Signum Classics reaches one billion streams

Signum Classics, the independent label launched in 1997 with Early Music at its core, has reached one billion streams as it approaches its 30th anniversary, with a catalogue of more than 1,000 recordings charting nearly three decades of rediscovery, scholarship and changing approaches to performance.

The label’s first disc, SIGCD001, was the ambitious starting point for a complete survey of Thomas Tallis’s works, recorded by Chapelle du Roi under Alistair Dixon. The project looked beyond the familiar masterpieces to place Tallis’s achievement in the broader context of his working life and established an approach that would become a recurring feature of Signum Classics’s Early Music recordings: giving performers the time and space to pursue a subject in depth.

Although the streaming figures encompass a catalogue that extends well beyond Early Music, the label’s roots in the repertoire remain evident. Signum’s contribution is particularly apparent in projects that change what audiences can hear, whether by recovering unfamiliar works or reconsidering how familiar ones are performed.

Recent releases include A Thousand Charms, in which Grace Davidson and Julian Perkins explore the expressive range of English song; Sturm und Drang Volume 4, from The Mozartists, the latest instalment in an exploration of the turbulent, minor-key musical works inspired by the German literary movement of the 1770s that gave the series its name; and La Serenissima’s Hell’s Angels, which includes a rare Vivaldi sonata with its incomplete finale realised by Adrian Chandler.

^{Grace Davidson and Julian Perkins perform John Eccles's Belinda's Pretty Pleasing Form}

For listeners, the value of this growing catalogue lies in the connections it makes between celebrated names and their often unjustly neglected contemporaries, prompted by scholarly investigation and the pleasure of discovery.

Explore these treasures from Signum’s Early Music catalogue, a journey from Tudor polyphony through the exuberance of the Italian Baroque to the turbulence of the Classical era, pairing landmark recordings with some rewarding discoveries:

TRACK LIST

1. Tallis Salve intemerata | Chapelle du Roi / Alistair Dixon
Tallis: The Complete Works, Vol. 1 • SIGCD001
A magnificent Tudor votive antiphon from Signum’s very first release in 1997.

2. Striggio Ecce beatam lucem | Armonico Consort / Christopher Monks
Supersize Polyphony • SIGCD560
Renaissance polyphony on a spectacular scale, with forty vocal parts creating a richly layered tapestry of sound.

3. G Gabrieli Canzona à 12 | Gabrieli Consort & Players / Paul McCreesh
A New Venetian Coronation, 1595 • SIGCD287
The thrilling interplay of Venetian brass and instrumental choirs in McCreesh’s ceremonial reconstruction.

4. Monteverdi Duo Seraphim from Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, 1610 | Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / The Choir of the Enlightenment / Robert Howarth
Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, 1610 • SIGCD237
A dazzling display of vocal virtuosity and early-Baroque expressiveness.

5. Purcell Sweeter than Roses | Grace Davidson / Julian Perkins
A Thousand Charms • SIGCD960
English Baroque song at its most intimate, in a recent recital spanning Campion to Handel.

6. F Scarlatti Dixit Dominus | Armonico Consort / Christopher Monks
Dixit Dominus & Messa a 16 voci • SIGCD740
A thrilling rediscovery of a neglected member of the Scarlatti dynasty.

7. Vandini Sonata for cello and continuo in A minor | La Serenissima / Adrian Chandler
Settecento: Baroque Instrumental Music from the Italian States • SIGCD663
A celebration of the variety and virtuosity of eighteenth-century Italian instrumental music.

8. JS Bach Allegro from Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D | The Hanover Band / Andrew Arthur
Harpsichord Concertos • SIGCD764
Bach’s exuberant concerto writing, with the harpsichord stepping into the spotlight.

9. Vivaldi Final movement from Violin Sonata, RV 820 | La Serenissima / Adrian Chandler
Hell’s Angels • SIGCD1009
An intriguing rarity, with its incomplete final movement completed by Chandler.

10. Gesualdo Tristis est anima mea from Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday | The King’s Singers
Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday • SIGCD048
Sudden harmonic shifts and intensely expressive word-setting bring a darker, more intimate close to the playlist, with six voices tracing the anguish of the Passion.

11. Kraus Symphony in C Minor, VB 142 | The Mozartists / Ian Page
Sturm und Drang Vol. 4 • SIGCD1012
Haydn predicted Kraus's Symphony in C Minor would be regarded as a masterpiece for centuries, and this fine recording of this rarely-heard work lets us see this for ourselves.