From The Beatles
to Brahms

our story

Explore Catalogue
1961
Pre-CRD
Sailing into the history books
The young Graham Pauncefort, Sales Manager aged 21 at Deutsche Grammophon, meets a promising young group up in Liverpool keenly looking to release their early recordings
1965
Industry charts a rising star

A trade magazine comments on the rising star, Graham Pauncefort, remarking on his combined love of music and cricket.

Later that year
Early CRD
The start of serving music lovers

Continental Record Distributors are established to import and distribute specialised Continental and American catalogues into the UK.

1969
Flying into the history books (again)

CRD records the Concorde March with The LSO Symphony Orchestra. This was a piece commissioned from Robert Farnon to mark the maiden voyage of Concorde, the supersonic airliner.

(Recording session. L-R: David Williamson (British Airways), Robert Farnon, Graham Pauncefort)

1973
CRD Records is born
The start of a leading independent label

News hits of the birth of CRD records (alongside celebrations of other classical music greats...)

1973
CRD's first pianist: Thomas Rajna

CRD delves into the work of Spanish composer, Enrique Grandos, with pianist Thomas Rajna.

1973
CRD and the BBC

CRD releases ‘Face the Music’ with Joseph Cooper.

1974
CRD celebrates the beginning of a new chapter

CRD Records officially launches at Durrant's Hotel, London W1. 

L-R: Simon Lawman (Artistic Director), Michael Stearn, Graham Pauncefort (Founding Director).

1975
CRD, Arriaga and the Chilingirian Quartet

CRD releases first recording with The Chilingirian Quartet, spotlighting the little-known Spanish-Basque composer, Arriaga.

1976
A recording first: Vivaldi, Trevor PInnock and CRD

CRD records Vivaldi's Four Seasons with baroque specialist, Trevor Pinnock. This marks the first recording on period instruments.

1978
CRD and The Nash Ensemble

A few years after they left school (St George's, Harpenden), Graham Pauncefort and Amelia Freedman OBE reconnect. CRD begins its relationship with The Nash ensemble, starting with a release of Hummel and Berwald. 

1979
CRD, Edward Higginbottom and New College, Oxford

CRD release their first recording with New College Choir, Oxford (Taverner & Tallis: The Western Wind Mass, Mater Christi, Votive Antiphons, Motes and Responds, CRD 3372). This marks the start of a long relationship with the Choir, amounting to over 30 recordings.

1985
CRD at the cinema

Our historic recording of the The Four Seasons Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8: Autumn - Allegro, performed by Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert, is picked up to set the scene for a reception Bond attends undercover.

1986
CRD mourns the loss of Artistic Director, Simon Lawman

Artistic Director from the early days until his untimely death.

1985-2017
CRD grows whilst the music industry continues to morph

CRD continues to seek out outstanding young artists and embark upon new recording projects where it feels it is justified to support new works or hitherto neglected repertoire.

2017
CRD comes back to Oxford

CRD releases its first recording with The Choir of Keble College, Oxford and The Instruments of Time and Truth.

2021
The end of an era

Graham Pauncefort, founding Director, passes away having dedicated his life to the ‘industry of human happiness’. (Head here to read James Jolly's obituary in Gramophone.)

2022
CRD’s next chapter
Resurrexi - Latest release

Son and daughter, Tom and Emma Pauncefort take over as Directors of CRD, focusing straight away on the release of Resurrexi! Easter in Vienna with Mozart and the Haydn brothers.

April 2022
Again, we start to innovate
Music Discovery & Chatbots

We receive grant funding from The Studio, Bath Spa University's hub for innovation, research and enterprise for the creative industries. 

Between April and September 2022 we will be working with Elzware, a company with over 20 years experience of building and delivering conversational AI, on an exciting new leap in the world of music discovery. 

Watch this space!

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