Janos forwarded:

>   Slipped disc
>   Norman Lebrecht on shifting sound worlds
>
>   The sad news has just reached me of the deaths, within days
>   of each other, of the last two stalwarts of the Decca golden
>   age - Jimmy Lock, the chief sound engineer, and Christopher
>   Raeburn, the label's driving-force producer.  ...
>
>   Why are you reading of their deaths here? Because no-one
>   at Decca has put out a press release on the passing of these
>   company lions. Decca, as I've reported, has been eviscerated
>   by corporate paper-shifters at its Universal owners and no
>   longer functions coherently.

While it is sad that these two stalwarts of Decca's classical antiquity
have passed, Lebrecht has been refuted in at least a couple of articles
for his claims against Decca and their present restructuring.  Mr.
Lebrecht, who only recently was successfully sued for libel by Naxos
founder Klaus Heymann, revels in hyperbole and constantly pines for the
good ole days.  Look, times change, markets change, technology changes
and the wants and needs of the buying public change.  While we can all
wax nostalgic about the golden days of yesteryear, Lebrecht's whining,
especially when it is so often punctuated with half-truths, is basically
worth ignoring.

Rest in peace Mr. Lock and Mr. Raeburn, and may light perpetual shine
upon them. Maybe some of that light will spill over into Lebrecht's
research bin.

Kevin Sutton

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