In April 2019 we celebrated 50 years since the inaugural journey of the first UK-built Concorde, which flew from Filton, near Bristol, to RAF Fairford on 9th April, 1969. CRD Records has a special musical connection to this event: the Concorde March. This jubilant orchestral piece was commissioned by British Airways to mark the launch of Concorde, the first passenger supersonic airliner, a great feat of engineering and an emblem of the power of Anglo-French co-operation. Concorde March was written by the hugely popular and Grammy Award winning composer, Robert Farnon, and recorded by CRD in West Ham Central Mission (now Plaistow Memorial Community Church) with the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by the composer, with recording engineer, Bob Auger. Originally released as a 7 inch vinyl single, the B side featured a new version of Robert Farnon's Holiday Flight.

The Living Fire is a celebration of choral music written for or associated with Jesus College, Cambridge. Featuring several premiere recordings of contemporary choral works by emerging composers, this album highlights the artistry within the College whilst honouring it's rich musical legacy. At the same time, it looks forward: the impetus behind this project was to provide a platform for emerging artists from within the College community to showcase their work. This project holds particular significance for several Choir members since, among the lyricists and composers, are former ensemble members. Their deep connection to the group has allowed for the creation of choral works uniquely suited to individual voices and our corporate strengths, making these world premieres all the more fitting. Many of the other contemporary works on this album are staples of Choral Evensong, beloved by the Choir and heard in Chapel services for many years. This album is a celebration of the bright future of music at Jesus College, the Choir's integral role in this special community, and it's broader contribution to the development and enjoyment of choral music globally. � Benjamin Sheen

Dimitar Nenov (1901-1953), a pianist-composer of extraordinary depth, Nenov's music remains largely unknown beyond Bulgaria-where he is still rarely programmed-despite his towering influence on 20th-century Eastern European music. His works, blending architectural precision with boundless imagination, are at once intellectually rigorous and emotionally profound. This album, performed by the brilliant Veneta Neynska, offers a rare opportunity to experience Nenov's unique musical language through the artistry of his present-day champion. From the lush harmonies of his Meditation to the virtuosic brilliance of the Toccata, this collection reveals a composer who was not only a master of the piano but also a visionary in sound. We are thrilled to present this album as part of our commitment to bringing hidden gems to light, ensuring Nenov's remarkable legacy is heard, appreciated, and celebrated worldwide. -Emma Pauncefort & Tom Pauncefort, Directors

The Eton Choirbook is recognised as one of the UK's national treasures - an extraordinary survival of the religious iconoclasm which swept away so many choral institutions and musical manuscripts as well as a great deal of beautiful art, architecture, sculpture, stone carving, stained glass, and embroidery from the colourful, pre-Reformation world. The Eton Choirbook originally contained ninety-three works by twenty-five composers who hailed variously from Eton, Windsor, Eton's sister foundation at King's College, Cambridge, Oxford, and the Royal Court. It was compiled, with great care and no expense spared, and completed around 1504/5. But what makes the Eton Choirbook so special for both listener and performer is that the music it contains is hauntingly beautiful. There really is nothing like it in continental music of the time which the 'Eton' works surpass in scale (some last over fifteen minutes), number of voice parts, and use of wide vocal ranges - as well as the high degree of melodic invention and rhythmic complexity which places them beyond the reach of most choirs nowadays. � Russell Blacker

As Bath Abbey Boys' Choir marks it's 150th anniversary, we are delighted to present this album. I hope you will enjoy this varied collection, which has been designed to showcase the very best of our boys' choral singing. One of the highlights of this project has been welcoming our alumni to sing again in Bath Abbey as part of the recording. Seeing the joy of our former choristers at being back in the Abbey, some of whom left the choir over 50 years ago, demonstrates the lasting mark that their time as a chorister has made on their lives. We know how important these choirs are for training future musicians. However, I believe we often underestimate the impact that being part of a choir can have on the choristers who pursue other careers; the discipline, teamwork and concentration skills that will support them throughout their lives, helping to build the leaders and team players of the future. This recording has been made to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the Boys and Lay Clerks (formally Men's choir) in 1875. At a time when boys' choirs are decreasing due to mixing the treble line with boys and girls, we are lucky that, despite there being no choir school at the Abbey, we can maintain our independent boys' choir. For part of this recording, we have invited our girls and lay clerk alumni to join us for two items as we celebrate the history and tradition that helped many singers to find their voice. � Huw Williams

Letters from Scandinavia is, I hope, an adventure... It certainly has been for me in creating it. It began with a chance stumbling on Mary Wollstonecraft's Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway & Denmark, written on the cusp of the nineteenth century, at a time when most of the rest of Europe was almost entirely ignorant of the 'wild north'. I soon discovered a treasure trove of historic travel writing about Scandinavia, which I duly devoured. It has grown into something between a song recital and a historical audio travel guide, I suppose. A weaving together of music and text as it follows in the footsteps of women journeying to nineteenth-century Nordic countries for the ?rst time. The music is drawn from a rich vein of song by composers and interwoven between the songs are new texts inspired by colourful and evocative nineteenth-century travel writing. I've had the huge pleasure of working with composer Peter Facer to bring these texts to life with new music to underscore the spoken word. I'm grateful that my fellow traveller is pianist Sholto Kynoch, who first introduced me to Backer Grondahl's works a few years ago, and who plays this repertoire so beautifully. Letters from Scandinavia is above all a love letter to all things Nordic. I very much hope you enjoy it. (Best served with a cinnamon bun...) Joanna Harries

In the 'glory days' of the 1970s recording industry (and, incidentally, the time of CRD Records' foundation), there was a rush to record the classical canon. Naturally, as a pioneering label, CRD was at the forefront of this trend and had the privilege to work with Paul on the complete piano works of Faure and Ravel, amongst others. Today, hidden corners of classical continue to be unearthed and we are encouraged to rethink genre boundaries as we elevate long-disregarded voices. Meanwhile, there is another important venture at play: the careful curation of a composer's works. This is the bent of this release. Frederic Mompou's piano works have been well-covered, not least by the maestro himself in his own performances recorded in Barcelona in 1974. So why record this repertoire again 50 years later? From our perspective, it is a fitting choice as we celebrate 50 years as a label championing classical repertoire through the performances of world-class artists. But there has to be something more than that. Such is the accessibility of music today and the desire to reach virality that we seem to have forgotten how, for it's originator, it could be a definitively private and intimate exploit. Paul invites us to listen to Mompou's' rehearsal of own'. He encourages us, as Mompou did from the outset, to listen for the silences and peer deeply into the shadows. In a world in which our attention is constantly divided, perhaps now more than ever such albums are needed. Emma Pauncefort & Tom Pauncefort

Harpsichordist, fortepianist, and modern pianist Melody Lin enjoys an active musical career in Asia, the United States, and Europe. Lin holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Historical Performance Practices and Keyboard Studies from Claremont Graduate University, where she studied harpsichord with Prof. Robert Zappulla and modern piano and fortepiano with Prof. Jenny Soonjin Kim. Lin has had the pleasure to work with many renowned artists and has participated both domestically and internationally in music festivals. Lin is currently a member of the Music Teachers Association of California.

In November 1973, the music press was ablaze with announcements about the ‘first new major British classical record label to hit the market for many years’ and the ‘hush-hush recording sessions’ that had been in progress to mark its launch. These sessions included bringing harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock to listeners worldwide with his debut album Trevor Pinnock at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Released to critical acclaim, this album cemented the direction of the eagerly awaited new label, CRD Records: to champion new artists and to celebrate the full gamut of listening experiences offered through classical repertoire.

Fifty years on musical tastes have expanded and the harpsichord often gets overlooked, undeservedly so. The harpsichord is an instrument that takes no prisoners; it demands precision and craft, musical sensitivity and more. In Melody Lin’s performances, the rewards are great: as listeners, we are treated to the translation of black dots to bursts of exuberant colour, from elegance to joy to thunderous expressions of foreboding. If the music were to be represented in film, we would move from calm, pastoral scenes to mountainous terrain. This is in fact riveting cinema. We hope you enjoy the views.

Through the songs or 'chansons', we are given the chance to be transported back to a point when the word, note, instrument and performer collided to document impressions of a world lived long ago and yet with which we share so much. As songs that had a vibrant life beyond the words, we are afforded an entrance into the evergreen world of instrumental music of the Renaissance, into music that filled the taverns and dwellings of Paris and beyond. This is why these works maintain such relevance for us today. For Chansons musicales is not simply an exercise in museum-driven reconstruction, notwithstanding the world-class research that underpins the project. These are living and breathing works. Together, the 1533 publications from which the tracks on this album are drawn (and reconstructed) offer a rare window onto the extant oeuvre of composers of times gone who took their cue from contemporary poetry. This was poetry that captured the natural and human world around them and could be adopted to create chansons of different styles whose themes - love, hope, regret, the seasons, and more - artists of all creeds continue to explore for our benefit as we look to understand our world and our place in it. Hence the timelessness of works disseminated nearly 500 years ago and hence these recordings.

We are Karolina and Iwo, and we are thrilled to have you with us on a journey through A Different History of Music which we feel is Imagique - a little word play that we came up with by combining 'imagine' and 'magic'. This intriguing word Imagique best captures, we think, the emotions behind our album and what we are aiming to do as modern classical musicians. In 2013 we decided to create a duo combining two classical instruments from vastly different worlds: one of the oldest and most oft-used by composers throughout history - the violin - and one of the youngest - the classical accordion. This combination soon turned out to have a lot to offer for us as performers, and for our growing global audience. All the pieces here have been arranged by ourselves and worked and reworked to achieve a specific kind of amalgamated sound deriving from a combination of instruments that can blend surprisingly well when put together. This is due to their sound similarities; the violin as a bowed string instrument and the accordion as a wind instrument share the possibility of shaping the sound dynamically after the note has been played, unlike percussive instruments where the sound abruptly or more gradually fades after the note has been struck. By moving beyond percussive keyboard instruments such as the piano or harpsichord, the violin's original partner for all the pieces on this album, our versions give the opportunity to present this music from a completely new perspective. � Karolina Mikolajczyk & Iwo Jedynecki

King Charles III’s coronation on 6th May 2023 showcased the link between music and monarchy. Th is album sets this historic moment firmly within the rich tapestry of music and monarchs past. Recorded amidst the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, the programme transports us to points when the link between the British monarchy and music has been formalised – from coronations to royal weddings to more subtle stories of royal intervention – all the while celebrating the musical output of composers who have flourished with royal endorsement. We are meanwhile reminded that the British monarchy has played an important role as patron to the arts, including music. This album sits perfectly in the CRD catalogue and is an important release for listeners worldwide. It follows King Charles III’s coronation which highlighted yet again the role of music for both contemplation and celebration. Meanwhile, on a personal note, I Was Glad happens to have been the most-loved anthem of CRD’s founding director, Graham Pauncefort, and formed a critical part of our initiation into that cherished British tradition of choral singing so superbly represented here. With a 50 year history of triumphing British music and musicians behind us, we are indeed ‘glad’ to be sharing this life-enhancing collaboration between Th e Band of the Household Cavalry and the Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, masterfully guided by Major Paul Collis-Smith and James Vivian. [Emma Pauncefort & Tom Pauncefort, CRD]

Maya Magub writes: “The Covid-19 pandemic impacted the arts in many diverse ways, not all detrimental. History has always seen the arts flourish in times of hardship, and this was no different, spawning some incredible innovations out of necessity. Soon after news of the virus’ spread came to light, the movie studios here in Los Angeles found a solution to the restraints of lockdowns and social distancing by helping players like me to set up temporary home studios. Miraculously, we were able to record full movie scores remotely, and I found myself learning basic engineering skills. With this new skillset that had become part of everyday life for many musicians, I was excited to realize that it was possible to play ‘together’ with other musicians, despite not sharing a physical space, by recording separately. It suddenly occurred to me that the perfect fit for this ‘remote chamber music’ was the musical canon.

"In our new age of Zoom, this process became more like sending a ‘musical letter’ by mail, each of us recording as a leader and then waiting to follow and be inspired by another player in the next canon. The project evolved into a truly creative collaboration, with emails and internet calls across time zones about musical ideas as well as the technical process of recording. With the constraints of recording in separate spaces and very different acoustics came the opportunity to position microphones very closely. Without using too much of each performer’s live acoustic and through close microphone positioning, we were able to capture a very ‘real’ and immediate sound which communicates vividly and could later be put into the same virtual acoustic or musical ‘space’.”

From the moment this organ project began, it was without doubt that the new Dobson organ at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue would be an instrument of world-class beauty and of historic importance. One of the fundamental aspects of this new organ was to have a multi-faceted instrument able to support the congregational singing, choral accompaniments and a vast span of the organ literature. When considering what to record on this disc, I decided to focus on music close to my heart – the wonderful and varied music of Great Britain, from both past and present. A combination of works originally for organ and transcriptions for the instrument allowed me to explore the full tonal palette of the instrument and tease out all that the organ has to offer.

A new work that features on this disc is Andrew Carter’s Lacrimae which was written in memory of John Scott after his sudden death in 2015. Throughout the recording of this album, I was constantly reminded of John and what a wonderful mentor he had been to me throughout my career – firstly as a chorister at St. Paul’s and later at Saint Thomas. It was poignant to be recording this disc on the organ that, sadly, he never saw come to fruition; I would like to dedicate this disc to him. Given that many of my performances of the works on this album are indebted to his immaculate recordings and performances (which were truly mesmerizing), I hope he would approve of this program as a means to show off the immense beauty of this instrument. [Benjamin Sheen]

Paul Brough writes: “All recordings by collegiate choirs these days seem to require a provenance, so I shall pull together a few facts and figurations to explain what we are trying to do here. We have not tried to give you a lesson in history, liturgy, theology or musicology. We are not attempting to tell you exactly how this music and its accompanying liturgy was performed, though you can be sure that there was yards of antique lace and cloth of gold worn. We have not attempted a liturgical reconstruction – though, we present the music in liturgical order to help accentuate its variety – or a dogmatic representation of the sounds of the scores. We are bringing you the powerful truth of Easter, celebrated in sound by two enthusiastic and devoted groups, in a fusion of what you might have heard in late eighteenth-century Salzburg or Vienna in Austria, and what you are welcome to come and hear in early twenty-first-century Oxford in England. With its choir and chapel services Keble College aims to make itself accessible and approachable, it was founded in 1870 to enable undergraduates from more modest backgrounds to attend The University.”

During our 2022 Continuo Foundation-supported tour of music from the manuscripts of Margaret of Austria (1480-1530), which we entitled Epitaph for a Green Lover, it became clear that there was keen demand for the programme. After every performance of this beautiful and unrepresented music, the audience asked if we had made a recording; in the end, we took heed. Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, was a great patron of the arts who loved to dance and sing. But, above all, she loved her green parrot. Our programme's title comes from the remarkable chanson Soubz ce tumbel with it's tragic text by Margaret's court poet, Jean Lemaire de Belges. In this song, we find a text drawn from de Belges's Epitaphe de l'Amant Vert, in which the amant vert ('green lover') refers to the beloved green parrot. This chanson, along with all the songs featured on this album, come from the two extant songbooks, or chansonniers, of Margaret of Austria, which are now housed in the Brussels Royal Library. Alongside the songbooks, Margaret's library consisted of over 350 treasures, including the Tr�s Riches Heures de duc de Berry, the Sforza Hours, and an exquisitely decorated book of basse dances on black-stained vellum with silver and gold calligraphy. Such a collection gives a sense of how Margaret was a linchpin in Renaissance culture. Our aim is to transport the modern-day listener to Margaret of Austria's court through music. Our programme even allows us to give insight into her character, since some of her own poetry was set to music by her favourite musicians; we have featured a selection on this album. We have had such pleasure exploring this music and sharing it with audiences in concert, and are thrilled to now bring this stunning repertoire to listeners through this recording. � The Linarol Consort

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music