"NMC has yet again put us in its debt by recording important music which none of the 'major' labels seem to have time for." – International Record Review
Established with the aim of recording the best of contemporary British music to the highest artistic and technical standards, NMC Recordings – which celebrated the 20th anniversary of its first release in 2009 – was founded in 1988 with funding from the Holst Foundation and assistance from the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Following the success of two pilot releases the following year – Jonathan Harvey's Bhakti, and a disc of contemporary piano music performed by composer Michael Finnissy – NMC became an independent registered charity; it has since established itself as "Britain's most important producer of CDs of interesting new or recent and neglected work from this country" (The Sunday Times).
NMC’s 20th anniversary was marked in April 2009 by its largest-scale project to date, and its first venture into commissioning: The NMC Songbook is a collection of songs by nearly 100 composers, over 4 discs, specially written to mark the label’s anniversary, and performed at a series of concerts at Kings Place, where they were also recorded. The NMC Songbook won the 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Award for contemporary music. Other major projects throughout the year included Unknown Britten – featuring a premiere recording of three additional songs intended as part of Les Illuminations – and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s landmark opera Taverner.
NMC's catalogue currently consists of around 160 titles, released to widespread critical acclaim: this includes Gramophone Awards for Robin Holloway's Second Concerto for Orchestra (1994), for NMC's first venture into opera – the world premiere recording of The Mask of Orpheus by Sir Harrison Birtwistle (1998) – for Jonathan Harvey’s Body Mandala (2008) and most recently, The NMC Songbook (2009). Numerous releases have also been short-listed for awards. Composers represented on the label range from established voices – James Dillon, Alexander Goehr, Howard Skempton, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Judith Weir – to a younger generation including Joe Cutler, Sadie Harrison and Donnacha Dennehy. NMC's range of artists likewise covers both those long established in the field of new music – such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta or the Nash Ensemble – and newer voices such as vocal ensemble EXAUDI, The Opera Group and Foden’s Richardson Brass Band.
While NMC's guiding principle has always been the recording of music by living British composers, the Archive Series was established in 1996 to release earlier recordings of historic interest – such as Britten's Les Illuminations and Sinfonia da Requiem recorded in 1941. It was in this series that NMC released Anthony Payne's 'elaboration' of Elgar's Symphony No.3, left in sketch form on the composer's death in 1934, along with a companion recording of the sketches themselves accompanied by a commentary by Anthony Payne. Nominated for Gramophone's Orchestral Award, Elgar/Payne's Symphony No.3 has become NMC's best-selling recording. Additions to the Archive series include Remembering Tippett – featuring premiere 1940s recordings of Tippett's music, released to mark the composer's centenary in 2005 – Britten on Film, featuring his scores for the GPO Film Unit’s Night Mail and Coal Face, and The Aeolian Company: British Music for Pianola by composers including Parry, Howells and Bax.
NMC’s policy has always been one of non-deletion: with that in mind, 2003 saw the launch of Ancora, a major mid-price series of British contemporary recordings reissued from labels including Collins Classics and Unicorn-Kanchana, and supported by Arts Council England. The series has drawn praise from many quarters; the BBC Music Magazine wrote that "NMC's Ancora series… is to be welcomed without reservation." Featuring works by composers including John Casken, Alexander Goehr, Thea Musgrave, Nigel Osborne, Nicholas Maw, Judith Weir, and Harrison Birtwistle, the series is nearing its 25th release.
