Universal Music has been the owner and operator of classic independent label Hyperion, publisher of Angela Hewitt and Marc André Hamelin’s records since last Thursday, the English website revealed on Monday. Slipped Disc. The information is corroborated by the UK Companies Registry.
Chairman and CEO Simon Perry left the company on February 14. He is replaced by two kingpins of Universal UK, David Sharpe, director of operations, and Adam Barker. No official announcement of this transaction has yet been made by either Hyperion or Universal, and Hyperion has not returned interview requests from the Duty. The offices have moved to Universal’s premises at 4 Pancras Square, London.
This information is a shock for observers, music lovers and artists. These, as The duty found out on Monday, were unaware of anything.
Hyperion, one of the phonographic industry’s greatest success stories and a model among independent publishers, was born in 1980, founded by Ted Perry, Simon Perry’s father. Its rise accompanied that of the compact disc.
The company took off very quickly and was a resounding success, notably with a record devoted to the medieval poet Hildegard von Bingen. Hyperion, publisher of great artistic discernment, which today has a quadruple of aces among the great pianists of the moment (Hamelin, Kolesnikov, Hough, Osborne) has distinguished itself in particular by its courageous series: the “Piano Concertos romantics” of obscure composers or the complete works for piano of Liszt and that of the Lieder of Schubert.
Everything in its spirit and its catalog – refined pianists for connoisseurs, niche repertoires – is the opposite of Universal’s editorial and commercial line. The first declarations of the purchaser will therefore be scrutinized.