Among the leading lights of British independent labels, SOMM Recordings continues to shine brightly after more than a quarter century in the service of great music and artists.
Based in Surrey, the United Kingdom, SOMM (Siva Oke Music Management) was founded in 1995, its first release was an enchanting and well-received vocal collection, “Songs I Love”, featuring soprano Jenny Drivala and pianist Nina Walker (SOMMCD 200). Since that time, its catalog has grown to over 300 titles, encompassing a wealth of repertoire performed by leading musicians, each issue impeccably engineered, produced, and elegantly packaged.
Among its many virtues, SOMM has shown not only a heartwarming belief in young artists, but also a reverence for artists past. And, fittingly, there is also a strong emphasis on music of the British Isles – this three-fold devotion is discussed below, though it is SOMM’s historic line that will be examined in greatest detail.
Beginnings
Founder Siva Oke is herself a pianist, a pupil of the great Cyril Smith. Born to a musical family – her father was a fine amateur violist, her mother a proficient pianist – home life hummed to the strains of chamber music soirées among family and friends. Siva’s burgeoning skills won her a place at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome before gaining acceptance to London’s Royal Academy of Music.
EMI – Great Artists Past and Present
Not long after graduating with an LRAM Performer’s Diploma, she was hired by the International Artists Department at EMI as an assistant to famed producer Suvi Raj Grubb. This was an extraordinary time, in which such luminaries as Otto Klemperer and Sir John Barbirolli crossed paths – and studios – with the next generation of musical greats, including Daniel Barenboim and Jacqueline, Du Pré. Siva divided her time between the offices at Manchester Square and the studios at Abbey Road. Recalled Siva:
“One minute I was the ‘sound effects’ department imitating the Steuermann’s whistle in The Flying Dutchman with Klemperer and the New Philharmonia (christened affectionately by the orchestra as ‘The Creeping Dutchman’ because of Klemperer’s slow tempi). The next, I would be stage-managing operatic singers moving them about on a numbered carpet at salient points in the score or serving as interpreter to visiting Italian singers who spoke little English. Pavarotti spoke perfect English but he had a quaint way of mixing Italian and English together. ‘Ah, bella signorina Greca, I wonder what it must be like to make love to a Greek girl’, he asked mischievously when we first met. ‘I don’t know Maestro, neither have I’, was my tart reply. He took it in good part, I’m glad to say!”
From Unicorn-Kanchana to SOMM
In 1977 she married Keith Oke, the couple settling in Thames Ditton. Four years later, in addition to raising children and teaching piano, she was hired as General Manager of Unicorn-Kanchana, where she stayed until 1993. One can see in this sorely missed independent some of the same artistic ethos that would later inform her own label, SOMM Recordings. During her tenure, Unicorn-Kanchana had the vision not only to preserve master violinist Ruggiero Ricci’s magnificent interpretations of the Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, but also to produce the young Oliver Knussen in the recording his own fantasy opera Where the Wild Things Are. British music was served equally well, with the wonderfully gifted conductors Norman Del Mar and Vernon Handley setting down works by Holst, Delius, and Vaughan Williams, among others. One particularly important project was Jennifer Bate’s benchmark traversal of Olivier Messiaen’s complete organ music, a recording premiere by an artist who would also later record for SOMM.
All of these experiences put in her in good stead to launch SOMM in 1995, Keith managing the administrative side while Siva built its catalog, working closely with the artists at hand and producing the sessions, often with such talented sound engineers as Paul Arden-Taylor, Ben Connellan, and Adaq Khan, among others. Sadly, Siva’s husband Keith passed away in 2017, but the label remains strong as ever.
New Horizons
In early 2002 SOMM introduced its “New Horizons” series, Siva explaining in a May 2002 interview with Gramophone magazine SOMM’s goal to: “help young musicians in an overcrowded industry to make their mark through proper marketing, promotion and distribution.” The project has paid real dividends in these artists fortunes and among the young talents Siva has helped nurture are pianists Mark Bebbington, George-Emmanuel Lazaridis, Alessandro Taverna, and Cordelia Williams, the violinist Yuri Zhislin, the cellist Jamie Walton, the Clerks of Christ Church, and the Hildegard Choir.
Helpfully the titles have been deliberately marketed as a mid-price series, thereby encouraging buyers to take a chance on an unfamiliar name. With a keen understanding of the allure of the undiscovered, the repertoire avoids middle-of-the-road complacency. Thus, Alessandro Taverna’s debut album was an all-Medtner program, while Simon Callaghan offered world-premiere recordings of piano music by composer Roger Sacheverell Coke, once championed by Eugene Goossens and Sir Henry J. Wood.
Leading Musicians on SOMM
However, SOMM is much more than a jumping-off point for promising young musicians. Many already established artists – both in the concert hall and on record – have been drawn to the state-of-the-art production standards and artistic integrity that SOMM represents. These include pianists Valerie Tryon, John McCabe, and Peter Donohoe, the late organist Jennifer Bate, the violinist Krysia Osostowicz, the cellist Karine Georgian, the Brodsky and Endellion Quartets, tenor James Gilchrist, baritone Roderick Williams and the London Handel Players.
England, Scotland & Wales
Music of the British Isles remains one of the three pillars of SOMM’s enduring success and real contribution to music. Again, Siva Oke’s label proves its enterprising bona fides by eschewing the typical tried and true run of British potboilers, instead focusing on lesser-known chips off the master’s workbench. Thus, instead of new accounts of Elgar’s Symphonies 1 & 2, we are treated to world premiere recordings of the composer’s chamber music. Other intriguing forays include the songs and string quartets of Charles Villiers Stanford, Iain Sutherland’s “Hail Caledonia: Scotland in Music” the conductor’s musical salute to his native land, juxtaposing well- (the Scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn’s “Scotch” Symphony) and little- (the “Davil’s Finale / Reel o’ Tulloch” from Ian Whyte’s Donald of the Burthens) known works.
Beecham and Vaughan Williams “live” in concert
Historical recordings have long been a true passion of SOMM Recordings and thankfully, here too, the label has staked out new territory. Introduced in 2001, among its earliest series was “The Beecham Collection”, drawing upon primary sources and carried out in close cooperation with Shirley, Lady Beecham. Not only did the proceeds help benefit the Beecham Scholarship Fund for Young Musicians, but collectors were treated to a wealth of Beecham-led “live” performances, including rather unexpected gems such as Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Busoni’s Piano Concerto (with Noel Mewton-Wood), Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole and Alwyn’s Symphony No. 3, among others.
However, Beecham proved just the starting point. In 2008, SOMM’s issue of previously unissued concert performances of Vaughan Williams conducting his own Fifth Symphony (1952) and Dona Nobis Pacem (1936) was BBC Radio 3 Critics’ Disc of the Year, Gramophone’s Best of (Historic Archive) Category, and finally recipient of Classic FM’s Historic Archive Award.
Elgar’s Recordings Newly Minted / Souvenirs from America
Arguably even more impressive (and important) was SOMM’s fascinating 4CD “Elgar Remastered” set (SOMMCD 261-4), which drew upon “valuable pressings from Sir Edward Elgar’s personal library. It contains hitherto unheard discs – virtually the complete 1928 studio sessions of the Cello Concerto with Beatrice Harrison as well as many unused takes of major orchestral works and famous miniatures… a veritable Aladdin’s Chest,” which includes stereo realizations made by restoration engineer extraordinaire Lani Spahr – see interview on page 55.
No less enticing is SOMM’s “Elgar in America” series, which mixes rare broadcast recordings with long-forgotten studio recordings that have languished in the vaults more than 40 years since the introduction of the CD. Among the prize performances preserved herein are Sir John Barbirolli’s 1959 Carnegie Hall presentation, with the NYPO, of The Dream of Gerontius, legendary cellist Gregor Piatigorsky’s in a “live” 1940 reading of the Cello Concerto with Barbirolli leading the New Yorkers, and Toscanini and the NBC SO in a commanding 1940 account of the Introduction & Allegro for Strings.
Historical Recording Treasures
Lest one despair for non-Elgar material, SOMM is at the rescue, with extraordinary finds showcasing the conducting talents of Serge Koussevitzky and George Szell. The former can be heard in “live” 1950 broadcasts – with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, no less – of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, two composers that the Russian dynamo had a remarkably affinity for.
Twenty-seven years after its first appearance, SOMM Recordings continues to rise from strength to strength. Its elegant and user-friendly website boasts extensive notes, free booklet downloads, musical samples for every track, and a Cornucopia of musical and discographic detail for the novice and aficionado alike. Not least among its achievements is the quality of sound. This applies not only to the marvelous restoration work of engineer Lani Spahr, but also to the new recordings produced and engineered by Siva Oke and Paul Arden-Taylor. Their piano recordings – a notoriously difficult instrument to record – are luminous and yet completely natural in sound, certainly equal to what Hyperion has achieved and far surpassing most efforts by the major labels.
Please visit SOMM Recordings today. Whether one prefers “old school” CDs or high-fidelity downloads, their website will not disappoint. Whether helping to advance the cause of young musicians, returning to the greats of yesteryear, and/or experiencing new music in beautiful sound, SOMM remains a watchword in classical music.
SOMM Recordings Profile – Bibliography & Acknowledgments
The Editor would like to thank Siva Oke for generously making a discount available to Liner Notes subscribers, as well as for her valuable time and help with this profile.
- “Fringes of Thames Ditton” by Keith Evetts – published in Thames Ditton Today, Winter 2009.
- “New Horizons for SOMM” in “For the Record” – published Gramophone, May 2002.
- “SOMM’s Way” by Siva Oke – a promotional press packet provided to the label’s distributors, 2010.
See more and album highlights on page 45 of the Fall 2022 Issue (available in subscriber accounts) on Page 73!