David Bowerman passed away on June 24, 2020. We are republishing this article from the May 2016 issue of Gramophone as a tribute.

The instructions ‘turn left at the rockery and head towards the bungalow’ hardly gave due warning of what was in store when I reached Champs Hill, deep in the West Sussex countryside, on a dank January morning. Not only did the ‘rockery’ turn out to be part of a spectacular 27-acre garden overlooking the South Downs, but this bungalow had a concert hall beside it.

While there may be no shortage of music lovers in the world, few have given back so generously as Mary and David Bowerman in what is effectively their retirement project. Having farmed for 40 years, they know all about hard work, which is just as well. When we meet, David is about to celebrate his 80th birthday (with a concert of course, featuring the swing quintet Man Overboard), yet their commitment to Champs Hill and the record company remains undimmed.

The impetus for building the hall was the great storm of 1987, which laid bare a whole swathe of woodland. As Mary says with typical understatement: ‘We had a mad moment when we thought – we must have our own concert hall.’ And rather than call in professional acousticians, they used a local architect and a local builder, with David trusting his own ear when it came to the acoustic itself. His other passion in life is art, so this was to be a gallery as well as a concert hall. When I visited, I was greeted by a beautifully curated collection of oils by Augustus John, Kyffin Williams, Fred Yates and Lucien Pissarro (eldest son of Camille), which conversed effortlessly with bronzes by Jacob Epstein and Renoir. It was, David admitted, the tip of the iceberg, as he has been collecting all his life.

Mary and David Bowerman at Champs Hill (photo: Philip Hollis / Daily Telegraph)

Everything has the personal touch. The piano, for instance. ‘I kept going to Steinway’s once a week,’ says David, ‘and trying out all their concert grands, and there was one I kept coming back to’. He chose well (even Graham Johnson was impressed) and, true to form, it’s a highly nurtured instrument, thoroughly overhauled once a year.

Felicity Lott – who christened the hall in 1999 with a recital with Johnson – summed up the allure of the place: ‘One of the great things about it is that it represents one person’s choice of music and artists and has integrity. Not only does the hall look beautiful but it resonates wonderfully and isn’t plagued with passing traffic. It also has the inestimable benefit of the presence of David and Mary. They are the most generous, warm people and are brilliant at getting things done. Once David gets an idea in his head he doesn’t let it go. This concert hall is an extraordinary venue.’

Even before the storm, the notion of a hall grew from the fact that David was already sponsoring a lot of young musicians, so a venue seemed a natural progression. There’s no sense of self-indulgence here, but rather a heartfelt desire to give talented musicians the best possible start in their professional life. They still sponsor artists through music college. ‘They become like family. The viola player Krzysztof Chorzelski [of the Belcea Quartet] was still in his first year at the Royal College of Music when we began helping him. And Laura Samuel, too. We’re so proud of what she has achieved both in the Belcea and now as Leader of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.’ David maintains tight control, though: ‘I approve who’s coming to give concerts, and also the repertoire, because if you don’t get that right you’re nowhere. But we’ve also had a lot of fun doing things which are a bit more unexpected, such as new music from Cheryl Frances-Hoad, who really produced a rabbit out of a hat!’ Cheryl fondly recalls the experience of making her first CD on Champs Hill Records as ‘uplifting and reaffirming artistically. Having good performances of your work is essential and I’ve been able to publicise my music a great deal more as a result of my two CDs with the label.’

Joseph Middleton between takes in ‘The Music Room’ at Champs Hill (photo: Patrick Allen)

The record label was founded in 2010. After several years of offering young musicians the opportunity to make demos in the hall, as well as using it as a venue for other recording outfits, Champs Hill Records was born. Seven years on, it now celebrates its 100th disc, with an album of Britten’s Purcell Realizations.

The producer and engineer Alexander Van Ingen has been a key player in the label’s activities. ‘Its primary aim is helping young artists, so they will perhaps do a couple of discs and then that might lead them on to recording for a label that’s run on more commercial lines, as well as helping artists get agents and concerts.’ He cites the accordion player Ksenija Sidorova, whom David had spotted while an undergraduate at the Royal Academy of Music. ‘Her demo disc was always destined to be a commercial success – it was brilliant. That was followed by a concerto recording with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; now she’s on Decca. And there’s the pianist Alexandra Dariescu, who will follow her CDs of preludes for Champs Hill with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the RPO for Signum later this year.’ One could add to that pianist Ivana Gavric´, whose most recent recording for the label, of music by Grieg, was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice in March 2014.

He adds: ‘One of the best things about it for me is the atmosphere – without that, you can have the best set-up in the world but you’re not going to get a great recording out of it. With Champs Hill you sense that they want you to succeed and to create music in the best way.’

Though it’s a label predominantly focused on supporting up-and-coming artists, it says much for David and Mary’s ability to talent-spot (helped by a considerable network of musicians) that this is no mere starter label. As Mary explains, ‘We pay for everything – the recordings don’t make us any money – but we need to produce something that people will want to listen to.’

Ruby Hughes and Joseph Middleton recording in ‘The Music Room’ at Champs Hill (photo: Patrick Allen)

They now enjoy associations with the Leeds International Piano Competition and the Windsor String Competition, YCAT and the BBC’s New Generation Artists scheme – not a bad line-up! As David says: ‘We don’t pay artists to come and record here, so if they want to, they’re serious. But when they do, they’re looked after royally by Mary for four days.’

Time and again, artists reminisce not only about the hall itself but the hospitality – and Mary’s legendary catering. It’s also bolstered by the presence of figures such as Felicity Lott, Graham Johnson, the Allegri Quartet and the Gould Trio. And the repertoire tends to be away from the mainstream: Röntgen String Trios, anyone? Or Thuille songs and chamber works, not to mention contemporary repertoire by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sally Beamish, Sir James MacMillan and – in the pipeline – Jonathan Dove’s complete songs for mezzo with Kitty Whately.

Joseph Middleton is another artist who has become a familiar presence on Champs Hill Records, admired as much for his imaginative programming – ‘it’s my inner geek’ – as for his pianism. He first got involved when he made a demo disc with Sophie Bevan. ‘And then I was absolutely amazed to get an email about a month later asking if I could record some Elgar songs with Felicity Lott! And it has just carried on from there, which has been hugely beneficial.’

It is he who put together the Britten Purcell Realizations project. ‘What I really like about these works is that you have two giants of British music reaching out to each other over the centuries.’ His decision to use quite contrasting voice-types, from the ‘early music’ purity of Robin Blaze and Ruby Hughes to the more fulsome timbre of Anna Grevelius, is striking. ‘I knew that the voices would blend, and they’re similar types of artists in that they all like chamber-music repertoire. Someone like Matthew Rose – who had just played Bottom in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Glyndebourne – comes to the songs very much from a theatrical point of view, which is helpful because what connects Purcell and Britten so brilliantly is that they both understood theatre, which is something these songs really exploit. And that’s not to say that Ruby and Robin don’t sing dramatically, because they do, but Ruby approached them having sung Purcell’s songs, which was also fascinating.’ Rose concurs, adding, ‘What Purcell created originally was so modern and his word-painting is just exquisite. To have that Britten touch on top of the genius that is Purcell creates some of the most exciting and beautiful songs in the whole repertoire.’

Middleton has also worked with Hughes on another new disc, ‘Nocturnal Variations’, which is the singer’s first solo song disc. ‘That was a combined effort – Ruby planned a lot of it and we then played through tons of songs and came up with that particular programme. She’s a very interesting artist – with strong views of what she wants to do, which is really good.’

As I prepare to leave, a new sculpture for the garden is being gently unloaded. The collecting, like the music, never stops.