Hello, I hear and read a lot about the death of classical music.  There is
even a book with the title "Who Killed Classical Music" or something of
that sort.  But I wonder if maybe the reports of the death of classical
music might be a bit exaggerated.  I even wonder if maybe classical music
is entering a small rival stage. . .  or at least has the potential to
enter one.

I think that Beethoven and Mozart music have been replaced by Shania Twain
and Ricki Martin as the music of the mass culture in much the way that Tom
Clancy and Danielle Steele have replaced the novels of Charles Dickens and
Jane Austen.  However, that has not stopped John Adams and Phillip Glass
from creating new music anymore than it has stopped John Updike or Toni
Morrison from writing novels.  Popular music and literature have gotten
easier to understand and less demanding.  They have perhaps become less
rewarding as well.  That doesn't mean that music (or literature or other
forms of art) by people who are striving to create works of art beyond
and above the popular culture ceases to exist.

I suspect laziness as the culprit here.  It's a lot easier to listen to a
pop tune than it is to listen to a Mahler symphony.  The pop tune almost
always takes less of an investment of time, energy, thought and work in
general.

I don't think that having conductors come from far away places is such a
bad thing.  I think it's really groovy to bring in new ideas from other
places and other organizations and even completely different countries.

I doubt that the current mass of reissued older recordings from the various
labels is really a bad thing.  I do not mind listening to high quality
older recordings and I'm very willing to not buy a lousy old one.

I'm not even convinced that the decline in the number of recordings issued
by the major labels is really a bad thing.  All human endeavors seem to
need a time of renewal once in a while.  Why should recording be different?
If the majors leave this particular niche behind then doesn't that make
more room for other independent labels to step into that realm? I don't
know as much about the interrelations of the various labels as perhaps I
should, but I believe that Hyperion and Chandos are both independent of the
major labels.  I've found that many of the best recent recordings that I've
bought come from them.

I'd like to share some of my major cd purchases over the past couple of
years that have been issued (or reissued) over the past several years or
so because I think that they show that there is still good classical music
being put on the market:

   Jaarvi's cycle of the Prokofiev Symphonies on Chandos
   The Complete Masterworks Recordings by Horowitz on Sony
   The William Kapell Edition on BMG's RCA Red Seal
   Bernstein Live! and The Historic Broadcasts 1923-1987 from
      the New York Philharmonic

I think it is safe to say that the classical music marketplace is
undergoing change. . . and although I'm far from being an expert on it,
it is obvious that it has problems. But I wonder if reports of the death
of classical music in any form might perhaps be exaggerated or premature.
All things change, but that doesn't mean they die.:)

Female Schatz     ICQ#32385611
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