Moeran, Rubbra, Bax, Machonchy, Berkeley, Ireland, Bliss, Holst, Still, Parry, Benjamin, Finzi, Bush, Baines, Alwyn, Williamson, Howells, Arnold, Coates, Parry, Walton, Rawsthorne, Bridge, Leigh, Grainger, Britten, Lloyd, Warlock…
The above are some of the – sometimes obscure and neglected, but most of the time superb – English composers which were covered, cocooned and recorded in glorious analog sound by Richard Itter, Lyrita Recorded Edition’s founder and proprietor, and painstackingly engineered by Kenneth Wilkinson and pressed by Decca and later Nimbus.
I’ll be forever in debt – owing to him a world of musical enjoyment and bliss – with the late HP aka Harry Pearson of TAS fame.
I bought – since I found for one dollar my very first Lyrita’s (Howell), decades ago – about 70 SRCS which I still enjoy immensely.
Please find here the whole Lyrita catalog and – as I’m listening to it right now – a great sampler – Lollypops, as they used to call’em – music selection in loop form.
Great, GREAT music… pastoral, impressionistic and poetic as it goes… conducted by the very best English maestros and, sometimes, by the composers themselves… Del Mar, Handley, Finzi, Elgar, Arnold, etc.
Please do you a favor… browse the impressive catalog and when shopping for Lyritas’ on the web, don’t simply stop to TAS’ List titles… most of the SRCS series are sonic and musical spectaculars!
At Nimbus, you’ll find the CDs of some Lyritas and here more infos about the history of this label, a true goldmine of musical pleasures and a safe harbour for our soul.
Stefano Bertoncello