Sir Simon Rattle ©

Mat H

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1989 1990 1991 1992 1993

First NMC releases on cassette:

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 Rainreleased (D013)

First recording with London Sinfonietta: Harrison Birtwistle’s Ritual Fragment (D009)

Name changes from New Music Cassettes to NMC Recordings Ltd

Jonathan Harvey’s Bhakti (D001)Michael Finnissy’s Piano (D002)Mary Wiegold’s Songbook (D003)

Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE, NMC Patron

Celebrating 25 Years of

“The arrival of NMC’s reissue

of Harrison Birtwistle’s amazing opera Gawain in its

Covent Garden performance of 1994 reminds me once more of the magnificent work NMC is doing on

behalf of British Music, its composers, its public, and the international

recognition of the recent musical splendours of this country. It seems

to me obvious that this institution has proved, after 25 rewarding years, to be indispensable, and that it deserves all

help and assistance in the future.”

Alfred Brendel Hon KBE, NMC Patron

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.

The service NMC provides to British music is unparalleled. The opportunities it gives composers, artists and audiences to discover and share such a wealth of music is something to be treasured.

I hope you will join with me both in celebrating what has been achieved so far and in looking to the future of this bold and adventurous organisation with confidence. I hope and believe it will inspire and challenge us for many years to come.

Col

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1994 1995 1996 1997

First NMC Sampler released (D012)

Robin Holloway’s Second Concerto for Orchestra (BBC SO/Knussen) wins NMC its first Gramophone Award

Release of historical Britten recordings, featuring Peter Pears & Benjamin Britten (D030)

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 MatthewsOBE, NMC’s Executive Producer

NMC - The First 25 YearsI 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.

Another strand that has become increasingly important is Ancora, re-releasing 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!

1998 1999 2003 20042002

Elgar/Payne Symphony No.3 wins Classic CD Award(D053)

Harrison Birtwistle’s Mask of Orpheus released; wins Gramophone Award (D050)

First recording with BCMG: Philip Cashian’s Dark Inventions (D061)

Hugh WoodSymphony recorded with BBC SO/Andrew Davis (D070)

NMC is 10...

NMC receives regular funding from Arts Council England for the first time

Launch of Ancora series of reissues with funding from Arts Council England

Launch of NMC Friends

NMC’s first film soundtrack CD released: Love From a Stranger (D073)

Steven Foster appointed Chair of NMC (2004 - 2010)

NMC is 15...

Arnold WhittallThe Holst Foundation’s Chairman

NMC and the Holst FoundationThe 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.

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.

2005 2006 2007

Historic reissues to mark Michael Tippett’s centenary (D103, D104)

NMC releases catalogue in download format on iTunes, eMusic etc.

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)

THANK YOU to the individuals, Trusts and Foundations who invest in NMC’s work...

“Being a Friend of NMC is for me as a visual artist, such a privilege. To be involved, even in a small way, with supporting British contemporary music in all its diversity is so exciting. It seems to me that now more than ever we are lucky to have in this country so many interesting and individual composers, performers and musical voices, working at a time when it can often be difficult to make yourself heard against the overwhelming noise. So much wonderful new music is being written here and finding ways in which audiences can access and experience it, beyond those often rare performances, is essential work. NMC has such an important role to play in keeping this bright musical flame burning and it does it brilliantly! Thank you and here’s to another twenty five years.”

Matthew Harris, NMC Friend

Ray Ayriss Peter BaldwinStephen BarberSir Alan BownessMartyn BrabbinsDavid Mark EvansRichard FriesAnthony GilbertElaine GouldCathy GrahamDavid Gutman

Matthew HarrisTrevor Jarvis

Andrew LockyerJeremy Marchant

Belinda MatthewsColin MatthewsStephen & Jackie NewbouldJane & Anthony PayneStephen PlaistowKeith PurserClark RundellHoward SkemptonIan Smith

Roger StevensRichard J Wildash

Producers’ Circle

Robert BieleckiAnthony Bolton

Graham ElliottLuke Gardiner

Jonathan GoldsteinNicholas and Judith GoodisonTerry HolmesVladimir JurowskiGeorge LawColin MatthewsRobert McFarlandKieron O’HaraJames and Anne RushtonRichard ShoylekovRichard SteeleCharlotte StevensonJanis SusskindArnold WhittallAnonymous

Trusts & Foundations

Angus Allnatt Charitable FoundationThe Amphion Foundation Inc The Eric Anker-Petersen CharityThe Astor FoundationThe Aurelius Charitable TrustThe Boltini Trust The Britten-Pears Foundation The John S Cohen FoundationColwinston Charitable TrustThe Delius TrustThe Esmée Fairbairn FoundationThe Fenton Arts TrustThe Finzi TrustThe Garrick Charitable TrustNicholas and Judith Goodison’s Charitable SettlementHargreaves and Ball Trust

The Hinrichsen Foundation New Initiatives programmeThe Holst FoundationThe Nicholas John Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan TrustThe Mercers’ Charitable FoundationThe Monument TrustThe Peter Moores FoundationThe Stanley Picker Charitable TrustThe Radcliffe TrustThe Roche FoundationThe RVW TrustThe N Smith Charitable Settlement The Steel Charitable TrustThe Surrey Square Charitable TrustThe Richard Thomas FoundationThe Barbara Whatmore Charitable TrustThe Zochonis Charitable TrustAnonymous

Corporate Friends

BASCAFaber MusicFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLPThe Incorporated Society of MusiciansThe Music Sales GroupRSK Entertainment Ltd

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.

WERE MALEHISTORICALLY 94%

£2.7mAMOUNT NMC HASREINVESTED IN THE UK MUSIC INDUSTRY

£2.7mAMOUNT INVESTED

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STREAMS & DOWNLOADS

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2008 2009 2010

Britten On Film (D112) wins the MIDEM Classical Award

NMC Songbook (D150) recorded: 96 composers, 20 singers and 11 accompanists in 25 sessions

NMC launches its new website, designed by AVCO

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

Jonathan Harvey’s Body Mandala (BBC SSO/Volkov)wins Gramophone Award (D141)

Tom ServiceBBC Radio 3 presenter & Guardian music journalist

What’s Next?New Music Cassettes. That was, of course, a cutting-edge and right-on-the-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

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!

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

Colin Matthews awarded OBE

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)

Ed Bennett’s My Broken Machines named Time Out Chicago Best Classical Recording (D169)

First digital-only release: Pianthology (D181)

Release of David Lumsdaine’s Big Meeting (D171)

Anne Rushton, Executive Director, NMC

Looking Forward...

Our 25th anniversary release schedule for 2014

“NMC is oxygen for composers &

listeners.”

Gerald Barry,Composer

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

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

Helen Grime. 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 Mark-Anthony 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…)

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.

2012 2013

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

NMCProducers’ Circle launched

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

The Music Map 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.

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.

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.

2014

Oliver Knussen’s Autumnal awarded IRR ‘Outstanding Recording’ (D178, released 2012)

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)

NMCcelebrates 25 years … and many more to come!

NMC awarded ongoing NPO funding (2015-2018) from Arts Council England

Andrew Ward appointed new Chair of NMC (2014 - )

NMC’s first DVD release, Elliott Carter’s 103rd Birthday Concert (DVD193)

Music from Howard Skempton’s Ben Somewhen (D135)used in Michel Gondry’s animation Is The Man Who is Tall Happy?

Become a Friend of

NMC

Join the Producers’

Circle

Corporate Friends Scheme

“For a quarter of a century now, NMC have been the unsung heroes of the new music world. Scanning through the vast diversity of their catalogue, their achievement is truly breathtaking. Everything they do is to the service of the music and their unstoppable force for good stands out like a beacon in our ever- challenging cultural landscape. Happy 25th birthday NMC and here’s to the next 25! We need you today as much as ever.”

Joe Cutler, Composer

NMC believes that new music is a dynamic and engaging art.

In our 25th anniversary year please support us in continuing and developing this work...

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.

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.

If you’re looking to align with NMC’s values of quality, innovation and adventurous creativity, to benefit from our unique position in the contemporary arts landscape and to mingle with Britain’s leading composers, talk to us about joining our valued group of Corporate Friends.

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.

We always seek to discover and share exceptional work that inspires and challenges.

For more details on any of our schemes, or on other ways to support NMC, contact us: 020 7759 1826 | development@nmcrec.co.uk

NMC Recordings...

“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.”

Sally Cavender, Faber Music

“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.

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

“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.”

Helen Grime,Composer

“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

“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

“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

“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.”

Vladimir Jurowski, NMC Patron

NMC Recordings LtdSomerset HouseThird Floor South WingStrand, London, WC2R 1LA

Alfred Brendel Hon KBEVladimir JurowskiLady PanufnikSir Simon Rattle OM CBELord Dennis Stevenson of CoddenhamDame Mitsuko Uchida

NMC Patrons

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.

www.nmcrec.co.uk

nmc@nmcrec.co.uk

@nmcrecordings

/nmcrecordings

THE DELIUS TRUST

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020 7759 1827/8020 7759 1829

NMC receives core funding from: