Celebrating 25 Years of
It gives me great pleasure, as one of NMC’s Founding Patrons, to join the celebrations for what has been achieved over the last quarter of a century! Because recordings have been such an important part of my own career, I know how much value recorded music has for audiences across the world, and – as in the case of NMC with its commitment to never deleting titles – across the years.
Sir Simon Rattle © Mat Hennek
The service NMC provides to British music is unparalleled. The opportunities it gives composers, artists and audiences to “The arrival discover and share such a wealth of NMC’s reissue of music is something to be of Harrison Birtwistle’s treasured. amazing opera Gawain in its Covent Garden performance of I hope you will join with me 1994 reminds me once more of the both in celebrating what magnificent work NMC is doing on has been achieved so behalf of British Music, its composers, far and in looking to the its public, and the international future of this bold and recognition of the recent musical adventurous organisation splendours of this country. It seems with confidence. I hope to me obvious that this institution has and believe it will inspire proved, after 25 rewarding years, to be and challenge us for indispensable, and that it deserves all many years to come. help and assistance in the future.”
Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE, NMC Patron
1989 First NMC releases on cassette:
1990 Jonathan Harvey’s Bhakti (D001) Michael Finnissy’s Piano (D002) Mary Wiegold’s Songbook (D003)
Name changes from New Music Cassettes to NMC Recordings Ltd
1991 First recording with London Sinfonietta: Harrison Birtwistle’s Ritual Fragment (D009)
Alfred Brendel Hon KBE, NMC Patron
1993
1992 Bill Colleran appointed Chair of NMC (1993 – 2004)
First release with BBC Symphony Orchestra: Howard Skempton’s Lento (D005)
Andrzej Panufnik’s Cello Concerto recorded with Mstislav Rostropovich (D010)
Barry Guy’s After the Rain released (D013)
I have often told the story of how, in the early days of the Holst Foundation, what Arnold Whittall calls the ‘ephemerality’ of live performance (see overleaf) led me to believe that the Foundation might best support new music by helping to record it, and so achieve a measure of permanence. Finding the means to do this was not an easy task – it proved a complex undertaking to set up a record label that functioned as a charity, and from earliest thoughts to actuality took nearly five years. NMC released its first recordings in 1989, initially as an offshoot of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM), and after slow beginnings momentum gradually increased to the point that by 2000 the catalogue included over 60 titles. In our 25th year there are now over 200 recordings (including the many items which are only available as downloads), featuring nearly 300 composers. And all, as a matter of course, permanently available: from the very beginning it was a rule that nothing would ever be deleted. Although NMC’s primary focus has always been on living British composers and on music not previously recorded, a glance at the long list of those we have featured reveals some anomalies: neglected figures from the recent past are included, as well as some major composers from earlier times. In 1992 we recorded Andrzej Panufnik’s last completed work, his Cello Concerto (with none other than Rostropovich). We made the first recording of music by Bill Hopkins; and the greatly undervalued Elisabeth Lutyens appears on a number of releases. With the introduction of the Archive series in 1995 we widened the scope to include, for instance, Benjamin Britten (many pieces never recorded before) and Michael Tippett (squeezing in Tallis’s 40-part motet in Tippett’s historic 1948 recording with the Morley College Choir). The most significant disc in this series was the release in 1998 of Elgar’s Third Symphony in the reconstruction by Anthony Payne – a move which surprised some, but still fulfilled our brief of issuing previously unrecorded music. This was one of our many collaborations with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
1994 First NMC Sampler released (D012)
Robin Holloway’s Second Concerto for Orchestra (BBC SO/Knussen) wins NMC its first Gramophone Award
1995 Release of historical Britten recordings, featuring Peter Pears & Benjamin Britten (D030)
Another strand that has become increasingly important is Ancora, rereleasing recordings that have been deleted from other catalogues. We were able to bring back many recordings from the late-lamented Collins Classics label, as well as Unicorn-Kanchana, alongside notable disappearances such as Harrison Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy and Nicholas Maw’s Life Studies. Most recently we branched out into DVD with a tribute to Elliott Carter, the concert that celebrated his 103rd birthday. It is the first time we have devoted an entire recording to a non-British composer; but as not only one of the great figures of our time but the last surviving pupil of Gustav Holst it seemed a wholly appropriate thing to do. NMC started with a mission: we were determined to remedy the very poor representation of British composers in the record catalogues. Very early on we devised a ‘hit list’ of music we felt demanded to be released, and although that original list has gradually been worked through (in the case of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Taverner this took over 20 years) it simultaneously expanded as new works were written and younger composers came into focus. I don’t think that in 1989 we dared to imagine that we would achieve as much as we have, and, as Arnold Whittall points out, without the unexpected return to copyright of Holst’s music, it is unlikely that we could have survived beyond our first ten years. What has been a constant is our appetite for the new – the next 25 years beckon, and we have every intention of staying the course!
Colin Matthews OBE, NMC’s Executive Producer
1997
1996 NMC’s Sonic Arts Series (with Sonic Arts Network) launches
First sighting of the Blue Sheep on the cover of Pastures New Sampler (D031)
World premiere and recording of Anthony Payne’s completion of Elgar’s unfinished Symphony No.3 with BBC SO/Andrew Davis (D053; released 1998)
Colin Matthews © Fiona Garden/NMC Recordings
NMC - The First 25 Years
NMC and the Holst Foundation The story of NMC begins with the Holst family. After Gustav Holst died in 1934, his daughter Imogen (1907-1984) sought to preserve and promote his music as part of a busy career that involved composing as well as conducting, editing, teaching and writing. In 1952 she settled in Aldeburgh as Benjamin Britten’s musical assistant and, although she relinquished those responsibilities in 1964, remained an active force in Aldeburgh for another two decades. In association with Britten’s publishers in his later years, Faber Music, she initiated a definitive edition of her father’s compositions, collaborating with another of Britten’s assistants, Colin Matthews. It was Matthews and other key figures who were instrumental in setting up in 1981 – at Imogen Holst’s behest – the Holst Foundation, to promote the dissemination of new music by British composers. The Foundation’s main source of funds has always been the performing rights and royalties earned by Gustav Holst’s compositions and, in particular, The Planets, whose sustained popularity has proved remarkable. In 1996, the extension through European legislation of the period for copyright after the composer’s death was also an important factor enabling the Foundation to continue its work long after it was originally expected to expire. That work has taken place during a period of cultural change which has been considerably more radical than it might otherwise have been on account of technological developments. Over this time we have seen the transformation of recording and transmitting media and constraints on funding and publishing which have threatened classical music’s position in the artistic hierarchy, with obvious consequences for contemporary music within the classical domain. One day a brave historian should attempt to chronicle the labyrinthine sequence of events affecting institutions like the Arts Councils, the BBC, the Society for the Promotion of New Music, the British Music Information Centre, and the various bodies, like the RVW Trust and the Hinrichsen, Holst and Tippett Foundations (not a complete list!) which have attempted to keep the contemporary music ship afloat while weathering the stormy circumstances confronting them on a daily basis.
1998 Elgar/Payne Symphony No.3 wins Classic CD Award (D053)
1999 Harrison Birtwistle’s Mask of Orpheus released; wins Gramophone Award (D050)
First recording with BCMG: Philip Cashian’s Dark Inventions (D061)
Hugh Wood Symphony recorded with BBC SO/Andrew Davis (D070) NMC is 10...
That live performance of new or relatively recent compositions quite often involves a ‘fringe’ element – even when the composition in question turns out to be a large-scale and important work – inevitably lends an aura of ephemerality to the enterprise of making facilitating grants to performers. The idea of establishing and supporting NMC came about as a way of balancing that ephemerality with something more permanent, the physical fact of a compact disc which would not be deleted after a relatively short time as is the way with many record companies. Although the two charities have enjoyed a continuous relationship for 25 years, they have always had separate administrative structures. The Foundation has managed to avoid the risk of allowing too close a convergence between live events involving new British compositions considered worthy of funding support and projects with the prospect of contributing to worthwhile CDs or downloads in the NMC catalogue. Fortunately, perhaps, the performance contexts most commonly presented for the kind of compositions that the Foundation has tended to support are so different from the compilations appropriate for NMC that the persistent parallelism seems usefully productive rather than confusingly comparable. The Holst Foundation is itself destined to dissolve as its resources finally dwindle to zero. The law of productive polarities discussed above makes it all the more important that NMC does not follow suit. It does no harm if every listener, every time they play one of their NMC CD tracks or downloads, should offer a brief, silent benediction of thanks to Gustav Holst and The Planets, and to Imogen Holst and her sheer determination to ensure that music in Britain should benefit as widely and as continually as possible from Gustav’s posthumous good fortune. If NMC can continue not just to survive but to flourish, it would be very gratifying if, in the changed circumstances of a world without the Holst Foundation, NMC should be able to encourage at least a degree of the productive coexistence between live performance and recording which the two institutions together have thus far made possible.
Arnold Whittall The Holst Foundation’s Chairman
2002 NMC receives regular funding from Arts Council England for the first time
2003 Launch of Ancora series of reissues with funding from Arts Council England Launch of NMC Friends
2004 NMC’s first film soundtrack CD released: Love From a Stranger (D073)
Steven Foster appointed Chair of NMC (2004 - 2010) NMC is 15...
THANK YOU to the individuals, Trusts and Foundations who invest in NMC’s work... Ray Ayriss Peter Baldwin Stephen Barber Sir Alan Bowness Martyn Brabbins David Mark Evans Richard Fries Anthony Gilbert Elaine Gould Cathy Graham David Gutman Matthew Harris “Being a Friend of NMC Trevor Jarvis is for me as a visual artist, such Andrew Lockyer a privilege. To be involved, even in Jeremy Marchant a small way, with supporting British Belinda Matthews contemporary music in all its diversity is Colin Matthews so exciting. It seems to me that now more Stephen & Jackie than ever we are lucky to have in this country Newbould so many interesting and individual composers, Jane & Anthony performers and musical voices, working at Payne a time when it can often be difficult to make Stephen Plaistow yourself heard against the overwhelming noise. Keith Purser So much wonderful new music is being written Clark Rundell here and finding ways in which audiences can Howard Skempton access and experience it, beyond those often Ian Smith rare performances, is essential work. NMC has Roger Stevens such an important role to play in keeping this Richard J Wildash bright musical flame burning and it does it brilliantly! Thank you and here’s to Producers’ Circle another twenty five years.” Robert Bielecki Matthew Harris, Anthony Bolton NMC Friend Graham Elliott Luke Gardiner A special thank you to the individuals named here, who supported us when we set up NMC Friends in 2003 and are still supporting us today, and of course to the many other Friends and donors who have invested in NMC since.
2005
2006
Historic reissues to mark Michael Tippett’s centenary (D103, D104)
NMC releases catalogue in download format on iTunes, eMusic etc.
Jonathan Goldstein Nicholas and Judith Goodison Terry Holmes Vladimir Jurowski George Law Colin Matthews Robert McFarland Kieron O’Hara James and Anne Rushton Richard Shoylekov Richard Steele Charlotte Stevenson Janis Susskind Arnold Whittall Anonymous Trusts & Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation The Amphion Foundation Inc The Eric Anker-Petersen Charity The Astor Foundation The Aurelius Charitable Trust The Boltini Trust The Britten-Pears Foundation The John S Cohen Foundation Colwinston Charitable Trust The Delius Trust The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation The Fenton Arts Trust The Finzi Trust The Garrick Charitable Trust Nicholas and Judith Goodison’s Charitable Settlement Hargreaves and Ball Trust
The Hinrichsen Foundation New Initiatives programme The Holst Foundation The Nicholas John Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust The Mercers’ Charitable Foundation The Monument Trust The Peter Moores Foundation The Stanley Picker Charitable Trust The Radcliffe Trust The Roche Foundation The RVW Trust The N Smith Charitable Settlement The Steel Charitable Trust The Surrey Square Charitable Trust The Richard Thomas Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust The Zochonis Charitable Trust Anonymous Corporate Friends BASCA Faber Music Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP The Incorporated Society of Musicians The Music Sales Group RSK Entertainment Ltd
2007 Brian Ferneyhough’s opera Shadowtime (D123) released in a unique co-production with English National Opera & the BBC
20th release in Ancora series: Harrison Birtwistle’s Punch & Judy (D138)
Britten On Film: premiere recordings of Britten’s film scores released with BCMG & narrator Simon Russell Beale (D112)
David Sawer’s From Morning to Midnight: 30th NMC release featuring the BBC SO (D116)
First release supported by the RVW Trust: Anthony Payne’s The Stones and Lonely Places Sing (D130)
2007 ‘Supersonic Award’ from Pizzicato Magazine (Luxembourg) for Julian Anderson’s Book of Hours (D121)
Celebrating
25 YEARS WORKED WITH
268
COMPOSERS
455
ARTISTS & ORGANISATIONS
850K+ STREAMS & DOWNLOADS
30%
£2.7m
£2.7m
AMOUNT INVESTED BY THE HOLST FOUNDATION
AMOUNT NMC HAS REINVESTED IN THE UK MUSIC INDUSTRY
OF NEW RELEASES* HAVE FEATURED FEMALE COMPOSERS (*last 3 years)
HISTORICALLY 94% WERE MALE
5
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS WON
BÊ EÊE ÊP
142
15
TERRITORIES COVERED
UNCONVENTIONAL INSTRUMENTS USED
3000+
220
10
TRACKS RELEASED PER MONTH ON AVERAGE
Infographic by Samantha Jones
HOURS OF MUSIC
TRACKS RELEASED
New Music Cassettes. That was, of course, a cutting-edge and right-onthe-money name for a record label in 1989, though that reference to magnetic tape has the ring of a certain quaintness in 2014. But who knows, if vinyl can make a comeback – as it has done today, spectacularly so, for collectors, DJs, and audiophiles – then maybe it will soon be the turn of tape. Actually, I’m not so sure. It’s easier to be nostalgic about the era of the LP and the warm cosseting embrace of the sonic immediacy of vinyl than it is for those mountains of tiny jewel cases, microscopic liner notes, and yards of tape being chewed up by your Walkman. But no matter: in terms of its repertoire and its commitment to the new, there will never be any more adventurous label than NMC in terms of the essential, sharpest-possible cutting-edge role that it fulfils within British classical music. Yet what that means for how NMC will look in 25 years is, of course, a matter of idle speculation – which task, however erroneously, I’ll indulge in right now. From the perspective of how NMC has already led the charge in enhancing an online content for the music in their catalogue – think of the NMC Music Map, that inspired realisation of the interconnectedness of contemporary music – the future will surely bring more opportunities to enhance listeners’ experience in ways that aren’t just to do with the audio they’re experiencing. In a future of infinite, always-on, networked devices and music players, whether they’re physical things we hold in our hands (so early 21st century!), or, by 2039, wearable technology of glasses or micro-screens implanted into our frontal lobes, NMC will be able to give its consumers access to a whole universe of new music. That might mean that when you’re hearing the latest opera by Tansy Davies, you’re able to scroll through the score while you listen; that you’re able to pick out and hear any combination of individual vocal lines or instrumental textures, effectively to mix your own version of the piece as you’re hearing it; that you can watch the newest production streamed from
2008 Britten On Film (D112) wins the MIDEM Classical Award
English National Opera, and spin off seamlessly into the other recordings held in the NMC digital vaults of Tansy’s other music (never to be deleted), or of music recommended to you by NMC’s similarity-seeking-software. That will mean that the concept of the individual release of a ‘record’ – a file, a digital facsimile, an i-NMC, whatever the latest nomenclature deems most suitable – is no longer a tenable concept. There will be instead the NMC Network, a sea of new-music-information that any listener can cast themselves out onto, where they will be able to swim endlessly among the denizens of the depths of contemporary music… Well, that could happen – and in terms of technology, I’ve little doubt all of that, and much more, will be possible over the next 25 years. Yet while the network may take over, there will still, I think, be a place for a more conventionally conceived record label, even in 2039. However it’s disseminated – in lossless high-quality streaming or downloads, or in some physical manifestation that we might not recognise (or who knows, maybe the lost years of LaserDisc will make a revival) – the NMC catalogue, which will naturally be at least twice as large then as it is now, will continue to be the Alexandria of British contemporary music. It will still have an essential documentary function, and it will have a greater historical role in the future too, as 50 years of the ‘contemporary’ becomes a record of the past as well as an archive of now, of the present. The paradox of NMC is that it turns the newest music into instant and essential history. And whatever happens in the future, that fundamental project will and must continue, whether it’s carried by cassettes, CDs, vinyl – or those little blue sheep. The Sheep! Of course. They are the future!
Tom Service BBC Radio 3 presenter & Guardian music journalist
2009 NMC Songbook (D150) recorded: 96 composers, 20 singers and 11 accompanists in 25 sessions
Jonathan Harvey’s Body Mandala (BBC SSO/Volkov) wins Gramophone Award (D141)
NMC launches its new website, designed by AVCO
2010 NMC’s 20th anniversary celebrated with Songbook concert series at London’s Kings Place
NMC Songbook (D150) wins a Gramophone Award NMC is 20...
Launch of the NMC Music Map
Tom Service © BBC Radio 3
What’s Next?
Looking Forward... It is very tempting, on the occasion of an anniversary, to focus on looking back. We hope our audiences will agree with us when we say we are proud of what we’ve achieved over the last quarter of a century, but I think the real mark of the importance of this occasion is in judging what we can look forward to. As Colin Matthews has said, from its inception the focus of NMC has been on composers and audiences, and this emphasis will continue as we plan for the future. What is particularly exciting is how we are aiming to do that through artistic partnerships and through an expansion of our activity into areas such as commissioning. More than ever we feel there is a genuine value and role in recording being fully recognised as part of the process of commission, rehearsal and public performance. We are looking forward
to working more closely with new and different organisations: we want to take this message with enthusiasm to an audience which we know has a healthy appetite for the work of today’s British composers. Technology continues to develop apace (long gone are the days of New Music Cassettes, after all!) and this offers the most exciting opportunities to a label which is as innovative and enquiring as NMC. We will continue to exploit the potential of digital technologies to introduce our work to new audiences – and to take all our listeners on an adventurous journey of musical discovery. Digital possibilities also give us further opportunities to build relationships with other organisations, to broaden our artistic offering and to delve into entirely new areas of activity, including those utilising our extensive back catalogue. There are indeed exciting times ahead in the next 25 years, with very much to look forward to.
Anne Rushton, Executive Director, NMC
Our 25th anniversary release schedule for 2014 Opera Releases: There is, arguably, no other label which would release three major British contemporary operas in close succession and we embarked on this anniversary project to illustrate the value of our role in bringing works to the catalogue which, without NMC, would be lost to most audiences, and unavailable internationally. We are grateful to the numerous Trusts and individuals who supported our Anniversary Opera Appeal, as a result of which recordings of Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain, Judith Weir’s The Vanishing Bridegroom and Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest
(rather appropriately inspired by the song Gerald contributed to the NMC Songbook for our 20th Anniversary) will now have a permanent place in the recorded catalogue. Debut Discs: Our commitment to the brightest of new composing talents continues apace with further releases in 2014 of our landmark Debut Disc series, launched in 2011 thanks to the generous support of Trusts and individuals through the ‘Big Give’ funding initiative. Richard Causton, Larry Goves, Ben Foskett, Helen Grime and Charlotte Bray will benefit from
their first portrait disc, raising the profile of their work and bringing it to international attention which will no doubt benefit their further careers. Partnership Projects: Over recent years we have developed many successful partnerships with other organisations whose collaboration we value highly. In our anniversary year these feed into existing series or projects, such as London Sinfonietta’s key involvement in our Larry Goves release, and the Hallé’s particular championing of both John Casken and their Associate Composer
“NMC is oxygen for composers & listeners.”
Gerald Barry, Helen Grime. Composer We have been especially pleased to work for the first time with two leading dance companies – Sadler’s Wells and Rambert – on a recent release by MarkAnthony Turnage. This has given us the opportunity to take the work of NMC to a wider arts audience; and we are now planning future dance projects. And later this year we will be announcing details of our boldest, biggest, and most exciting partnership project, involving the Science Museum and Aurora Orchestra. (continued…)
2011 Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s opera Taverner (D157) shortlisted for a Gramophone Award
Barry Guy’s After the Rain (D013) features in the film soundtrack of Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life
Richard Shoylekov appointed Chair of NMC (2011-2014)
Release & Gramophone Award for NMC’s first recording with the Hallé: Harrison Birtwistle’s Night’s Black Bird (D156)
Colin Matthews awarded OBE
Ed Bennett’s My Broken Machines named Time Out Chicago Best Classical Recording (D169)
First digitalonly release: Pianthology (D181)
Release of David Lumsdaine’s Big Meeting (D171)
The Music Map
Digital Releases: Following the success of our involvement in the PRSF New Music 20x12 programme we will be the digital provider for 2014’s New Music Biennial, celebrating Glasgow’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games. We will make live recordings taken by BBC Radio 3 available for download, thus providing this project, and its innovative approach to commissioning and performance across a number of musical genres, with a lasting digital legacy and an international audience.
is an interactive tool which looks at the myriad relationships between composers, their influences and their work. We created it to enable audiences to embark on journeys of discovery into the world of contemporary classical music and we have further developed it so that these journeys, and audio clips of the music discovered along the way, can be shared across social media with an ever growing audience.
New audiences: This is a crucial component for all arts organisations and one which we embrace in 2014 with a new mid-price series called New Music Collections, exploring the rich offerings of our back catalogue. Each album introduces different areas of contemporary classical music, with the first four volumes focusing on music written for choir, orchestra, piano and electronics. We will also be building relationships with future audiences as we work with Sound and Music on Next Wave, a project focussed on composers selected from across Higher Education institutions, and with the wider arts world through collaborations with Sadler’s Wells and Rambert.
2013
2012 Launch of Debut Discs series with albums by Huw Watkins, Dai Fujikura and Sam Hayden; series includes Helen Grime, Charlotte Bray, Richard Causton and 6 others
NMC is selected as one of ACE’s National Portfolio Organisations
Harrison Birtwistle’s Night’s Black Bird wins BBC Music Magazine Award (D156)
Release of PRSF New Music 20x12 commissions to celebrate Cultural Olympiad
NMC Producers’ Circle launched
In our 25th anniversary year please support us in continuing and developing this work... NMC believes that new music is a dynamic and engaging art. We always seek to discover and share exceptional work that inspires and challenges. As a charity, NMC is non-profit-making; all our artistic decisions are based on quality and maintaining balance in our catalogue. We do not make recording choices based on commercial potential and all our earnings are invested back into our artistic output. NMC is in the unique position of being the label that can ensure international exposure and an audience for those talented composers who are commercially unproven. This means Britain’s greatest new classical works are not overlooked. Our ability to record and promote the best of today’s British classical music with such integrity is reliant upon securing the support of individuals and funders who are as passionate about new music as we are.
NMC Recordings... produces high quality recordings of outstanding work by composers from the British Isles. works with leading artists and ensembles. promotes these recordings to expand worldwide audiences for contemporary music. preserves this creativity for generations to come.
Become a Friend of NMC
Join the Producers’ Circle
Whether you choose to join as a Friend, Benefactor or Principal Benefactor, you will be helping to advance NMC’s unique contribution to new music and supporting today’s British composers.
Get closer to our composers, projects and creative team through our Producers’ Circle, which offers an exclusive engagement with our work and with like-minded champions of new music.
“For Corporate a quarter Friends of a century Scheme now, NMC have been the unsung heroes of the new music world. Scanning If you’re looking to align through the vast diversity of with NMC’s values of their catalogue, their achievement quality, innovation and is truly breathtaking. Everything adventurous creativity, they do is to the service of the music to benefit from our and their unstoppable force for good unique position in the stands out like a beacon in our evercontemporary arts challenging cultural landscape. Happy landscape and to 25th birthday NMC and here’s to the mingle with Britain’s next 25! We need you today as much leading composers, as ever.” talk to us about joining our valued group of Joe Cutler, Composer Corporate Friends. For more details on any of our schemes, or on other ways to support NMC, contact us: 020 7759 1826 | development@nmcrec.co.uk
2014 Music from Howard Skempton’s Ben Somewhen (D135) used in Michel Gondry’s animation Is The Man Who is Tall Happy?
Oliver Knussen’s Autumnal awarded IRR ‘Outstanding Recording’ (D178, released 2012)
NMC’s first DVD release, Elliott Carter’s 103rd Birthday Concert (DVD193)
Britten-Pears Foundation awards NMC core funding
Premiere recordings of Britten’s 1930s-40s music: Britten to America with Hallé Orchestra, Sir Mark Elder and narrator Samuel West (D190)
Andrew Ward appointed new Chair of NMC (2014 - )
NMC awarded ongoing NPO funding (20152018) from Arts Council England
NMC celebrates 25 years … and many more to come!
“NMC is one of the unsung heroes of new music. Its past, present and future importance cannot be underestimated, as several generations of our greatest composers know. Happy Birthday NMC and many congratulations.” Lord Dennis Stevenson of Coddenham, NMC Patron
“Over 25 years, NMC has played a pivotal role in making, and keeping, a wide range of new music available to audiences and I am especially proud of the long relationship I have had with them. Probably no other label would have taken on such a landmark project as my Mask of Orpheus and in the year of my 80th birthday celebrations it is really gratifying to see the wonderful ROH recording of Gawain available again. Recording is vital to composers – especially at a time when repeat concert performances can be hard to achieve – and NMC continues to support composers at all stages of their careers. I wish them a happy and hearty anniversary and continued success, and support, for the next 25!” Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Composer
“NMC is unique: it puts the composer first. Not content just to record what has already been created, NMC is entering into partnerships with performing groups, commissioning new work, sharing the risks, upping the salience around composers and their performers. But what is even more important is that these recordings remain in the NMC catalogue and don’t disappear after a brief release. So we will always have access to what has happened and can have a stake in what is going to happen. Whatever excitements are going on, NMC will be there, recording, supporting, looking for new ways of letting us all know. Unique.” Sally Groves, Schott Music “There is huge wastage in our culture of ‘premieres’ and having such works recorded by NMC gives them a chance beyond that all-important first date, to become part of a wider and future repertoire.”
“The first NMC disc I bought was Birtwistle’s Ritual Fragment and Melancholia I when I was still in school. It was one of the first recordings that really gave me the bug for contemporary music.”
Sally Cavender, Faber Music
Helen Grime, Composer
“It is an honour and a joy to be a Patron of this wonderful and important institution. I have had the pleasure and privilege to interpret the music of many of those on the NMC roster, and I know first-hand that the opportunity for them to have their work recorded and heard is of immeasurable value to their ongoing musical development. We are all grateful to everyone in the NMC team, the associated performers, and the sponsors and benefactors who enable these recordings to be achieved. Congratulations on 25 wonderful years, and I look forward to seeing NMC continue to grow and prosper in the years to come.”
Tel 020 7759 1827/8 Fax 020 7759 1829
www.nmcrec.co.uk
@nmcrecordings
nmc@nmcrec.co.uk
/nmcrecordings
More importantly, this is an opportunity to praise their initiative in publicising recordings of works by the most promising of young composers, at the launch of which I was very privileged to assist. Here’s to many more such inspiring and groundbreaking future recordings.” Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Composer, CH, CBE
Vladimir Jurowski, NMC Patron
NMC Patrons NMC Recordings Ltd Somerset House Third Floor South Wing Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
“I wish NMC Recordings a happy 25th anniversary, with fond memories and a special thank you for the publication of the recording by Oliver Knussen and BBC forces of my opera Taverner.
Alfred Brendel Hon KBE Vladimir Jurowski Lady Panufnik Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE Lord Dennis Stevenson of Coddenham Dame Mitsuko Uchida
NMC receives core funding from: THE DELIUS TRUST
NMC Recordings is a registered charity no. 328052. Booklet design & 25th anniversary logo by Kat Flint (http://katflintmakes.tumblr.com). All information correct at time of publication. Printed on 100% recycled paper.