Four months after its acquisition by Universal Music Group, multi-award-winning label Hyperion Records is making its 43-year-old catalogue of recordings available on all streaming platforms for the first time.
Hyperion has set a goal to release the entire catalogue of over 2000 recordings for streaming by spring 2024. The first 200 albums were released today, with subsequent collections to follow every fortnight from September 15.
The first 200 catalogue albums showcase a wide-ranging repertoire collection, spanning 900 years of Western art music from the 12th century to today, across sacred and secular, choral and solo vocal to orchestral, chamber and instrumental.
There are key recordings from many of Hyperion’s roster of artists, including Arcangelo, Mahan Esfahani, Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Sir Stephen Hough, Alina Ibragimova, Steven Isserlis, Steven Osborne, Polyphony, Howard Shelley, Takács Quartet among many others.
The second phase of catalogue releases, scheduled for September 15, will exhibit some of Hyperion’s piano and keyboard stars, including Danny Driver, Stephen Hough, Pavel Kolesnikov, Steven Osborne and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, among others across more than 70 albums.
This move to streaming follows UMG’s acquisition of Hyperion in March this year, which saw the label join UMG’s portfolio of world-renowned classical labels, including Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.
“We searched for and found a long-term home that is committed to our values, artists, recordings and editorial style and we are delighted that our entire back catalogue as well as new and future releases will be available on streaming platforms in the coming months,” said Simon Perry, managing director of Hyperion and son of label founder Ted Perry. “These first 200 albums tell our story, and we look forward to presenting all our work from the past four decades to a new global streaming audience artist-by-artist, series-by-series. Each had their challenges and now they come together to tell a narrative, hopefully a powerful one, of what can happen when you make space for musicians to thrive: it’s why Hyperion has worked.”
Dickon Stainer, UMG’s president of global classics & jazz said: “The arrival of Hyperion on the world’s streaming platforms offers a special moment of discovery for this precious and pioneering label.”
“I am enormously excited to be part of this moment in Hyperion's history,” added pianist and long-standing Hyperion recording artist Sir Stephen Hough. “I've made over 40 albums for the company, pouring my heart, soul and fingers into each one, and now, thirty years after my first, they are to be made available through streaming to a much wider, indeed Universal, audience. It delights and touches me to be able to reach a vast new family of music lovers in this way.”
Angela Hewitt OBE, Hyperion pianist, commented: “I have always been thrilled to be part of the Hyperion family. The recordings I have made for the label over the past thirty years have been highlights of my life and career and I am happy that my albums will be enjoyed by even more music lovers around the world.”
