http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/arts/music/30gold.html

 [I would have posted only the link, but nytimes.com insists on forcing
an unwanted advertisement on me every time I try to go to this site
afresh.  So why should I respect them when they don't respect us?]

   November 30, 2004
   CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
   Amid Dire Predictions, Classical Records Flower
   By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

   Early this year the polemical British cultural critic Norman
   Lebrecht came out with what he called a "rock-solid prediction"
   that the year 2004 would be the last for the classical record
   industry.  Though Mr. Lebrecht's dire prediction was absurd,
   his grim overall take on the field resonated.  The major
   recording companies have been mired in financial crises for
   years, and some clueless leaders at the major labels have
   only made things worse.

   After shedding staff and floundering artistically for years,
   two former behemoths in the industry, BMG Classics and Sony
   Classical, merged this year.  Clearly the merger hasn't solved
   the problem.  The combined company recently announced an
   additional 25 percent cut in staff at its offices in Germany.
   These labels are the humbled remnants of companies that once
   maintained the most distinguished catalogs in the business,
   RCA and Columbia.  Could Peter Gelb, the president of Sony
   Classical, be jumping ship by accepting the post of general
   manager of the Metropolitan Opera starting in 2006?

   Sounds bad, right?  Yet I have seldom had so many exciting
   and important new classical music recordings come across my
   desk as in the last year or so.

   Major labels like EMI Classics are championing contemporary
   music, as with the new recording of Messiaen's visionary
   "Eclairs sur l'Au-Dela," his last major orchestral score, in
   an exhilarating performance by Simon Rattle and the Berlin
   Philharmonic.  Smaller labels are releasing invaluable
   explorations of the masters, like the mezzo-soprano Lorraine
   Hunt Lieberson's sublime program of Handel arias and cantatas
   with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by
   Harry Bicket on Avie.  Koch International Classics showed
   that sizable companies are still open to offbeat projects of
   special interest, like the pianist Sara Davis Buechner's
   lovely program of piano works by the operetta composer Rudolf
   Friml, surprisingly fine music and a labor of love from Ms.
   Buechner.

   Despite the financial struggles in the industry, it feels as
   if we are in the midst of a golden age of classical recording.
   So what's going on?

   Several things, no doubt.  Being forced to cut back production
   drastically has made label executives come up with projects
   that matter, recordings that truly contribute to the discography.
   "Smaller is better" may be a cliche, but that approach has
   paid off for the classical recording industry.

   Perhaps for once the free market is working the way it is
   supposed to.  At the smart labels, the shift of thinking
   recalls the golden days in book publishing when distinguished
   houses had small lists of authors they believed in, and they
   took the time to nurture and promote their works.  Today
   publishing companies release far too many books, hoping that
   one will be a surprise best seller, like "The Perfect Storm"
   and "The Da Vinci Code," and cutting losses from books that
   don't catch on right away.

   Among the major classical labels, EMI has had the smartest
   reaction to the financial challenges.  The company has made
   choices among artists, choosing not to extend the contract
   of the tenor Roberto Alagna and making a major commitment to
   the remarkable young Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes.  Fans
   of Mr. Alagna may question the company's choices, but at
   least EMI is making them and standing by its artists.

   Though for 20 years the market has had a glut of the same
   core repertory, EMI understands when an artist has something
   fresh to say about familiar works, as with Mr. Andsnes's
   most recent release, joyous and sparkling accounts of two
   Mozart piano concertos (No. 9 in E flat and No. 18 in B
   flat), with Mr. Andsnes conducting the Norwegian Chamber
   Orchestra.  Manfred Eicher, the principled producer at the
   Munich-based label ECM, who has released bracing recordings
   of contemporary music, has also made valuable contributions
   to the standard repertory, as with its release of the first
   book of Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier," played by the Austrian
   pianist Till Fellner, a lucid, sensitive and refined performance.

   In earlier times it was essential for an artist to have an
   exclusive contract with a recording company, though such
   relationships are rarer today.  Deutsche Grammophon has made
   a long-term commitment to the splendid young Russian soprano
   Anna Netrebko, whose recent "Sempre Libera" is a radiantly
   sung program of Italian arias with the great Claudio Abbado
   conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

   But the soprano Deborah Voigt is proving that with the right
   management and a sense of mission, you can steer yourself
   into projects without having an exclusive contract with a
   major label.  This year EMI released Ms. Voigt's "Obsessions,"
   a program of arias and scenes from her signature Wagner and
   Strauss roles, sung gloriously, with Richard Armstrong
   conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.  But also
   this year, Deutsche Grammophon issued Ms. Voigt's first foray
   into the role of Isolde in a live recording of Wagner's
   "Tristan und Isolde" from the Vienna State Opera, with Thomas
   Moser as Tristan, conducted with breathtaking intensity by
   Christian Thielemann.

   Which brings up the issue of live recordings.  A large market
   for complete opera recordings still exists, but these mammoth
   projects have become prohibitively expensive, especially in
   the United States, where the prospect of paying unionized
   orchestra musicians for the required number of studio sessions
   has ended many projects at their conception.

   But as recording costs have soared, so has the capability of
   recording technology.  Today, with digital editing techniques,
   a single wrong note or off-pitch tone can be replaced with
   the right one from another take.  Consequently, more and more
   companies have begun to record operas and major symphonic
   works live, with the final edit compiled from several
   performances.  The new "Tristan und Islode" offers arresting
   evidence of how successful this so-called compromise can be.

   Moreover, the trend among major orchestras to compensate for
   the timidity of the major labels by releasing and distributing
   their own recordings on their own labels continues.  LSO Live,
   the recording outlet of the London Symphony Orchestra, has
   just issued a spirited new performance of Verdi's "Falstaff,"
   conducted by Colin Davis, recorded live last spring at the
   Barbican in London.  Similarly the San Francisco Symphony has
   just released Michael Tilson Thomas's bold account of Mahler's
   Symphony No. 2, with the rich-voiced soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian
   and the affecting Ms. Hunt Lieberson as soloists.

   Any notion that these ventures into self-produced recordings
   are just an experiment should be quashed by the latest entrant,
   the Boston Pops.  Long a cash cow for the Boston Symphony
   Orchestra, the Pops has just issued its first self-produced
   and self-distributed CD, "Sleigh Ride," a Christmas album
   conducted by Keith Lockhart.

   In addition, the smaller labels are responding with heartening
   creativity to the business challenges in the industry and the
   cutbacks by the majors.  Highlights this year include Nonesuch's
   "Voices of Light," a program of vocal works by Messiaen,
   Debussy, Faure and Osvaldo Golijov, sung exquisitely by the
   soprano Dawn Upshaw, accompanied by the elegant pianist Gilbert
   Kalish.  There is a gripping new release of orchestral works
   by Steve Reich, performed by the dynamic conductor David
   Robertson and the Orchestre National de Lyon, from Naive.

   And Naxos, the invaluable and adventurous budget label, may
   get top honors for the most significant contribution of the
   year with its release of William Bolcom's setting of William
   Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience," 46 poems by
   William Blake, in a live performance by the University of
   Michigan School of Music Orchestra and Chorus.  This work,
   with over two hours of Mr. Bolcom's poly-stylistic music,
   is surely his masterpiece.

   It is still hard to know how things will fare with the
   smaller-is-better approach at the major labels and the current
   trends toward self-producing among major orchestras.  Also,
   distribution via the Internet is already transforming the
   role of retailers.  In 10 years the classical recording
   business may look quite different from the way it does now.
   But despite the naysaying, the business will adapt and survive.

   Meanwhile I can hardly find enough time to listen to all the
   discs that have come out during this golden era of classical
   music recording.  Maybe I'll listen again to the blazing new
   Philips recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4 with
   Valery Gergiev conducting the Kirov Orchestra in a live
   performance.  Or the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard's revelatory
   and pianistically stunning account of Ives's "Concord" Sonata
   on Warner Classics.  Or.  ...

   Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

- seb