The second force is Lyrita Records, founded in 1959 with the express purpose of recording English music that would otherwise have remained unheard. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Lyrita put some of its vinyl catalogue on CD and created some of the best recordings of any music ever issued. Sadly, the programme stopped before some of Lyrita’s best music had been issued in any format at all.
In 2006, after years of tribulations, Wyastone Estate took over the Lyrita brand and set about completing the process. Since the beginning of last year around 100 new CDs of British music, much of it unavailable for 30 years, have been issued by the company, in what many of its devotees consider to be one of the most important acts in English musical history. At last, a proper exploration of the geography of our music is possible.
While a minority of Lyrita’s recordings are mainstream — Elgar’s 1st and 2nd Symphonies conducted by Boult in the late 1960s are revelatory, for example — the label specialises in works by too little-known composers and in too little-known works by better-known ones. Two of its CDs sum this up perfectly.
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