostly lurking, not participating).
Lots of people are excited by the prospect of albums previously only available on CD, now retrievable on-demand via your preferred streaming platform (Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, Quobuz, Tidal, iTunes, YouTube and to purchase at Hyperion). If you’re one of the Clive Myrie tribe who consider detail, expertise and elite performance as ‘boring and naff’ then this label is probably not for you. Or maybe it is?
As announcements go, this was textbook stuff. Early emailed press release (I received three from three different sources) coordinated with timely social media with the necessary link to the streaming catalogue presently available.
Personal recommendations are included below.
I understand there will be additional Hyperion collections released in the near future.
Haydn London Symphonies 93-104
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana with conductor Howard Shelley
Electrifying. If you’re in a rush, prioritise Symphony 104.
Rachmaninov Piano Concertos and Paganini Rhapsody
Stephen Hough with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Litton
I have not heard quite so much detail (especially in the concluding variation) as I have in this recording. The horn cues are exhilerating. It is Quite Something.
Stravinsky Rite of Spring
Marc-Andre Hamelin Leif Ove Andsnes
There is, in places, a great deal of delicious violence in this. Power too.
Dvorak Cello Concertos
Steven Isserlis and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Harding
An urgent, tightly wound final movement to the first concerto with a lot of meaty strings in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Schubert: Hyperion Song Edition 25 – Die schone Mullerin
Ian Bostridge and Graham Johnson
I have a friend who has had a big crush on Bostridge simply because of his voice. I’ve never really understood it. I listen to this recording released three years after Bostridge’s first Wigmore Hall solo recital and final get what makes her knees tremble. Stunning.
