| jam |
| Looks that way..................... |
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| Christer |
Yes, so according to the unwritten rules of this forum it must
be true then. :)
I don't think there is any serioous problem for recorded classical
music per se, but things are changing as they always were.
Someone (Universal?) bought up DG, Philips and Decca and not
surprisingly the catalogues of especially the latter two has
shrunk considerably. You can't have too much in house
competition. The number of record companies is growing, the
big ones are getting more and more competition from small
and new lables, not to speak of newer big ones like Naxos.
Many of the modern full-prices discs are sold by marketing
rather than artistic merits. The archives of old recordings is
by necessity growing over time and the modern artist have
the older ones to compete with. Why buy a badly sounding
full-price recording with a possibly good modern musician
when you can buy a good-sounding reissue of an outstanding
musician at a bargain price? Maybe the market for classical
music is decreasing, but I am not sure. I think the interest
for opera is higher than it has been for many decades, for
instance. Although Naxos recordings are of varying musical
quality and often with lesser known artists, their low price
and frequent presence also in typical pop music shops is
likely to attract new classical listeners. That won't show up
as a profit for the usual big companies or as expensive
contracts for the mega-stars, at least not for a start. Here in
Sweden I do see a change. While there has never been any
really good shop for classical music in my town, there is
basically none at all now. On the other hand, I think there
has never before been so many well-stocked classical
record shops in Stockholm as there is now, and that despite
all the internet shops.
Well, that was some thoughts, but let's stop there for
the moment. |
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| lohk |
All those classical recordings!
Since digital technologie they sound "better" and "perfect" so why go on recording new interpretations of the same stuff over and over? Serious, I have records of several interpratations of different beethoven symphonies at home, why should I stack another one if i really like them.
I want NEW MUSIC!! NEW RECORDINGS OF NEW MUSIC!! Never heard of, interesting, tempting to experience more, more varability, etc.
In pop or rock music it is the game of the day to bring something at least "a little" newer and different. Classical music instead stays frozen at the state 200years ago. That is weird. Imagine painting beeing stuck at the time of Rubens or Rembrand, literature at the time of shakespeare.
So the recording industry must wake up, start to research the very wide field of musical artistc production of today. This is good music AND IT WILL SELL if the recordings and interpretations are good and if the marketing is good and willing too.
Again: All those never really changing classical recordings of the same stuff again and again! I do not need them: No.
Klaus
ps: as some of you know, I am a composer, so this post is a milder version of what I really think... |
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| Cobra2 |
I do not think we need another Placido Domingo, or another streamlined classical work, we would however maybe need more distinctive characters or orcestras to do recordings.
This done in a bigger variety of ways, would make it worth having several "copies" of "the same works".
Arne K |
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| jackinnj |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cobra2
I do not think we need another Placido Domingo, or another streamlined classical work, we would however maybe need more distinctive characters or orcestras to do recordings.
This done in a bigger variety of ways, would make it worth having several "copies" of "the same works".
Arne K |
well, having the pleasure of a Metropolitan Opera subscription for almost 20 years I would also say that we don't need another "Domingo" as we have Roberto Alagna and Juan Diego Flores. Flores rocked the house with his rendition of Count Almaviva in "Barbiere" this past Saturday. Parenthetically, I despise NYC audiophiles who never attend a live concert of classical!
Some will still lament the passing of Lauritz Melchior -- but he's still available on the historical recordings.
I would very, very strongly urge listeners who don't have access to the Chevron-Texaco Opera broadcasts (U.S and Canada do for sure) to listen to WQXR -- www.wqxr.com on Saturday -- usually 1:30 pm Eastern Time. This has been a phenomenal year for the Metropolitan Opera.
With respect to Classical Recordings generally, it's my personal experience that there is hugely more variety than 10 or 30 years ago. Smaller labels are getting picked up by Tower Records in NY, EBay has made a lot of stuff available, and it's very easy to order virtually anything from any period on the web. |
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| martijn |
I regularly browse the new releases.The last 2 years I have bought some enterprising discs from Naxos and CPO,some harpsichordissues on tiny labels and lots of secondhand material.
The last Universal has been a Decca(Rousset) which is so poorly recorded that I assume the producer hates me.
EMI-reissues pressed locally (Uden) compare so badly with my older Swindon and Sonopress cds that I totally gave up.
No wonder my lp collection grows and grows!
Martijn |
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| jackinnj |
| quote: | Originally posted by martijn
I regularly browse the new releases.The last 2 years I have bought some enterprising discs from Naxos and CPO,some harpsichordissues on tiny labels and lots of secondhand material.
The last Universal has been a Decca(Rousset) which is so poorly recorded that I assume the producer hates me.
EMI-reissues pressed locally (Uden) compare so badly with my older Swindon and Sonopress cds that I totally gave up.
No wonder my lp collection grows and grows!
Martijn |
Is there a Dutch equivalent of the UK publication "Gramophone" -- I pick up a copy every month at Borders and scrutinize the reviews -- one very important tip -- they often cite the best prior recordings and these can be had on EBay (or perhaps you have CD and LP trading shops in Holland!) An investment in Gramophone spares me the disappointment of choosing by the cover.
Too bad that Hifi News and Record Review has become HiFiNews and Nothing Review. |
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| mwmkravchenko |
I've enjoyed "classical " music for over twenty years. But it's the growing pains of finding the stuff you like that makes it so hard. It's still to elitest. I have a large collection that I consider to be of very high quality. But I have almost completely given up on the big names in the industry to produce a good recording.
Mark
Bach still rules:cool: |
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| eStatic |
Not surprising if true. And if informal observation of concert audiences has any validity then the problem would seem partly demographic. Youth seems to have scanty representation in the concert hall audiences that I see, though I don't get out a lot anymore.
This may be an historic hiatus. The "fashion" of full-intelligence-in-music may return in a not too distant future, but then it may happen never again. That may have been it, and some of us were lucky enough to have lived through the end of it. But I have to believe that it still lives. And my ears tell me it is still alive. I can easily believe that works by composers like Adams and Philip Glass will enter the standard repertoire of classical orchestras and remain there for as long as we have continuity of civilization. Though I grant that there may be few classical orchestras in the near/mid future. Also the scale of classical works may be diminished for an indeterminate duration. But I think the tradition will continue in one form or another.
eStatic |
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| johnferrier |
Recorded orchestral music is still much alive (IOW: I'm doing my part to make it so). Thanks for the article SY.
JF |
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| eStatic |
| quote: | Originally posted by mwmkravchenko
I've enjoyed "classical " music for over twenty years. But it's the growing pains of finding the stuff you like that makes it so hard. It's still to elitest.
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I would be very interested in what you mean by "It's still to elitest." And especially the particulars of the problems musical elitism has introduced into your experience of music. I am very curious about this perception and don't quite know what to make of it.
I mean, there are certainly a number of elitist posterior orifices in classical music, but they're irrelevant to the experience of the music as far as I can tell. Is your experience different? Or am I missing the point here.
I'm just not clear on this and would appreciate any explanation you'd be willing to provide.
eStatic |
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| uvodee |
the amount of space classical recordings get in stores like Sam Goody or (a few) other stores, one has to think that the demand is very low in this area (South King county and pierce county in Washington state.
I used to shop in Fnac (Antwerpen) and the directory they had was enormous and it was always pleasant that the store people at least knew of recording a or b of a certain artist and could find it for me.
I think classical recordings should not be regarded as finished and the remark of Composer Klaus from Austria makes me wonder if he ever heard music like the Violin concerto of Beethoven by Perlman and/or by Oghi and if he can tell me why some people like the first and others the second one... In jazz you also have 'reference recordings, things that are such a good representation of what artist and composer combined mean or the interpretation of a certain artist for a certain piece, that you want to hold on to that forever. Think of La Callas as Mimi, unforgettable, you feel the woman is dying while she proclaims her love...
Think of Te Kanawa singing " i like to be in America" or Carerras singing Maria in a remake of the soundtrack of West Side Story in the Eighties.... The orchestra was literally picked up from little bars and of the street in NY by Bernsteins add, because Leonard was trying to get the real NY music feeling in the recording!!!!!!!!!! Unforgettable and now truly a masterpiece.
I supose you think, Mr. Klaus that this was completely useless of the record company and Bernstein, after all, there was already a recording from the Motion Picture....... How completely foolish to think that way!!!!!!!!
Think of, almost 50 years ago, Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall when he asks the wealthy audience to sing a capella referring to them as "Now The Scholarship section" .. the interpretations of artists HAVE to be kept for ever and some of us, and I consider myself one of these happy few that CAN enjoy this, are all too happy about it!!!!!
And when Nicholas Lens ( a multi talented contemporary artist, Mr. Klaus) made " the Fire Requiem' (listen to FLamma FLamma, please listen to it) then I can agree and say you should not exclude contempary classical inspired music but let's quickly forget pop in this forum.
Jean-Pierre
Lohengrin in Antwerp.... to die for! |
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| johnferrier |
| quote: | Originally posted by uvodee
Lohengrin in Antwerp.... to die for! |
I liked Pierre Boulez conducting Varèse's Amériques in Berlin. Wouldn't mind hearing him perform his own work at Baden-Baden.
JF |
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| phase_accurate |
Playing the flute and the bass guitar (unfortunately not so often anymore nowadays) I have played music from the medieval times up to today by myself and I can say that I liked all of it so far.
In the last few years pop music started to become more and more boring IMHO, i.e. it also suffered from some kind of intellectual standstill. The best songs in fact are the old ones that are released as cover versions nowadays. And I am talking of the songs per se and definitely NOT the interpretations. But people buy them for whatever reason I don't know ........
So I wonder why this doesn't work with classical recordings as well (althogh you can't call interpretations cover versions, of course). Me too I can listen to different interpretations of the same classical work and still like most of them (and I think I am not the only one).
I think there is not much interest for the record companies trying to sell good music if most of their revenue is achieved with bad one.
Regards
Charles |
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| uvodee |
both johnferrier AND phase_accurate
and yes I like Louie Louie and Waltzing Mathilda as well
And let us not exclude Mack the knife, Johny Surabaya or the Alabama song
almost 100 years old .....
Jean-Pierre |
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| martijn |
| quote: | Originally posted by jackinnj
Is there a Dutch equivalent of the UK publication "Gramophone" -- I pick up a copy every month at Borders and scrutinize the reviews -- one very important tip -- they often cite the best prior recordings and these can be had on EBay (or perhaps you have CD and LP trading shops in Holland!) An investment in Gramophone spares me the disappointment of choosing by the cover.
Too bad that Hifi News and Record Review has become HiFiNews and Nothing Review. |
There is a dedicated classical music shop here(4 minutes walk)offering most of the interesting new releases including the possibility to listen(and drink coffee while reading Gramophone!)
So information and availability is no problem around here.
But that horrid Rousset recording was actually applauded in
Gramophone!
Martijn |
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| mwmkravchenko |
Elitest. I mean that the music is :
hard to get to physically not much of it in stores
expensive to a new comer. altough there are some good budget labels now.
People at the record shop don't usually know what it is or how to help you.
There is still a stigma in the general public that "classical" music is snoby.
The truth of the matter is that most everyone when they hear something that they enjoy or that moves them emotionally will say so. What ever kind of music that they are listening to. I regularly provide demos for friends and clients and I have only baroque and early classical in my collection. They all most allways leave with a smile and a " I never heard music like that before "
comments.
If the music of the past centuries was prsented as just another flavour it would be easier to access. But it requires a pioneering spirit in that a bit of interest in history is needed. A bit of understanding of instrumentation helps as well. ( I personally played french horn for quite a while much less now as I don't have one any longer )
Popular music is marketed as fun and moving. It involves you and is relevant to the times ( what ever the record compaies think is relevant and the public gets spoon fed it untill they think so too ) Popular music is also short. Needs precious little patience to listen to. Try that with Bach's Passacaglia! The Goldberg Variations? It's music for more inquiring minds. But that's not saying that only "smart people" can listen to it. Like many other things in life some of the best traits need proper cultivation. A little here and there can spark a persons interest. To fan that spark into a flame of passion ( face it people can be passionate about music! ) is what is needed.
Mark |
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| Kuei Yang Wang |
Konnichiwa,
| quote: | Originally posted by SY
Re: Is recorded classical music dead?
One writer thinks so:
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To quote Twain, "The rumours of my demise where somewhat exxegarated...".
Sayonara |
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| sam9 |
It's not dead but it is being transmogrified. The recorded music industry both classical and pop as we "traditionally think of it" is founded on two technologies: the Edison cylinder and the DeForest's triode, i.e., recording and broadcast. These are about 100 years old. Until the internet everything that has happened has been an advance on those two but not fundamental. The internet has the potential for a fundamental change.
However, note that both classical and pop music existed before the above innovations, but the business of music was drasticly altered by them. (As an aside, the Gutenberg printing press cause a change in the "business" of music of equal magnitude a few centuries earlier.)
Recorded music will still be with us but the "business" aspects may change in a big way. The interesting point is that even the priciple perpetrators (including Gates and Jobs) don't really know what is going to happen. My prediction is that in 2024 we will look back and realize that no one came close to predicting what was going to happen. |
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| johnferrier |
| quote: | Originally posted by sam9
My prediction is that in 2024 we will look back and realize that no one came close to predicting what was going to happen. |
Jeepers, I can't even predict what's going to happen that day when I get up in the morning...
JF |
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| purplepeople |
I don't fear that classical will be lost due to lack of musicianship or the creation of new compositions. The rise of "world" music and various fusions of it have shown that consumers are always looking for different ways to enjoy sound.
What really concerns me is that the rise of MP3 will cause consumers to overlook a lot of alternative material since many of the important details are lost in the conversion process. When only the highly distinct rhythm and non-dynamic melodies of popular music are translated well by the medium, other types will lose their shot at growing their own audience.
It would be a tragedy if non-pop becomes an option only for the 'philes because they are the only ones with the equipment to decode the nuances.
Still, all is not lost and I can proudly claim to have one victory in this regard. I introduced a younger cousin who plays drums to Brubeck's classic. He can't play along yet, but at least he knows what rhythmic excellence really means. And, more importantly, he's hungry for more.
:)ensen. |
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| sam9 |
"What really concerns me is that the rise of MP3 will cause consumers to overlook a lot of alternative material since many of the important details are lost in the conversion process."
I've been downloading some classical MP3s @ 128k. There may be a slight difference between this and the same piece in Redbook format, but it is very, very hard to hear. Secondly, we should beware of the "audiophile falacy". At least that's what I call it. First the average non-audiophile doesn't miss what he doesn't hear and even if he can percieve the difference between MP3 and SACD it doesn't bother him/her because he/she is responding to the content. I'm married to a musician who thinks such differences are nice but don't make much difference to her because she knows what the music is supossed to sound like and neither MP3, DVD-A or SACD are "real" and this is not a problem because her brain just fills in the missing parts.
Finally, I don't think MP3 at it's current data rate is permanent. As speeds of communication and memory capacity increase and fall in cost, higher data rates (24/96 or whatever) will be more common. I'll bet that in ten years it's a non-issue. |
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| Christer |
My guess is that classical listeners are more inclined to buy
their music on disc than pop listeners are. So if classical
listeners want to download the music from the net and burn
their own CDs I would guess that has more to do with the
discs not being easily available in shops. Something I had
expected to happen but we still haven't seen is burn-on-demand
services in record shops, similar to print-on-demand books that
has been tried or at least suggested. If the record companies
provided the shops with a fast internet connection and a
fast good CD burner, you could basically buy any disc in the
catalogues in you local shop. The companies would probably
have to go toghether and cooperate on the technology, though,
and the equipment should probably have some built in encryption
so the shops cannot burn multiple copies without paying for
them.
For those of us enjoying the luxury of high-speed internet
connection it would be an interesting alternative to be able
to download non-compressed CDs directly from the record
companies, of course. If they can provide a sufficiently fast
server, ideally mirrored at least locally in each country, this
could work well. However, I suppose we are still too few
customers having this option. On the other hand, this seems
not to bother software companies. Although most people
don't have very fast internet connections, demo versions of
software, especially computer games, are becoming
increasingly larger, nowaday often on the order of 50 to 100MB,
and people download them even if they only have a 56k modem.
Downloading a full linux distribution usually ends up around
some five full CDs, and even many modem users do this. |
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| purplepeople |
Two very good points about data rates and file sizes. I will admit to being convinced.
As to the argument that musicians don't care or fill in the gaps - I disagree. I certainly hope musicians care that recordings be as good as possible, especially their own. And as for the gap filling, as a former musician (and one who still knows how instruments should sound) it really bothers me when details get lost. Those details are critical, especially when the nuances determine if the performance was good, passable, mediocre or virtuoso.
:)ensen |
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| Christer |
| quote: | Originally posted by purplepeople
Two very good points about data rates and file sizes. I will admit to being convinced.
|
Which points got you convinced about what? Just curious
since it wasn't obvious what you were referring to.
| quote: |
As to the argument that musicians don't care or fill in the gaps - I disagree. I certainly hope musicians care that recordings be as good as possible, especially their own. And as for the gap filling, as a former musician (and one who still knows how instruments should sound) it really bothers me when details get lost. Those details are critical, especially when the nuances determine if the performance was good, passable, mediocre or virtuoso.
|
I would suppose most musicians today care about their
recordings being good, or at least done in such a way that
listeners appreciate them. In the old days most muscians
wouldn't care much and often weren't even interested in
the recordings, expcept for the money they might occasionally
get from the recordings. There are several cases where
the engineers were not satisfied with the technical quality
of some parts of a recording and wanted a retake of those,
but couldn't do it because of the extra fees the musicians
requested. I suppose musicians used to be paid only for the time
of the recoding sessions and not through roylaties in those days.
There were exceptions though. I read that George Szell came
back from a tour to Europe in the late 1950s and brought
with him a couple of brand new AKG microphones he had
bought in Austria because he had heard they were supposed
to be very good.
I do on the other hand suspect that many musicians do not
care so much about sound quality when listening to recorded
music. Very many musicians have very crappy gear at home
and I suspect many listen rather to the interpretation than
the actual sound. I am not a musician, but I tend to listen in
that way too, although I certainly appreciate when the sound
is good too. |
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| fdegrove |
Hi,
| quote: | | I read that George Szell came back from a tour to Europe in the late 1950s and brought with him a couple of brand new AKG microphones he had bought in Austria because he had heard they were supposed to be very good. |
They're certainly fine mikes.
A good sound engineer will have several mikes and capsules and use the ones that suit the occasion best.
Microphones, like everything else, have a set of characteristics that you have to be aware of.
They also have a sonic fingerprint that shows their character...
Dave Wilson of Wilson Audio once made a recording of some organ music with on one side of the vinyl disc a take with a Neumann mike and the other an AKG.
You could tell the mikes apart quite easily on high resolution gear.
Cheers,;) |
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| purplepeople |
I was a bit vague...
| quote: | Originally posted by sam9
Finally, I don't think MP3 at it's current data rate is permanent. As speeds of communication and memory capacity increase and fall in cost, higher data rates (24/96 or whatever) will be more common. I'll bet that in ten years it's a non-issue. |
| quote: | Originally posted by Christer
For those of us enjoying the luxury of high-speed internet
connection it would be an interesting alternative to be able
to download non-compressed CDs directly from the record
companies, of course. If they can provide a sufficiently fast
server, ideally mirrored at least locally in each country, this
could work well. However, I suppose we are still too few
customers having this option. On the other hand, this seems
not to bother software companies. Although most people
don't have very fast internet connections, demo versions of
software, especially computer games, are becoming
increasingly larger, nowaday often on the order of 50 to 100MB,
and people download them even if they only have a 56k modem.
Downloading a full linux distribution usually ends up around
some five full CDs, and even many modem users do this. |
sam9: Your spouse seems similar to the wife of a friend of mine. As the story goes, she made a demo tape of her quartet as a sales tool for getting wedding gigs. The MD was recorded in their living room using a single karaoke mike on the fireplace mantle. That room has hardwood floors and two opposing walls are fully glassed in both length and height. Describing the session as "live" would have been an understatement. Needless to say, nobody could understand why the MD sounded so bad. Even after some technical explanation by my friend, the members of the quartet (including his wife) would still not wholly believe that the recording technique and not their performance was the cause. And I quote: "But it's digital, it should be perfect." |
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| Christer |
| quote: | Originally posted by purplepeople
Even after some technical explanation by my friend, the members of the quartet (including his wife) would still not wholly believe that the recording technique and not their performance was the cause. And I quote: "But it's digital, it should be perfect." |
Could you please tell this to the record companies too, since
most of them seem to hold the same beliefs and use the
same techniques nowadays. :) |
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| Timn8ter |
| My wife didn't show much interest in accurate musical reproduction until I took her to Vegas and she heard a "good" stereo. Now she nows the difference which helps me to design better stuff. Could it be that the disinterest is caused by ignorance? As was said, you don't miss what you don't know. Classical recordings may diminish but I doubt it will die. So many things are cyclical. Tubes were a thing of the past until recently, now it seems to be making a comeback. As for MP3s: I just can't accept that any form of compression is a good thing and look forward to widespread distribution of direct from master recordings of all types of music. |
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| jackinnj |
No Requiem for Classical CD's, Please
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
he British cultural critic Norman Lebrecht has been the Cassandra of classical music. His polemical 1997 book, "Who Killed Classical Music?: Maestros, Managers and Corporate Politics," offered insights into the way conglomerate thinking was ruining a once proudly nonprofit art form. But his bleak indictment was wildly overstated.
Not content as Cassandra, Mr. Lebrecht is becoming a classical music sibyl as well. In a recent column in La Scena Musicale, an online magazine, Mr. Lebrecht offered what he called "the rock-solid prediction" that "the year 2004 will be the last for the classical record industry."
Should classical music lovers take this seriously? His analysis is interesting, but his conclusion preposterous. That the recording industry has been reeling from the one-two punch of poor economic conditions and the proliferation of free Internet downloading is old news. Things have never been worse, Mr. Lebrecht says. Major classical music labels, which a decade ago "pumped out 120 new releases a year," he writes, now produce a "trickle of two dozen." Where the majors "once fought bidding wars over shimmering talent," he adds, "they now compete in shedding it."
He cites EMI Classics' decision not to extend the contract of Roberto Alagna, the French-born Sicilian singer whom the company once touted as "the fourth tenor." Mr. Alagna has been added to "the dump pile," Mr. Lebrecht writes, "a victim of poor sales." (An EMI spokesman said that Mr. Alagna was offered a new contract but rejected it, which amounts to being dropped.) Mr. Alagna's wife, the soprano Angela Gheorghiu, "remains under contract but has no further recordings planned," Mr. Lebrecht writes. Not quite true, the EMI spokesman said. EMI is obligated to make several Gheorghiu recordings, but the programs have not been specified.
Yet Mr. Lebrecht's evidence for the coming demise of classical recording could be viewed alternatively as proof that for once the free market is working. If some greedy major labels are getting the comeuppance they deserve, let them go under.
Smaller labels like Nonesuch and Naxos, which once just filled in the gaps with records of specialty repertory and adventurous artists ignored by the majors, are proving that it is possible to release important recordings at midrange prices and still pay the bills. And though the financial repercussions from the downloading of CD's have the recording industry feeling besieged and impotent, some bold orchestras have, like many rock groups, taken matters into their own hands and released self-produced CD's, recorded live and available on the Internet.
Considering Mr. Alagna's history at EMI, you can only say, "What did they expect?" When EMI signed Mr. Alagna in 1993, he seemed a charismatic lyric tenor with a refined understanding of French style and a dashing stage presence. As he began dating Ms. Gheorghiu, an alluring, dusky-toned, fiery Romanian soprano, her recording company, Decca, tried to lure Mr. Alagna. EMI fought back and won. In 1998 EMI held a lavish news conference and buffet at Tavern on the Green in Central Park to anoint opera's handsome new love couple.
But their individual talents, though considerable, were oversold. The classical market was glutted with an extensive back catalog. It was one thing for EMI to offer its new stars in a welcome recording of Puccini's lesser-known and lovely "La Rondine," stylishly conducted by Antonio Pappano. But the couple's recording of Puccini's "Tosca"? Did EMI expect opera buffs to buy this unremarkable "Tosca" when so many classic accounts were available?
If not meeting Mr. Alagna's demands means that EMI can direct more attention to composers and emerging artists, so much the better. One is Leif Ove Andsnes, the young Norwegian pianist, an exclusive EMI artist and for me the most accomplished pianist of the new generation.
Still, Mr. Lebrecht predicts that Mr. Andsnes will be held to "one disc a year, just the one, if he's lucky." But might not this restriction actually benefit Mr. Andsnes's development? So far he has put careful thought into each of his albums, like his scintillating 2003 Schubert recording, which interestingly offers the Piano Sonata in D major, D. 850, along with a group of mostly lesser-known lieder sung by the British tenor Ian Bostridge.
Every day comes more evidence that the classical music business is facing dismaying economic challenges. Last month the Detroit Symphony Orchestra announced that, to deal with a budget crisis, its musicians and staff members had agreed to a three-week unpaid furlough. The recording industry has been further shaken by seismic shifts in digital technology.
In the glory decades artists like Arthur Rubinstein and George Szell made big money from their recordings. Today, with the exceptions of a handful of stars, most artists understand that recordings will not make them a living. It is hard to speak of classical and pop recordings as the same industry. A violin recital album that sold 5,000 to 10,000 copies over three to five years would be considered a solid success. Sales of 50,000 would be considered extraordinary. By contrast EMI paid $28 million just to buy out Mariah Carey's contract in 2002.
Though the soprano Renée Fleming is a top-selling Decca artist, the Sony Classical label has just released a lovely account of her performance in the title role of Massenet's "Manon," recorded live at the National Opera of Paris with the tenor Marcelo Alvarez, a Sony artist, singing Des Grieux. In the golden days an artist of Ms. Fleming's popularity would have been rushed into the studio to document her major opera roles. Studio recordings of a complete opera have become dauntingly expensive. Live recordings are a viable alternative.
In recent years two major orchestras, exasperated by the declining interest of the major labels, have boldly taken live recording one step further and started producing their own CD's. The London Symphony is one. Its live 2001 recording of Berlioz's epic opera "Les Troyens" was issued on the orchestra's label, LSO Live. The San Francisco Symphony has also established its own label, SFS Media, and issued, among other releases, a blazing account of Mahler's Sixth Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Both recordings received critical acclaim, solid sales and Grammy Awards. Though the CD's are in stores, consumers can also order them from the orchestras' Web sites.
The growth of downloading technology has received lots of media coverage. But not enough attention has been directed to this more benign Internet prospect: instead of manufacturing thousands of discs and getting them into stores, the record companies will increasingly take orders online, burn copies of the requested CD's and mail them.
This mode of operating has already salvaged Composers Recordings Inc., the scrappy nonprofit label that for 48 years maintained the most eclectic and adventurous catalog of contemporary classical music. Though that company folded in April, its catalog was taken over by another nonprofit, New World Records, which has promised to make the entire catalog available by burning to order, complete with printouts of the liner notes.
Here is my rock-solid prediction, though it comes with no deadline: the major labels will set up their own custom-made CD ventures. The move makes financial sense and will allow companies to keep their entire back catalogs in circulation, including oddball specialty items.
Still, consumers will have to adjust to new realities. Custom-burned CD's are not likely to come with fancy packaging. Serious collectors who are running out of shelf space at home have begun jettisoning the hard plastic jewel boxes, slip their CD's into soft plastic envelops and store them in file boxes. After all, a CD is essentially a plastic-coated floppy disk. Maybe we will have to start treating them that way.
Despite the greed and bungling of so many recording executives, these companies still have top-level employees who care about classical music and want to deliver it to appreciative consumers.
If the classical divisions of the major labels totter, as Mr. Lebrecht predicts, so be it. Smaller companies and emerging technologies will offer new solutions. Seems naïve? Well, classical music could use a few Pollyannas right now. It already has a Cassandra. |
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| johnferrier |
I find this interesting. Thanks for posting it.
JF |
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| jackinnj |
| any relation to Kathleen Ferrier -- the great mezzo sop? |
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