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Early this summer I was privileged to be invited to a beautiful, scenic setting in the south of France for a family gathering. It wasn’t my family, I was a mere guest at this home. But in many ways, I feel like I’ve long been a guest of this family – not at their home perhaps, but through being invited to enjoy and engage with their life and work, to follow their journey, over many years and through many, many revelatory recordings. The family to which I refer is the record label Harmonia Mundi, and the cause of the celebration their 60th birthday, marked by the launch of a festival held in chapels and small venues throughout their home, the historic town of Arles (as portrayed by Vincent van Gogh on this digital magazine’s cover). When choosing a Label of the Year, we ask ourselves several questions. Which label has conveyed a creative vision that weaves through their output of recordings, expressing both coherence and courage in their approach to A&R? Which has led us towards music we might not otherwise have heard, or introduced us to artists who have impressed us and from whom we wait with great anticipation for what may follow? And, perhaps most importantly of all, which label has made records we’ve simply thoroughly enjoyed? Harmonia Mundi has excelled in all these areas, earning itself a fair number of Editor’s Choices throughout the year as it has done so – not to mention this year’s Orchestral Award.
The label has come a long way from when its founder Bernard Coutaz set out to make recordings of historic organs, most of which had never been captured by microphones (indeed, predating the growth of interest in historical performance practice which makes such endeavours more commonplace today). Milestones that followed included luring Alfred Deller to the label (after, it is said, a long post-concert evening of fine food and wine, and not a little subterfuge!), and the building of long-term partnerships with such pioneering figures as René Jacobs, William Christie and Philippe Herreweghe.
Long-term partnerships: if anything defines Harmonia Mundi for me, it’s that. In more recent years, some of the most pivotal and fruitful have been with some of the most thoughtful musicians of their generation, the likes of violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Alexander Melnikov. The sort of artists whose serious, focused and undemonstrative approach to art feels like the antithesis of the superficial glitz and glamour that pervades so much of today’s world. Artists who, release after release, invite us to follow their journey and to share with us something new.
Like all long-standing businesses – and a record label is, let us not forget, a business that needs to sell its products to customers – Harmonia Mundi has seen much behind-the-scenes changes, in 2015 finding itself part of the wider and multi-genre PIAS group. It seems to be a supportive home – and one whose admiration for its recent acquisition feels very evident – and so under the stewardship of HM label head Christian Girardin, the perception for the record buyer will only have been one of continuity.
One of the concerts at the Arles festival featured Faust and Melnikov, as well as period keyboardist Kristian Bezuidenhout. To join the audience in the small auditorium was to eavesdrop on music-making between friends. And as Harmonia Mundi navigates a future in which the way we buy and listen to music is changing radically, let us hope that it’s that family spirit – including, crucially, the nurturing of the young, as evidenced through the newly launched harmonia#nova series – along with, of course, lifeaffirming musical excellence, that will continue to be its constant guide. And let us wish one of classical music’s most cherished labels a very happy 60th anniversary.
For this special digital magazine, we’ve looked back over the past five years and gathered together all the reviws that caught our attention and been awarded an Editor’s Choice. Martin Cullingford
EDITORIAL
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SPECIAL DIGITAL EDITION EDITED AND DESIGNED BY James McCarthy and James Jolly
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GRAMOPHONE is published by MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London, SE24 0PB, United Kingdom
Tap on any of the CD cover images in this digital magazine to buy the album from Presto Classical
