When I wrote:

>>The librettos were left out of the CD book to save space (partly because
>>Brubeck was paying for production of the CD himself).

Karl Miller wrote back:

>Amazing that someone with the talent and visability of Brubeck would be
>funding a recording of his own work!

Well, that's how you get a recording made these days, if you're not
Britney Spears or the flavor-of-the-month rapper.  The Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra does the same thing, in effect.  It pays its musicians itself
for all recording sessions and gets no royalties for sales of the CDs.
Telarc's only expense is for the recording crew and equipment.

The mighty orchestras of yesteryear no longer have recording contracts.
The last complete recording I can find by the New York Philharmonic
(other than reissues and anthologies) came out in 2002 on the Apex label.
The Chicago Symphony's last recording is on the Eloquence label, and
Tower lists it as a special-order item.  The Philadelphia Orchestra is
putting out an occasional CD on EMI.

Some orchestras (San Francisco, Detroit, and the London Symphony come
to mind) have created their own labels in order to get their recordings
to the market.

Nick Jones
Atlanta, Ga., USA