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Of all contemporary music, opera is perhaps the genre that epitomises NMC’s unique role in promoting British composition at its most innovative. The financial and artistic risks inherent in new opera, the paucity of repeat runs and the unwillingness of many mainstream record labels to take up this repertoire require NMC to step into the breach and make these works permanently available to a global audience. NMC has recorded over a dozen contemporary British operas to date, and Gawain is perhaps the work that we are most frequently asked to release!
We need to raise £43,000 from individual donors and from trusts/foundations with opera/contemporary music interests to make this special part of our anniversary celebrations happen. In return for your support we will credit you on our website, share project updates, invite you to a 25th anniversary event, and have the discs available for you to purchase before the official release at a discounted price. Those of you contributing £500 or more will receive signed complimentary copies of the three releases and CD booklet credits.
Please donate here or send a cheque payable to NMC Recordings and a Gift Aid declaration (please see here for Gift Aid rules and declaration wording) to NMC Recordings, Somerset House, Third Floor South Wing, Strand, London WC2R 1LA. If you’d like any further information on our opera appeal please contact development@nmcrec.co.uk.
Thank you very much for your support.
Harrison Birtwistle Gawain (BBC Radio 3 live recording, Royal Opera House / Elgar Howarth,1994)
'An opera of compelling power and grandeur ... John Tomlinson is in outstandingly noble voice' Gramophone on Gawain
Judith Weir The Vanishing Bridegroom (BBC studio recording, BBC Symphony Orchestra / BBC Singers / Martyn Brabbins, 2008)
'The Vanishing Bridegroom is a huge compendium of western Scottish folklore, music, mystery and imagination, intertwining family stories from several generations ... NMC’s opera recordings covering a 40-year period of stage works from Maxwell Davies and Birtwistle to Sawer and Rushton have consolidated the existence of a very significant era of new British Opera' Judith Weir
Gerald Barry The Importance of Being Earnest (BBC Radio 3 live recording, Barbican, BCMG / Thomas Adès, 2012)
'Gerald Barry’s music has been a source of wonder and astonishment to me for many years and I have loved piece after piece as his work has developed and he has conquered new creative worlds. It has been a culminating joy for me to watch closely as that extraordinary energy and invention collide with that of Oscar Wilde to create this thrilling and dazzling explosion' Tom Adès, conductor
