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