The Life and Death of Classical Music (18 page)

The chart excludes non-classical submissions. Sony Classical’s top-seller, for example, was Titanic with 25 million, followed by Charlotte Church’s 10 million; three Broadway shows also sold well into seven figures. The top classical entry, Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations, came in at number 11. EMI’s biggest ‘classical’ success after Gregorian chant was the pop violinist Vanessa-Mae with 3.5 million. On Decca, ‘operatic megastar’ Katherine Jenkins, who never set foot on an opera stage, sold more records in the UK than Callas. Bellowing Russell Watson, an old-fashioned, semi-trained belter, sold 1.7 million.

Such synthetic additives were not part of the classical narrative but symptoms of its terminal disease. The health of classical recording appears, from the chart above, to have depended heavily on Three Tenors and Four Seasons. But the chart is deceptive, for hundreds of classical records of great diversity sold upwards of half a million and thousands more made a decent profit. Classical recording was once a robust business, as testified by lifetime sales of its leading artists. The following figures are, for legal reasons, somewhat less precise than the album totals.

No other artist comes close. Cecilia Bartoli, the next biggest diva after Callas, has sold 4 million units in fifteen years.

Adding up the top-selling artists and extrapolating their totals across overall output figures, one arrives at a total classical sale of somewhere between 1 and 1.3 billion records. Pop comparison proves unexpectedly instructive. Fifteen pop artists topped 200 million sales, and fifty-eight made 100 million. The all-time leaders
⁹
are the Beatles with EMI estimates of 1 to 1.3 billion sales-exactly the same as the entirety of classical recording. The Beatles affected modern times more than any politician, scientist, writer or film maker. If classical recording as a cultural artefact achieved a similar impact over the century, it can safely be described as a world changing medium, life enhancing and incontrovertibly worthwhile.

So what remains? At the back of the store and out in cyberspace, an indelible heritage of thousands of recordings, some of them defining milestones in musical history. The end, however, was
nigh. Hyperion, after Ted Perry’s death, lost a million-pound lawsuit and was pushed to the brink, Chandos cut staff by two-thirds and Dorian Records went bankrupt. Naxos was named
Gramophone’s
Label of the Year 2005, the only company to sustain full classical production. That summer in Aspen, Colorado, Warner’s chairman Edgar J. Bronfman urged artists to join his internet-only label ‘to develop in a supportive lower-risk environment’. If this did not quite mean the end of the record, the next sentence did. ‘We are excited by the power of digital distribution now available to every potential artist.’
¹⁰
But if distribution was now available to every potential artist, who needed big labels? Peer to peer, musician to listener, was the new way for music to flow, by-passing established channels. Arctic Monkeys rose without a label. Music companies were out of the loop. Their last resort was to file another 2,000 lawsuits against home downloaders, criminalizing their customers.

In a fluid environment, radio revived. Free to air and hot to trot, stations in Europe and the US stored their programmes online, enabling listeners to catch music they had missed and, on occasion, to download it. In May 2005 the BBC took a leap into the unknown. Roger Wright, once DG’s artistic pilot and now head of Radio 3, put a Beethoven cycle from Manchester on the web for a week. The orchestra was the BBC Philharmonic, which was paid for by every UK household, and the conductor Gianandrea Noseda. Wright argued that licence-payers had a right to own the music for free, and if others abroad took advantage, that could only enhance the prestige of the BBC and the British nation, ‘growing the brand’ in cyberspace terminology.

At launch point, there was no agreed assessment of likely interest. A few thousand maybe, was the expectation. When the totals arrived, quiet reserve turned to frank astonishment at 1.4 million downloads. Many of the takers were classical first-timers, as shown by the numbers who took symphonies one and two (150,000 each) as starter choices in preference to the much-performed and historically important Eroica (90,000), a title that would be recognized by anyone with a classical background. Even
more encouragingly, the freeloaders were spread across twenty-six different countries. The largest contingents, two-fifths of the total, were in the UK and US. But there were 17,000 downloads in Vietnam, 15,000 in Thailand, 13,000 in Taiwan. There was, it appeared, an appetite for classical masterpieces in countries where the record industry, even in its heyday, never trod. Wright was ecstatic. ‘We hope this will encourage new audiences to explore online classical music,’ he told the BBC website.

The remnants of the record industry turned apoplectic, filing complaints in Parliament and a restraint on further downloads. ‘They are stealing our market,’ said label chiefs, oblivious to their own latter-day withdrawal from Beethoven. Wright offered to share his download database. Few took the opportunity, since they were no longer in the market for selling Beethoven. Helplessly, the record industry watched public feet walking past racks of recorded music in high street shops and public fingers seeking out the live and unpredictable online. This was a seminal moment in mass behaviour-the last spin of the musical disc. In the following months, the collapse of Tower Records left many major cities without a classical outlet, Warner ended classical output and Sony-RMG-Columbia and Victor combined-sacked classical president Gilbert Hetherwick and much of his division. The game was over: an art form had come to its end.

Unless noted below, all quotations in the text are taken from personal interviews or conversations.

1.
The recording, KemprF’s first, was issued by Deutsche Grammophon with the serial number 62400 and became a sought-after rarity.

2.
Artur Schnabel,
My Life and Music
, Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1970, p. 98.

3.
Wilhelm Kempff,
Wass ich horte, wass ich sah
, Munich: R. Piper & Co., 1981.

4.
Schnabel,
My Life and Music
, p. 98.

5.
Musical America
, February 1952, p. 31.

6.
Jerrold Northrop Moore,
Sound Revolutions: A Biography of Fred Gaisberg, Founding Father of Commercial Recording
, London: Sanctuary, 1999, p. 17.

7.
E.g. André as Holschneider, president of DG, and Peter Andry, EMI head; author interviews, July 2005.

8.
Luciano Pavarotti (with William Wright),
My Own Story
, London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1981, p. 284.

9.
Northrop Moore,
Sound Revolutions
, p. 159.

10.
F. W. Gaisberg,
Music on Record
, London: Robert Hale, 1947, p. 81.

11.
Quoted in Wolfgang Stresemann (ed.),
Das Berliner Philharmonische Orchester
, Stuttgart: DVA, 1987, reproduced in notes to DG 423 527-2.

12.
BIRS lecture of 19 May 1972, quoted in Peter Martland,
Since Records Began-EMI, the First 100 Years
, London: B. T. Batsford, 1997, p. 167.

13.
BIRS lecture of 19 May 1972, quoted in Northrop Moore,
Sound Revolutions
, pp. 287–8.

14.
Northrop Moore,
Sound Revolutions
, p. 329.

15.
Harvey Sachs,
The Letters of Arturo Toscanini
, London: Faber and Faber, 2002, p. 183.

16.
Charles O’Connell,
The Other Side of the Record
, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1947, p. 137.

17.
William Primrose,
Walk on the North Side
, Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1978, pp. 97–8.

18.
Milton Katims writing in
International Classical Record Collector
, Winter 1998, p.
66.

19.
New York Herald Tribune
, reviews of 17 May 1942 and n.d. 1943.

20.
O’Connell,
The Other Side of the Record
, p. 129.

21.
Wilhelm Furtwängler (tr. Shaun Whiteside),
Notebooks
, London: Quartet Books, 1989, p. 169.

1.
See Chairman Alfred Clark’s address to EMI AGM, 1938, in Peter Martland,
Since Records Began-EMI, the First 100 Years
, London: B. T. Batsford, 1997.

2.
Don Hunstein, conversation, May 2005.

3.
Schuyler Chapin,
Musical Chairs
, New York: Putnams, 1977, p. 134.

4.
Robert Metz,
CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye
, Chicago: Playboy Press, 1975, p. 147.

5.
Ibid., p. 151.

6.
Quoted in
Audiofile
, no. 10, 1997.

7.
Martland,
Since Records Began
, p. 154.

8.
Statement by EMI chairman Sir Louis Sterling, ibid.

9.
George Martin (with Jeremy Hornsby),
All You Need Is Ears
, London: Macmillan, 1979, p. 51.

10.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf,
On and Off the Record
, London: Faber and Faber, 1982, p. 15.

11.
Ibid., p. 107.

12.
After divorcing the English mezzo Nancy Evans, a stalwart of the Britten circle, to whom he was married when he and Schwarzkopf met.

13.
Peter Andry, interview, August 2005.

14.
As recounted by Peter Andry, ibid.

15.
Richard Osborne,
Herbert von Karajan: A Life in Music
, London: Chatto & Windus, 1998, p. 434.

16.
Related in Brian Hunt, ‘Memories of the Maestro’,
Daily Telegraph
, 25 October 1995; and Jon Tolansky, ‘Furtwängler’,
Classical Record Collector
, Winter 2004.

17.
Sam H. Shirakawa,
The Devil’s Music Master
, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 382.

18.
Alan Jefferson, communication to the author.

19.
John Culshaw,
Putting the Record Straight: The Autobiography of John Culshaw
, London: Secker & Warburg, 1981, p. 180.

20.
Time
magazine, 19 December 1955.

21.
Recalled by Paul Myers, email to the author, 21 April 2005.

22.
Jack Law, interview in
Hampstead and Highgate Express
, 20 November 1981.

23.
Michael Haas, email to the author, 16 April 2005.

24.
Memoir by Charles Gerhardt,
International Classical Record Collector
, Winter 1997, pp. 46–51.

25.
James Mallinson, email to the author, 24 July 2005.

26.
Peter Andry, interview, 26 July 2005.

27.
Nella Marcus, interview, May 2005.

28.
Sarah Dimenstein, telephone interview, 27 May 2005.

29.
Information from Denham Ford, Beecham’s assistant.

30.
William Westbrook Burton,
The Decca Boys
, BBC Radio 3, 2005.

31.
Georg Solti, interview, July 1997.

32.
Solti archive held at the Solti family home, London.

33.
Peter Andry, interview, 26 July 2005.

34.
The Decca Boys.

35.
Undated letter in Solti archive, apparently 1958.

36.
Confidential interview.

37.
Christopher Raeburn, telephone interview, July 2005.

38.
Confidential interview.

39.
Peter Andry, interview, May 2005.

40.
Pali Meller Marcovicz (ed.),
Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft: eine Chronologie
, Hamburg: DGG GmbH, 1998, p. 16.

41.
André as Holschneider, telephone interview, 3 July 2005.

42.
See Tom Bower,
Blind Eye to Murder
, London: André Deutsch, 1981.

43.
Wilfried Feldenkirchen,
Siemens, 1918–1945
, Munich: Siemens, 1995, p 285. I am grateful to Marek Jaros of the Wiener Library, London, for indicating this source.

44.
Interview on CD, Fricsay erzahltes leben, DG 474 383–2.

45.
Ibid.

46.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
Echoes of a Lifetime
, London: Macmillan, 1989, pp. 68-9.

47.
By marketing consultant Hans Domizlaff.

48.
Fricsay erzahltes leben, DG 474 383–2.

49.
Siegmund Nissel, interview, May 2005.

50.
Martin Lovett, interview, May 2005.

51.
Neville Marriner, interview, May 2004.

52.
The founders, in 1949, were James Grayson, Michael Naida and Henry Gage.

53.
See Petula Clark at the Paris Olympia, Silva Screen records, 2004; Silva 1169.

54.
Peter Heyworth and John Lucas,
Otto Klemperer: His Life and Times
, vol. II, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 236.

55.
Related to the author by Klemperer’s daughter, Lotte, 1997.

1.
Brian Southall,
Abbey Road
, London 1997, p. 56.

2.
A barely fictionalized report of these machinations can be found in Brown Meggs’s bitter novel of the classical recording industry,
Aria
, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978, pp. 132–40.

3.
John G. Deacon, email to the author, 30 May 2005.

4.
Donald Clarke,
The Rise and Fall of Popular Music
, London: Penguin, 1995.

5.
Paul Myers, email to author, 2005.

6.
Don Hunstein, conversation, May 2005.

7.
André as Holschneider interview, July 2005.

8.
Peter Alward interview, October 2004.

9.
Interview on The Originals, DG 449 725–2; author’s translation from the German.

10.
Interview with Susan Elliott for
Audio Magazine
, late 1992,
http://www.classicrecs.com/jackinti.htm
.

11.
Related to the author by Lotte Klemperer, 1997.

12.
Michael Stegemann, ‘Half a Century of Immortality: Glenn Gould’s first recording of the Goldberg Variations,’ essay accompanying Sony-BMG anniversary reissue 82876698352.

13.
Jorg Demus and Rosalyn Tureck had attempted the cycle on small labels.

14.
Otto Friedrich,
Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations
, London: Lime Tree, 1990, p. 50.

15.
Stegemann, ‘Half a Century of Immortality’.

16.
Paul Myers, email to the author, 10 June 2005.

17.
Schuyler Chapin,
Musical Chairs
, New York: Putnams, 1977, p. 208.

18.
Ibid., p. 213.

19.
Ibid., pp. 216–17.

20.
Article in
High Fidelity
magazine for the cycle’s completion, September 1967.

21.
Confirmed by Paul Myers in William Westbrook Burton,
Conversations about Bernstein
, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 59, and comments to the author.

22.
Statistics confirmed by Peter Munves, Masterworks marketing director, telephone interview, July 2005.

23.
Paul Myers, email to the author, 6 June 2005.

24.
Comment to the author by his friend, the conductor José Serebrier, August 2005.

25.
Nella Marcus, email to the author, 19 May 2005.

26.
James Lock, Decca chief engineer, note to Decca Legends series.

27.
John Culshaw,
Ring Resounding: The Recording in Stereo of ‘Der Ring Des Nibelungen’
, London: Secker & Warburg, 1967, p. 79.

28.
Culshaw to Solti, n.d., Solti archive held at the Solti family home, London.

29.
Solti archive, n.d.

30.
Syracuse WONO, 4 February 1967.

31.
Nella Marcus, interview, May 2005.

32.
Paul Myers, email to the author, 10 June 2005.

33.
Richard Osborne,
Herbert von Karajan: A Life in Music
, London: Chatto & Windus, 1998, p. 490.

34.
Sleeve notes to German edition of Deutsche Grammophon Beethoven cycle.

35.
Ibid.

36.
John Culshaw,
Putting the Record Straight: The Autobiography of John Culshaw
, London: Secker & Warburg, 1981, p. 195.

37.
The letter is dated 15 November 1962.

38.
Martin Lovett, interview, May 2005.

39.
Pali Meller Marcovicz (ed.),
Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft: eine Chronologie
, Hamburg: DGG GmbH, 1998, p. 22.

1.
Ringo Starr, for Pete Best.

2.
Evening Standard
, 4 March 1966.

3.
The
Guardian
, 22 October 1996.

4.
Frederic Dannen,
Hit Men
, London: Muller, 1990, p. 65.

5.
Peter Andry, interview, 1995.

6.
Suvi Raj Grubb,
Music Makers on Record
, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1986, p. 42.

7.
Paul Myers, email to the author, 21 April 2005.

8.
Andrew Keener writing in
Gramophone
, October 2005, p. 56.

9.
Peter Munves, telephone interview, June 2005.

10.
Ibid.

11.
Edward Greenfield, conversation, Salzburg, August 1987.

12.
From Arthur Jacobs (ed.),
The Music Yearbook, 1973–4
, London: Macmillan, 1974, pp. 371–81.

13.
National Public Radio interview, July 2002.

14.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, interview, Amsterdam, 27 October 2005.

15.
André as Holschneider, telephone interview, 3 July 2005.

16.
Quoted in ‘Remembering Karl Richter’, Unitel catalogue, 2004.

17.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, interview, Amsterdam, 27 October 2005.

18.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, interview, Graz, October 2000.

19.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, interview, Amsterdam, 27 October 2005.

20.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, interview, Graz, October 2000.

21.
Gustav Leonhardt, interview, 2005.

22.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, interview, Amsterdam, 27 October 2005.

23.
Richard Adeney, interview, July 2005.

24.
Interview with Anthony Kirkby,
www.scena.org
, 1 June 2000.

25.
Erik Smith,
Mostly Mozart
, Winchester: privately published, 2005, p. 174.

26.
Quotes here and below from Neville Marriner, interviews, May 2004 and in
Sunday Times
magazine, 23 September 1984.

27.
Gramophone
, September 1970, p. 437.

28.
Smith,
Mostly Mozart
, p. 173.

29.
Christopher Raeburn, telephone interview, July 2005.

30.
Anna Barry writing in
Gramophone
, October 2005, p. 57.

31.
Erik Smith, interview with Alan Blyth,
Gramophone
, December 1972.

32.
Paul Myers, email to the author, 21 April 2005.

33.
Don Hunstein, conversation, May 2005.

34.
Dannen,
Hit Men
, p. 115.

35.
The cocktail rather than the tool. Interview with Walter Yetnikoff,
www.blogcritics.org
, 4 March 2004.

36.
Ralph Mace, RCA executive, email to the author, 25 August 2005.