THIS AIN'T HYPE: UMG ACQUIRES HYPERION

UMG has acquired the storied British classical label Hyperion Records. With its nearly 2,500 recordings, it will be yet another keen arrow in Universal’s classical quiver, alongside such distinguished entities as Deutsche Grammophon (founded in 1898) and Decca Classics (established in 1929). Hyperion will be a stand-alone label within Universal U.K.

The imprint, founded by the late Ted Perry MBE in 1980 (and managed for more than two decades by his son, Simon) is home to Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Sir Stephen Hough, Alina Ibragimova, Steven Isserlis, Dame Emma Kirkby, Steven Osborne and the Takács Quartet, to name but a few acclaimed creators. Its repertoire includes compositions from the 12th century to the 21st.

We’re talkin' chamber, orchestral, choral, sacred, secular—they got it all, yo. A 99-CD complete Liszt set! A 40-CD Schubert edition! Small wonder the label took Gramophone’s Record of the Year award four times between 1996 and 2010, not to mention topping Billboard’s Hot Classical Dance Remix chart (OK, we made that one up).

“Hyperion is a jewel of a label, and we are committed to continuing the magnificent work done by the Perry family and to preserving and building on the special place Hyperion occupies in the hearts of artists and music fans alike,” proclaimed UMG President and CEO, Global Classics & Jazz Dickon Stainer.

“By being part of UMG, while keeping our artists and staff together, we can continue to build on my father’s legacy and that of everyone who’s been part of the Hyperion family over the past 43 years,” reads a quote from Simon Perry. “My debt to all of them is huge and I look forward to leading this incredible label into an exciting new chapter.”

What’s coming up from the newly integrated Hyperion? Well, pour yourself a snifter of vintage port and load up that meerschaum, because this is gonna rock your Boston Acoustics like a hurricane: Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia Antartica and Symphony No. 9 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins; a series dedicated to the masses and Magnificats of Cristóbal de Morales; Haydn’s String Quartets Opp. 42 and 77 by the London Haydn Quartet; and Come to Me in the Silence of the Night, a program of Ivo Antognini’s choral works from Stephen Layton and the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge.

In a related story, a HITS editor spent the pandemic preparing an arrangement of The Brandenburg Concertos for the kazoo.