We’ve been waiting for the news to break for several months. Now it’s official: Hyperion is finally available on Qobuz. Back in March, Universal announced that it was buying the British classical music label. We knew then that it was only a matter of time before Hyperion’s catalogue would be available for streaming and downloading. With an impressive release rate of almost 80 albums per year, Hyperion now boasts a repertoire of some 2,500 titles.
Founded in 1980 by Ted Perry, the British label Hyperion achieved international success in 1985 with an anthology disc devoted to Hildegarde von Bingen, A Feather on the Breath of God. The album, conducted by medievalist Christopher Page and his ensemble Gothic Voices, won numerous prizes, including a Gramophone Award.
Over the years, Hyperion has succeeded admirably in making its mark, showcasing rarities from the history of British music, including some very interesting focuses on little-known English composers such as Robin Milford and Michael Berkeley. With artistic excellence as its watchword, the label has established its reputation among music lovers without specialising in any one genre or period, as demonstrated by its vast recorded repertoire covering nine centuries of music.
The label has a staggering number of awards to its name, including four Gramophone ‘Album of the Year’ awards in 1996, 1998, 2002 and 2010. Ted Perry’s hard work has enabled a number of mammoth projects to come to fruition, including Leslie Howard’s complete collection of Liszt’s piano works (98 CDs!), the Romantic Piano Concertos series, and long and fruitful collaborations with top international pianists such as Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt and Steven Osborne.
Among Hyperion’s recent releases, the Qobuz editorial team particularly enjoyed three splendid explorations of the choral repertoire: Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices by The Gesualdo Six and Owain Park, a selection of works by Tavener, Vaughan Williams and MacMillan by the Choir of Westminster Abbey, and the disc Machaut: The Fount of Grace devoted to Guillaume de Machaut by the Orlando Consort.