Re: [ARSCLIST] CD versus Download was "All hail the analogue revolution..."

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

Bob Olhsson wrote:
> Don Cox wrote:
> > On 02/10/06, K
> > Some releases are as good as anything available.
>
> I'm not saying some of them aren't. I'm saying that this is a  "business model" that doesn't really benefit classical music.
>
> Those union contracts WERE negotiated with the major labels. Are you suggesting that musicians who have spent a lifetime competing for a chair in one the world's leading orchestras don't deserve the level of compensation the major labels have agreed to as appropriate for their level of accomplishment? 
Certainly that business model benefits classical music. It provides 
income for capable musicians who would otherwise have no exposure. It 
provides excellent performances for collectors who are not concerned 
about the difference in sound between a Steinway and a Bechstein.

What it does not do is aid the Big Names of classical music. For them, 
other models apply. There have always been multiple models with 'minor' 
labels offering often very fine readings. I'll cite two conductors I 
find quite fit to stand with Szell and Walter if not with Toscanini  - 
and far ahead of other names I will not invoke: Jascha Horenstein and 
Rene Leibowitz. If neither recorded with a Vienna Philharmonic or a 
Philadelphia Orchestra, they delivered the goods with the orchestras 
they had on the labels with whom they contracted.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/