Introducing Phaedra
How ideas get turned into CDs
Phaedra is an Ancient Greek name meaning ‘the
beautiful, the bright, the shiny one’. It is related to a verb that
means ‘to shine light on’. That is why we thought Phaedra an appropriate
name for a label that meant proposed to assume a special task: to shine a
light on music by composers from the Low Countries, especially from Flanders
and Wallonia, and thus to save them from indifference and oblivion.
The idea was realized in 1992, when Phaedra was founded.
With its limited means, but with a generous heart, Phaedra was to promote
this music, to record it and to publish it. Moreover, Phaedra intended to
work with young and highly talented musicians, both from the Low Countries
and from abroad.
Phaedra is the first label to consistently and continually
draw attention to composers of the Low Countries, regardless of their philosophies
or their careers. First their works are read, studied and evaluated; then
Phaedra searches out talented musicians who might be interested in studying
and recording these works.
The series “In Flanders’ Fields” was
started for this very purpose.
After ten years of hard work, after recordings of over
eighty Belgian composers and over one hundred and eighty of their works, came
the first offcial recognition. On March 12, 2002, in a ceremony in the Sabam
building in Brussels, Phaedra was awarded the 2001 Fugue Prize of the Union
of Belgian Composers.
Meanwhile the series “In Flanders’ Fields”
has expanded steadily and has in fact acquired a world-wide reputation.
Whereas Phaedra continues to produce the large majority
of its recordings itself, it occasionally works together with Klara, the classical
channel of the Flemish Radio and Television (VRT). Thus its catalogue features
some of the best and most remarkable radio recordings from the archives of
VRT and its predecessors (BRT and BRTN) made in the last few decades. When
necessary, older recordings are digitalized such that they meet the expectations
of the modern listener.
The “Classics” series features local and
foreign artists who meanwhile have acquired international reputations, in
numerous works from the standard repertoire, both classical and modern. All
Phaedra recordings are made using the most recent technology, in the most
suitable locations, and by highly qualified professional technicians.
You can find many excerpts from all Phaedra recordings in the online catalog.
You can download the catalogue as a PDF file via this link.
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