Megadisc Classics started in 1993 when Antwerp was Cultural Capital of Europe and the owner of Megadisc Ric Urmel found to his amazement that there were no CD recordings of the composer Karel Goeyvaerts. Around the same time he met Patrick De Clerck, who after a production of his own music on Megadisc Classics was asked to produce the recordings of the works of Galina Ustvolskaya. These recordings are the ‘historic’ ones. The project somehow got out of hand, as what had started as a small venture became the reference label for contemporary music from the ex-Soviet Union and for the somewhat less known Flemish music.
Megadisc also championed the first overview of Valentin Silvestrov’s chamber music, culminating in the superb Silent Songs CD. Featured musicians include Alexei Lubimov, Oleg Malov, Martha Argerich, Studio New Music Moscow with Igor Dronov, the Ural Philharmonic with Dimitri Liss, Ictus, and Jan Michiels. Since October 2003 Patrick De Clerck has been running the label We pay a lot of attention to the artwork. Most of the CD covers use details from the paintings of Ilse D’Hollander (1968-1997). [SIGN*] makes sure that things look good in print as well.
