Discussing Kevin Sutton's claim that Naxos has the broadest repertory,
John Deacon writes:

>This is manifestly not true (yet) and possibly may never be so.  Naxos are,
>of course, completely eclipsed by EMI in a truly vast range of all types
>of serious musics made over more than 100 years -

This is very interesting from a historical point of view, but how much of
the EMI repertory is currently available to the music loving public? I
suspect that Naxos may be first in this regard.  Commenting on Naxos'
up-front cash payments, he notes that

>...what is interesting here is that the amount paid, calculated
>against the sales of 10-15k, often constitutes a really quite generous
>"royalty" when calculated from that standpoint!  And, yes, it has helped
>many careers as well as alleviating starvation!

All the more impressive is the Naxos commitment to a broad repertory.  The
American music series explores many byways, and I wonder if the works of
Leo Sowerby and Templeton Strong are really going to sell that well despite
their merits and more than historical interest.  Yet Naxos keeps going.

>But none of this is helped, surely by the fact that the uniform of a CEO in
>a major record company today involves the wearing of earrings, a clip-on
>pony-tail, black jeans and a mobile phone.  Their knowledge of classics is,
>as they say, the square root of zero (or FA in the colloquial)!  You don't
>believe me? I've met many of them - so please believe me.

All the more reason to nominate Klaus Heymann for the Nobel Prize in
recorded music.

Bernard Chasan