Martin Anderson poses the intriguing question:

>...can I ask you whether -- once a track record had been established,
>with recordings of interesting composers (say, Rontgen, Gal, Reicha,
>Kaminski, Milford, Weinberg, Saar, Stevenson, Busch, Myslivecek - people
>like that) to judge the label by - a subscription scheme like this,
>with (again, say) four releases a month, would be something you would
consider?

This is a brave (Yes, Minister) and innovative undertaking and as such
deserves all the support I can give it -- so I would sign up for a six
month trial period almost without question.  However, I do have a view
or two that I will take this opportunity to feed into your thought
process.

Four releases a month may stretch my resource of absorption -- though
not my financial resources, if your plan to follow Naxos' pricing policy
were to come to fruition.  I accept that for your label to be a success
you need to achieve a critical mass of sales, and that in circumstances
in which current success of an individual release may be measured in
hundreds rather than thousands of sales, you may need to consider viable
volume coming from multiple simultaneous releases.  However, for somebody
like me with very wide musical tastes, four discs per month of complete
unknowns may soon jade my admittedly broad palate -- but not having tried
this, I don't know!

Perhaps you could divide your efforts between composers who are literally
almost unknown on the one hand and lesser works of composers who are at
least slightly 'commercial' on the other.  For example -- you, of all
people, know how much of Kalevi Aho's work remains unavailable on CD,
with the exception of the BIS and Ondine recordings of the symphonies
and a few concertante works.  John Fould's music also deserves a wider
airing (I would give blood to hear the World Requiem recorded), as do
the symphonies of Rostislav Boiko, other than those available on (now
deleted) Russian Disc.  I am not for a moment suggesting any duplication
of existing repertoire -- that is anathema to the idea you promulgate.
But I wonder if such a division between two 'classes of the unknown or
neglected' might garner you a slightly larger audience?

Of course, this all begs the question of how you persuade orchestras and
chamber groups to perform these works for recording in the first place,
but I'm sure that's a question that is exercising your enthusiastic
intellect on a daily basis!

Best of luck with this -- and PLEASE keep me informed.  You certainly
have one willing subscriber here on a 'suck it and see' basis!

Tim Mahon
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