Friday, November 20, 2020

Friday Miscelleanea

First up, an economist's list of Best classical music recordings of 2020. I found most of his choices both surprising and interesting. And I am likely to pick up the Morton Feldman box of piano music for myself.

* * *

Via Slipped Disc, the numbers on just how bad things are for musicians:

A report by UK Music shows that musicians , on average, lost two-thirds of their income in 2020.

Concert earnings are down by 85%.

The individual impact is disastrous. Before Covid, the average musician earned £23,059, about three-quarters of the national average.

During Covid, income fell to just £8,070.

* * *

“Success is ratpoison for art” is how Herbert Blomstedt explains why Finland produces more good conductors than Sweden:

‘Finland is less of a spoiled nation than Sweden, there are fewer temptations. They’ve lived in a dangerous place, been skilled in diplomacy and managed to handle Russia. Therefore they are more introverted and work on their own. Sweden has succeeded in its economy and could afford to hire foreign conductors.

‘Here we have the ratpoison that Finland couldn’t afford.  Elias Canetti said: “Success is ratpoison for art.”‘

A famous writer once said something similar. When asked what was better for one's writing, success or failure, he immediately answered, "failure." But he said he preferred success.

* * *

Oh no, non-union choristers: Israeli Opera chorus fights back against proposed layoffs:

The opera, like all cultural institutions, has been shuttered since the pandemic began and there is no date yet for resuming its operations. However, members of the chorus have said, through a spokesman from Shaham, the Israeli Actors’ Association, of which they are a part, that the opera announced its plan to lay them off now – after breaking off negotiations on a new contract – as a way to save money by hiring replacement singers at cheaper rates as freelancers in the future.

* * *

Why Opera Will Never Die:

Opera is one of those words that contains so much historical and symbolic weight and prejudice that you have to clamber through dense, thorny tangles before you even get to what it might actually be, and if there is anything really left, other than it being a segregated leisure pursuit for the entitled.

What I hate about statements like that is that behind them is the urge to smear everything that is not the lowest common denominator. It is a kind of crude cultural Marxism that says if something is refined, subtle and expensive then it is for the "entitled" meaning those people who are to blame for the fact that the rest of us are "oppressed." The article itself is not bad, but the use of the term "entitled" rankled.

* * *

Big Breaks and why you should beware of them.

Almost all record labels producing classical music CDs today require artists to pay them, as companies are unlikely to earn enough profit on sales to cover their costs. John Anderson, the owner of Odradek Records, a label which uses a pioneering anonymous selection system to choose its artists, told me, “Not even huge stars get their CDs for free anymore.” Costs can range from about $6,000 to release with a small label, to up to $70,000 for a recording with a major label (including a worldwide publicity blitz). At any price point, records are not expected to pay for themselves, but rather to increase the artist’s prestige, hopefully leading to more concerts with higher rates. (According to the German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, DG even receives a cut of some of its artists’ future performance fees.)

Yes, this was certainly my experience. Don't get sucked in by your vanity.

* * *

Here is Triadic Memories by Morton Feldman from the new box set recorded by Philip Thomas:


It grows on you. And here is the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 by J. S. Bach played by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra:


20 comments:

Marc in Eugene said...

I believe that this is the first time I 'know' someone mentioned in Friday Miscellanea, ha, know in the sense that 'we have exchanged emails': John Anderson of Odradek Records. He and they are the ones doing the Neumz project. Haven't read beyond the quotation yet. I hope they don't turn out to be 'bad guys'!

Marc in Eugene said...

There's a VAN article here in which Dr Anderson discusses inter alia the 'pioneering anonymous selection system [Odradek uses] to choose its artists' (he sent that link a few minutes ago-- am not myself a reader over there).

Marc in Eugene said...

Am about to cook breakfast but wanted to note briefly: Estonian television has a 'Dancing with the Stars'-type contest program, now in its fifth year, but for young classical musicians. The the winners' gala concert is streaming now.

Bryan Townsend said...

Sorry Marc, I was otherwise occupied and missed your emails until just now. I am so often amazed that European countries are such whole-hearted supporters of classical music, as opposed to the grudging support we often find in North America.

No I don't think the record companies are bad guys, but as a musician I find it irksome to have to pay the production costs of your own recordings. If you manfacture a product you have to ensure, somehow, that it can be sold for more than the production costs.

Marc in Eugene said...

Did mean that I hoped Anderson and company didn't turn out to be the bad guys in the VAN article. :-) Recording companies in general seem to enjoy the reputation of being slightly less congenial than vampires.

Bryan Townsend said...

Only to people who have actually worked with them!

Steven said...

I had no idea that performers often have to pay to have their album made. Is this a relatively new development in the classical music world? Your comment Bryan suggests it isn't.

Struck by that last line: '... DG even receives a cut of some of its artists’ future performance fees'

'Slightly less congenial than vampires' indeed....

Marc in Eugene said...

How is the composing coming along, Steven? Are you thinking about looking for a label?

Steven said...

Ha. Composing coming along fine, thanks for asking Marc, plenty of notes being scribbled enthusiastically onto paper -- but getting the works performed is another matter! I have occasionally paid small fees to enter a competition, and to be honest I think I'm a fool for even doing that. Paying several thousand pounds for a record company to record a work, well I can't even imagine it... Yet one does often see musicians, ensembles, orchestras and I think even record companies advertising such a service to composers. I'm not sure what the take up is like.

Marc in Eugene said...

A friend of mine won a song contest once (folk/acoustic/'roots' perhaps is what the genre is called) but was disappointed that she was required to ante up X number of dollars before any recording-cum-CD pressing happened. I like to think that even if she had the money she wouldn't have gone that route-- but she might have, in the moment, if she could've.

Marc in Eugene said...

Listened to Kurtág's Sayings of Peter Bornemisza earlier because John Anderson mentioned in one of those articles from this morning that he wished Odradek Records could record it. No... have moved on to Feldman's Triadic Memories, as Bryan recommended: much more congenial!

Bryan Townsend said...

I'm delighted to see the comment section so active--makes me even more sure that removing moderation was the right idea as that means you can talk without my having to approve anything.

Yes, way back when my performing career was really active I met with a recording company in Toronto. It felt like the next step for me had to be releasing a commercial recording as I had done everything else: nation-wide CBC broadcasts many times on different shows, many, many concerts in various venues. I had a lot of visibility in British Columbia and this seemed the way to extend it nationwide. The record company insisted that I give them $5,000 for production costs. Everyone told me to not sign the contract as it involved me giving them the master tape, plus $5,000 and they would release it. But exactly what they were contractually obliged to do was very vague. But I went ahead and did it anyway. They did almost nothing to promote the album and never paid me a penny in royalties. The contract was good for three years only and after it expired I caught them including a track from my album on a collection of guitar music. This violated the copyright which had reverted to me so I filed a suit. They settled out of court for $5,000. So that should have been a happy ending, but I forgot about the lawyer's fees!

Wenatchee the Hatchet said...

Bryan, that story got me thinking about something Norman Lebrecht wrote at the start of a recent review about how many solo recital CDs he chucked without so much as a thought of reviewing them. It might be people need to read something like this to get an explanation for how and why it's not a good idea to pay a fee to a label to record a CD when a reviewer like Lebrecht, for instance, can announce something like this:


https://www.ludwig-van.com/toronto/2020/11/20/lebrecht-listens-arvo-parts-choral-devotions-occupy-a-space-all-their-own/

"I chucked out a bunch of new releases this week, mostly solo recitals on esoteric instruments like the harp, the mandolin and the saxophone, though also viola, voice and harpsichord, some on so-called major labels. These recitals are mostly paid for by the soloist after a label decides they are non-commercial. Knowing that people are unlikely to buy it, why would I waste valuable time reviewing and you listening about it? In these fragile times when every hour of life is doubly precious, artists need to think twice and thing again before pushing out more and more of these promotional discs. The recycle bin is overflowing."

But the arts are so very important and we can't go on as a society without the arts and all that. ;)

Bryan Townsend said...

Another dirty secret of the music business is that there are certain sites and magazines that will give your disc a favorable review if you pay them. You also have to pay your agent a monthly retainer. So the bottom line is that your odds of success in the music biz are greatly increased if you are rich.

Marc in Eugene said...

When Pärt titles a piece “Magnificat”, you can be confident that it is.

I'm not in a position to evaluate NL's taste or critical acuity (distinguished from his work at Slipped Disc, ahem-- I've stayed away for months with a few recent relapses) but when he writes nonsense like that it disinclines me to pay much attention, although I'm sure whatever Pärt is on that CD is lovely. Wenatchee quoted the most interesting part of the brief notice, certainly.

There have been '24 Hours of Palestrina' livestreamed from the Augsburg Cathedral, ending in an hour or so, free with registration on Idagio. I expect that if I read more closely at Slipped Disc I wouldn't have stumbled onto this half-way through. :-)

Wenatchee the Hatchet said...

Bryan, that part about being rich helping artists out a lot is a prominent theme in William Deresiewicz's newest book, which I'm working through this holiday season.

Wenatchee the Hatchet said...

I'm probably saving Leszek Kolakowski's 1,200 page three volume Main Currents of Marxism for 2022, alongside revisiting Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. But first ... in 2021 Verso has a new edition of Georg Lukacs' The Destruction of Reason. Anyone who sniped that Adorno wanted a proleterian revolution that had no proleteriat is someone I want to at least read ONE book from. ;)

Bryan Townsend said...

You are a more courageous reader than I these days! After completing 50% of Proust, up to "Cities of the Plain" I have picked up the Fagles translation of The Odyssey, which is a light read in comparison.

Steven said...

Incredible. I feel rather less guilty about not buying albums and streaming instead, seeing that the artist probably wouldn't profit from it anyway...

Bryan Townsend said...

Yes, the more you know about the economics of the music business, the more you understand why so many artists are so unhappy with their record companies.