Coming Soon, Two major song projects coming up from Delphian Records

With five Editor's Choices in 2013/14, the 14-year-old Edinburgh-based Delphian Records had ample reason to merit the coveted Label of the Year prize at last year's Gramophone Awards, but their 3-disc survey of Rachmaninov's complete songs (shared by a beautifully balanced cast of seven young native Russian-speakers and masterminded by the Scottish pianist and broadcaster Iain Burnside ) was surely the jewel in the crown. Now they're about to embark on another major Russian song project, this time venturing further off the beaten track with a survey of Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951); Medtner's piano music is pretty well represented on disc, but many of his songs remain unrecorded or exist only in old recordings which are currently out of print.

Gramophone (who also shortlisted it for the Vocal category at last year's Awards) declared that 'Practically everything rings true in this set, sung gloriously with palpable heart and soul', whilst The Telegraph described it as 'a richly rewarding and fascinating set' and The Guardian commented that 'Burnside accompanies with his usual tact and intelligence. As a whole, the set is a very distinguished piece of work'.

Once again Burnside will be at the helm throughout, and several of the key singers from the Rachmaninov set will return: Russian coloratura soprano Ekaterina Siurina (poised to sing Susanna at the Edinburgh Festival), Lithuanian mezzo Justina Gringyte (currently making waves as Carmen at ENO, and recently named Young Singer of the Year at the International Opera Awards), Ukrainian baritone Andrei Bondarenko (acclaimed for his 'smooth grace and musical control' (The Telegraph) as Eugene Onegin at last year's Glyndebourne Festival) and Russian bass Alexander Vinogradov (who has been attracting attention in the interim for his idiomatic contributions to Vasily Petrenko's much-praised cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra). The set will be released in March 2017.

But before that we'll see the first instalment of a Schubert series, which will appear in November and feature the effervescent Irish light lyric soprano Ailish Tynan, partnered by Burnside; Roderick Williams (in what will be his first recording of Schubert and, on the basis of his recent live performances of this repertoire, well worth the wait!) will follow, next July.

Other releases featuring these artists.