Lyrita

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Lyrita Recorded Edition
Parent company none
Founded 1958
Founder(s) Richard Itter
Distributing label Nimbus Records
Genre(s) classical music
Country UK
Web address [1]

Lyrita Recorded Edition is a classical music label, specialising in the works of British composers.

The bulk of Lyrita's catalogue focused on orchestral and symphonic works, including otherwise neglected composers at that time, including Havergal Brian, Edmund Rubbra, Arnold Bax, Arnold Cooke, Humphrey Searle and George Lloyd. Many Lyrita LPs were regarded as demonstration discs, suitable for showcasing out the sonic qualities of high-end hi-fi equipment.

In the 1990s several Lyrita CDs were issued featuring a small selection of the back-catalogue, a few newly-recorded items and recordings licensed from other sources.

As of summer 2006 Wyastone Estate Ltd has reached an agreement with Lyrita to distribute the company's entire catalogue. The first discs to appear will be those CD transfers that had appeared in the 1990s; the remaining original analogue masters will subsequently be digitised and transferred to CD, making all of Lyrita's recordings available on CD for the first time, hopefully in time for the company's Golden Jubilee in 2009.