Universal Music Group Acquires Hyperion Records
Universal Music Group (UMG), a global leader in music entertainment, has announced from London that it has acquired the renowned British classical label Hyperion Records. Hyperion, founded 1980 will join UMG’s portfolio of distinguished classical labels, including Deutsche Grammophon, founded in 1898 and Decca Classics, established in 1929, consolidating UMG’s position as a global entertainment powerhouse.
Hyperion’s unique profile will strengthen UMG’s continuing long-term commitment to investing in classical music talent. In turn, UMG says Hyperion Records will remain a stand-alone recording label at the vanguard of classical music, alongside Decca Classics and Mercury KX within Universal Music UK, the UK’s leading record company.
Hyperion Records is an award-winning independent classical label founded by the late Ted Perry MBE and has been managed by his son Simon for over 20 years. He remains Managing Director. It is the home to distinguished artists like Australians Piers Lane and Leslie Howard, as well as other celebrated musicians who include Sir Stephen Hough, Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Alina Ibragimova, Steven Isserlis, Dame Emma Kirkby, Steven Osborne, the Takács Quartet, and others.
Presenting high-quality recordings of classical music of all styles and eras, Hyperion’s repertoire ranges from sacred and secular, choral and solo vocal to orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, much of it unique to Hyperion. Over 43 years, the label has released almost 2,500 recordings, among them 85 volumes of Romantic Piano Concertos, pianist Leslie Howard’s 99-CD complete Liszt Edition and the 40-CD Schubert Edition of all the composer’s songs from the world’s finest singers. Hyperion’s excellence in has been well recognized with four prestigious Gramophone Record of the Year Awards as well as being Gramophone’s Label of the Year and the Best Label Award by MIDEM’s Cannes Classiques Awards, which are selected by a jury of editors of leading international classical music magazines.
Upcoming and new releases from Hyperion Records include Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia Antartica and the Symphony No. 9 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins. It will also a record a series dedicated to the Masses and Magnificats of Cristóbal de Morales; Haydn’s String Quartets Opp. 42 and 77 from the London Haydn Quartet, and from Stephen Layton and the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, an innovative programme of choral works by Ivo Antognini, Come to Me in the Silence of the Night.
