The Covid situation will definitely affect the recording business, particularly as far as orchestral music and opera are concerned. At last producers could concentrate on a speedier publication of their backward productions - if there will be almost nothing new. Naxos and cpo have dozens - or hundreds - such productions wating since years to be issued - so this may be a chance to get them sooner!
This is the only real positive I can see coming out of this covid nonsense.
The question of cpo's huge stack of unissued recordings hadn't occurred to me, but it's a very good prospect, Adriano. Thanks for making it.
How many unissued recordings are we talking here? hundreds... thousands?
cpo's raving producing policy seems to be in connection with the bad health of one of its representatives: "Let's fulfil my dreams and do as many as possible CDs now, then we'll see later" - something in that way.
Cannot confirm this, but so I am told...
Naxos may have a smaller quantity of unissued recordings, but they are continuing their raving policy of buying up as much as smaller labels in difficulties as possible - and to extend their distribution net worldwide. Klaus Heymann (whom I always compared to Citizen Kane) is trying to conquer the musical world. A "music business" Jeff Bezos?
Since it will perhaps still be possible to produce chamber-ensemble music, I hope that there will be not many more of these boring Baroque operas...
I love Baroque operas...
I hope you don't mind - I've tried to make the title of this thread a little clearer...
I've long suspected Naxos had a long pipeline leading to recording releases. For example, I've just been listening to 4 hand piano arrangements of Schumann's 1st and 4th symphonies, recorded in 2017 and 2018 and only just released! Makes me wonder what else they've got hidden away ☺
This is an interesting topic but one which, without concrete information, will, I fear, quickly degenerate into mere speculation and wishful thinking. Perhaps Adriano, who seems to be most knowledgeable in this particular area, could provide examples of works which he knows have been recorded and have remained unreleased for a long time.
In spite of everything I want to be fair and not reveal more details: Strong competition still reigns between the two mentioned labels.
Just a few cpo examples: Lachner's opera "Caterina Cornaro" was recorded by cpo in 2012 and released in 2018; Bruch's "Die Loreley" was recorded in 2014 and realeased in 2018, Reznickek's "Benzin" was recorded in 2010 and released in 2017. cpo's average release interval is about 2 years. I leave it up to you to find more examples.
Suppose the representative have goo ears and, if they don't hear about somting hot being in project by a competitor, thes wait a bit longer in order to bring out more "urgent" things.
The aping (or sandipit aping) releasing policies of Chandos and Naxos, for examples, show ridiculous aspects somtimes... Or than Naxos also tries to take up a series of Romantic Piano Concertos - when everybody knows that the Hyperion series is unsurpassable.
Chandos also started a film music series after the success of Naxos's. But they were cleverer, since they invested more money - by hiring better orchestras and using more sophisticated sound techniques.
I don't intend to burst anyone's bubble, but in my view, the chances are slim that this pandemic will accelerate the release of any recordings. The classical market has been in decline for years anyway, and I don't see how labels would benefit from releasing them from a business standpoint during this time; hopefully I will be proven wrong.
Adriano, if you are able to share, are there any unreleased recordings done under your baton? I am curious.
Zusac, you can consider my career as a recording conductor as terminated - and there is nothing to come. There are no sponsors anymore being interested in future projects of mine (I have at least a dozen). About the scandalous statal Swiss sponsoring's situation I have complained already various times in UC forums. The responsibles have no ears for our musical heritage, they only favourize the avant-garde.
I was never taken really seriosly here in Switzerland anyway, so who am I to pretend?
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Sunday 03 May 2020, 10:08
This is an interesting topic but one which, without concrete information, will, I fear, quickly degenerate into mere speculation and wishful thinking. Perhaps Adriano, who seems to be most knowledgeable in this particular area, could provide examples of works which he knows have been recorded and have remained unreleased for a long time.
We actually had a thread on this topic a few years ago - see http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6304.msg66551.html#msg66551 (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6304.msg66551.html#msg66551) - problem was people started posting up names of works that they wished would be recorded, which is a different question altogether!
Good point, Christopher.
In the list of "recorded works I'm dying to buy" are certainly Ewald Straesser/Sträßer's two symphonies and his piano concerto. Those are still somewhere in a drawer in Osnabrück, I assume.
I am with you there, Ilja.
Although the first two of Straesser's symphonies are still available in our Downloads board, they 'escaped'>:( to YouTube and can be checked out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmh3ubvJTaY (No.1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rQbmAKSDkU (No.2)
Personally, I find them somewhat elusive, but it'd be good to have them released.
Quote from: Ilja on Sunday 03 May 2020, 21:13
Those are still somewhere in a drawer in Osnabrück, I assume.
The same is sure to be said of Jean Louis Nicodé's works, also conducted by Werner Andreas Albert.
It's a pity Straesser's other 4 symphonies were not recorded and too that no tapes of Furtwängler conducting no.4 (iirc) (in G minor) seem to have been made. I recommend his 5 string quartets though.
At the moment, the record companies are barely functioning and most staff are working from home!
Hard to see that there will be an acceleration of releases under such circumstances.
I hope I am wrong.
I have been waiting for NAXOS to release Volume 2 of Korngold- The Complete Lieder for TWELVE YEARS! Vol 1 was released in 2008. Volume 2 has some incredible rarities and world premieres. I have stopped asking....
I would have to say the same.... there is a push from some of the orchestra's to put their music directly onto applemusic or spotify, and bypassing the labels altogether.... they receive more of the royalties since they are all downloads.... have to see what 2021 holds to happen
Quote from: brendangcarroll on Monday 04 May 2020, 17:00
I have been waiting for NAXOS to release Volume 2 of Korngold- The Complete Lieder for TWELVE YEARS! Vol 1 was released in 2008. Volume 2 has some incredible rarities and world premieres. I have stopped asking....
Yeah, Naxos in general seems to love to start series and never finish them. Or just take a long break between releases.
I'm not a fan of Naxos anymore, I rarely buy from them. I've moved into the CPO camp for the time being, I'm always pleasantly impressed by their new releases(even if they take many years sometimes to release :D)
Should we merge this and this (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6304.0.html) thread?
In re Naxos et piano obscure Ives jokes, their Fibich vol.5 is expected next month, including the 3rd symphony.
@TerraEpon
I wonder if Naxos records the whole series of composers and they wait to see if the first CD sells or not..if not, they don't or delay the series by decades.
The alternative being?
(I would guess btw that while cpo is sometimes different it is because they commit to financing and partners up front- their projects are in association withs, much moreso than Naxos'- and this changes the risks they are taking in the shorter term at least.)
Quote from: dhibbard on Wednesday 06 May 2020, 23:44
I wonder if Naxos records the whole series of composers and they wait to see if the first CD sells or not..if not, they don't or delay the series by decades.
I don't pretend to know anything about the inner-workings of classical labels, but assuming the company had serious doubts about the prospective popularity of a future series, wouldn't it lean toward spending *less* up front, on early production costs & multiple recordings, rather than more?
In my experience (and I've produced seven CDs for them) Naxos is a very commercially-aware operation. If they have any doubts about the profitability of a prospective recording (and probably if they don't) they'll want the costs of making it covered by sponsorship before they'll commit to it. Their standard business model when I was involved with them was that they expected a sponsor to take care of all aspects of getting the recording made, including sourcing the materials, paying artists (who often trade payment for the exposure of being recorded, I believe) and making the recording itself (to Naxos' specification, of course). Naxos may wholly finance some recordings themselves, I don't know, but in my experience their role is to manufacture the physical CDs and market them, which they do very well. So delays in completing a series are probably down to an inability of those behind the project to raise the money needed to complete it.
I should say for the avoidance of doubt that in saying this I'm not being critical of Naxos in any way. I found it a very straightforward, professional and easy to deal with company, which delivered what it promised.
And in any case, what right do we have demand things of them?
cpo's approach is rather different. Much (most?) of what they release are co-productions with German regional radio organisations.
With lockdown limitations on size numbers, we are already seeing a proliferation of recordings of solo works, instrumental sonatas & art songs. As restrictions are progressively eased, can we expect more recordings of trios, quartets....sextets... all the way up to symphonies... operas...oratorios.. and Mahler's eighth?
So you need another Mahler 8? :D
There are works that interest me that involve extremely large forces which can't be "phoned in" (arguably, "phoning in" one's part already loses a sense of "dialogue" even in a chamber duet, yes?...) and some are very significantly less known than Mahler 8- some even fall within the orbit of this group :) (and some, I think, have been recorded but not released and so fall within the area of this. The question of what recordings haven't even ever appeared on e.g. YouTube or the "tape recordings underground" but which are known to have been recorded, that's knottier, but that's what databases like Cadensa and similar can help remind me, I imagine :D