Deutsche Gramophon

Just so long as you don't do it with me.

Compared to the decline of the level of Classical Music in general and the performers and labels in particular, DG is not doing that bad, even nowadays.

The standards of its productions are still quite high, the rostrum of the soloists (Grimaud, Boulez, Domingo, Lang Lang, Wang, Ott, Maisky, Hahn, Abbado, VPO, BPO, etc) is not bad at all, compared let's say with EMI, RCA or SONY which have almost vanished. Philips, such an historic label, is already defunct, while DECCA is only a ghost of what used to be in the 50's, 60's and 70's (the true hero among the labels worldwide).

What we have to lament is the Music which is loosing its worth, meaning, value and purpose. Along with that the rest follows. The only hope I still see lies in some very good independent labels, specialised in either Chamber or Baroque or Early Music, etc. with the very few truly great artists of these fields. Otherwise, there is the well known recycling of the good "old stuff" but, in very few cases, in worthy recreations, due to the decline in the economy and the...markets as well...Pity!

Parla

But isn't what has happened to DG merely a symptom of what has happened across a number of classical music labels since the early/mid-2000s?

I seem to recall that among the roster of luminaries dropped by DG have been Trevor Pinnock (and again, to me his is a name synonymous with period instrument quality), and John Eliot Gardiner. I don't remember bitter remarks from Pinnock but I do remember seeing Gardiner quoted as saying something like the label weren't interested in musicians unless they could be photographed in a wet bikini.

While this is sad, some good has come from it. Both TP and JEG have started their own labels which -- I believe -- are doing well and are recording some of their best work. In Pinnock's case he has returned to solo harpsichord recording, which has to be good news.

Interestingly -- and I wish I could locatethe interview -- JEG said that the thing he most regrets about the collapse of some of the major labels is that the process of recording in the finest studios will in the future be unknown to many musicians as cheaper in-concert live recordings replace the immense costs of the best studios. Studio recording skills were something, he said, that he had been lucky to learn during a period when that medium was the norm.

DGG is a prime example of a company that failed to adapt to a changing world. They lost their main star (like him or not, HVK was their star) and they made the transition from vinyl to cd poorly. Producing scads of fine-sounding lps in the analogue era, it took them eons to get the hang of digital. DG recordings of the late 70s and into the 80s are often a disaster and their own transfers from analogue to digital were amateurish. They kept re-releasing their analogue stock under fancy new titles - Privilege, Galleria etc., claiming state-of-the-art remastering and none of them could stand comparison with the original lps. It took Decca a while too, but at least they started out closer to success and finally achieved it with their 96khz 24 bit Legend series.

Then there's DGG marketing, an oxymoron if ever there was one. Other posters have described their image of 50 years ago pretty accurately. Buy it or not, they marketed themselves as a full-price, high-quality, glossy mainstream outfit appealing to the centre of the classical music buying public. As far as I can make out anything about their current direction they're a kind of jack-of-all-trades, and master of none. Troll through reviews, professional and otherwise on places like Amazon or in the press, and you'll come across many examples of DGG inefficiency and ineffectiveness, none of them major in themselves but all adding up to a company that's poorly directed and doesn't know what it's doing. Perhaps one or two examples:

They put out the Netrebko/Pappano Pergolesi disc without an text but with a link to the text on their website. Which didn't work. It took me half an hour to find that text, during which time I formed a none too complimentary opinion of their site design. OK, lousy websites aren't rare. But they're always indicative of companies who fail to imagine themselves in their customers' shoes.

They put out an exciting triple disc package of Golijov's Pasion Segun San Marcos, two cds and a dvd. Nice idea eh? How difficult would it have been to put subtitles on the dvd for those of us less than fluent in Spanish, Latin, Aramaic and Kaddish? They didn't. Again, not the biggest deal in the world but symptomatic of a company that doesn't get it, and seems not to care that it doesn't. 

A sobering experience for those of us who've been on the planet one or two years, is the sight of people, companies, even countries you thought had their acts very much together, going down the toilet. DGG look to me like they're on their second swirl round the bowl.

In an earlier time I used to think record labels were important and gave some security in terms of quality. Now, a few years on I seem to worry more about the music recorded more than anything else.

That said, I am looking forward to Hilary Hahn's recording of the Ives Violin Sonatas and miss the 20/21 series, which was fun to dip into on a regular basis. If you have ever tried to decode the sleeve notes on a 'col legno' release the lucidity of 20/21 notes is refreshing!

Sleeves notes - now there is the subject for another thread!