It’s been suggested elsewhere in these web-pages that we can judge the quality of a book by looking at its production as an object for carrying meaning. The space between the lines will tell us something about the quality of thought in the editorial-design processes, and so – because editor and writer might work hand-in-hand – in the writing too; and the glue on the spine will tell us something about the thinking in the publishing house.[1] The recent book of conversations between Lee Konitz and Andy Hamilton may test this thesis to near-destruction.

The Bach Players’ Nun komm! arrived from the printers and CD-multipliers some days ago, just in time for a launch-party for its subscribers. The CD is now waiting for its official UK release, after the summer holidays, on 20 September.

An obituary of Bernard Coutaz, founder of Harmonia Mundi, an exemplary publishing company.

As from today, our CDs are being distributed to the trade by Harmonia Mundi UK. We will still, of course, be selling them from this website and at concerts and other events.

This Friday the lively events programme at the St Bride Library offers a conference on Design for music / Music and design. Another strong reason to get to St Bride’s this week: to catch the splendid ‘Designing information before designers’ exhibition before it closes.

Last Saturday morning, the two Bach Players CDs were included in a roundup of recent Bach recordings on BBC Radio 3’s ‘CD Review’ programme (one can listen back to this on the BBC website for the rest of this week). Presenter Andrew McGregor had good words to say about the discs, and he found time to play three whole tracks to represent their great diversity of material. He also summed up why these discs are different from the average classical music CD: each is shaped by an idea, and the varied component parts work together to represent that idea. So they go a different route from the familiar ones of presenting similar pieces by a single composer, or stringing together pieces to showcase a certain artist. McGregor said: ‘It’s a lovely way of providing a different kind of context for Bach’s music, especially with Hugh Wood’s thoughtfully illuminating notes. The Bach Players have gone an unusual route with these recordings, teaming up not with an established label but with a book publisher specializing in design – Hyphen Press. Bach arranging and arranged is the first volume, Every one a chaconne is the second; I hope there’ll be more.’ There will.

Every one a chaconne, the new release from Hyphen Press Music, is Editor’s Choice of new vocal CDs – with five stars (= ‘exceptional’) – in the January 2010 issue of Classic FM magazine. Opening his perceptive remarks, Andrew Stewart writes: ‘There’s something about the openness of sound, the sheer quality of music-making and the sense of connection between performers and composers that makes this a very special recording.’ Elsewhere, the magazine suggests: ‘It’s heartening in these cash-strapped times to see our Editor’s Choice slot occupied by a brand-new British label. If you choose to buy the recording, you’ll be supporting a great venture and your ears will be in for a treat, too.’

A report of the launch of HPM 002 for subscribers and friends.

The typographer Alexander Verberne died on 27 May 2009. After a stroke in 1997, which was followed by further strokes, he had been seriously impaired and was living in a care-home in The Hague. He was born on 18 August 1924 in Den Helder.

Every one a chaconne, the second recording by The Bach Players has just arrived in physical form and will be launched publicly at the group’s concerts in Cork, Norwich, and London in the coming week.

‘Einzelgängers’ – it takes one to know one. Hyphen Press Music is joint winner of the best record label of 2009 in the Prelude Classical Music Awards 2009. This is the annual poll conducted by Kees Koudstal, who is both chairman of the jury and its only member.

Further good notices have appeared.

Early public reactions to our first CD – given the hopeful catalogue number HMP 001 – have been encouraging.

Bach arranging and arranged, the first recording by The Bach Players, and the first issue from Hyphen Press Music, is now finished and awaiting formal release next month.

Next month Hyphen Press Music is publishing its first CD: Bach arranging and arranged by The Bach Players. In this conversation Nicolette Moonen, the artistic director of the group, talks about the background to the recording.

We are opening a new music department of Hyphen Press. Later this year the first of a series of CDs by The Bach Players will be issued on the label of Hyphen Press Music. There may be connections between this group and its approach to performance, and Hyphen Press and its approach to making books. But rather than try to spell this out in the abstract, it should be enough to say that the CDs will be enjoyable, and rather special. As a starter we are selling an already available CD from another area of music: Morton Feldman jazz tributes, published by Chris Villars, editor of Morton Feldman says. This too is a special production, and a very enjoyable one.

In summer of this year the Royal Festival Hall, on the South Bank of London’s river, was reopened after a major, two-year refurbishment. The auditorium itself was remade and restored, and the rest of the building was significantly remade/restored too. The spirit and the materials of the original building were respected, at the same time changes needed for the place’s new uses were made. The architects leading the work were Allies & Morrison, among the most convincing and least pretentious of the UK firms practising ‘modern architecture’.

Feldman is among the featured composers at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, just beginning. Tomorrow afternoon (19 November), Chris Villars is speaking about his engagement with Feldman’s music. Coinciding with this, two articles by the composer Christopher Fox have been published: a general introduction to Feldman in The Guardian, and a review article about the book in the Musical Times (autumn 2006) – online only this way.