Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos

[4candles]

Browsing the latest Gramophone articles, this line in Jeremy Nicholas' review of the first box-set of Hyperion's RPC series caught my eye:

A second box of a further 50 CDs to be issued early in 2027 will be topped up by works recorded by the label but not included in the RPC series.

I'm not a paying subscriber, so don't know if anything further was mentioned on it, but I'll be very interested to see what these works are, and I'm all ears if anyone has even any vague ideas of potential repertoire!

4c

[Justin]

It may be similar to the non-RPC albums included in the first box, which are concertos and other piano works by better-known composers.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Quite right, Justin. It won't be any "hidden unknown goodies", you can be pretty certain of that. It will probably be other disks of piano concertos like the Stephen Hough Rachmaninov set, which found its way into the first box, or Angela Hewitt's Schumann - and maybe they will throw in all the disks from the Classical Concertos series as well - all of which will be nice to have if you are a first time buyer and want to invest in the box. But...

[4candles]

More's the pity. If that is indeed the case, I would call that a missed opportunity of no mean proportions!

[Mark Thomas]

When a major buys a small label Hyperion, in most cases all they're interested in is exploiting its back catalogue with endless re-packagings and reissues. Don't expect any new content.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Mark is spot on, I fear. The Hyperion we knew and loved died as soon as it was taken over by Universal. It is no more.

[eschiss1]

The new (not Tchaikovsky or arranged early Schoenberg D minor sextet) repertoire in their latest new release page is from Signum Records, not Hyperion, so your point is well-made. (that it is outside of our orbit is neither one thing nor another in regards this). (Stephen Hough is releasing a Hyperion CD in July that contains among other things some transcriptions that he played in a concert of his here in upstate NY I caught just a few weeks ago*, and some others besides, that while not as adventurous as Hyperion used to be -is- a slight exception, perhaps allowed, as with some other Universal releases, because famousish (and really good!) pianist.)

*Yes, this did happen, and I feel verra fortunate about it.