Solomon's bio

[Rod]

Originally posted by Peter:
The price of CD's is ludicrous, but this applies to pop as well as classical.

I've just this very minute pain £47 for Handel's opera Orlando!! It's 3 cd's but there's no justification for this price. The only alternative recording is priced just as high. Most of Handel's operas are priced like this (in London) yet his oratarios which are also on 3 cd's are typically at least £10 cheaper than the operas. Ironically probably the best H oratario recordings are on Naxos and cost half the price of the inferior big label equivalents. Thus I have all the oratarios but only a select few operas. I think the big labels presume the opera lover has more cash, which I could tollerate if their recordings were any good, but you usually pay top dollar for utter crap. Yesterday I bought a recording of H's oratario Belshazar by Harnoncourt (£30) that was so absolutely awful (I only got as far as track five on the first disk!) I went back to HMV and exchanged it for the Orlando recording (paying of course the extra cach). Harnoncourt can't conduct Handel to save his life, I've had a few of his many other H recordings that are the same. Avoid this guy if you like Handel.



------------------
"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Joy]

I did a bit of CD shopping myself this last week and found the prices to be quite different from store to store. I visited three stores and was looking for another package of B's 9 symphonies, string quartets, etc. Some packages were in the $120.00 range, some were $80.00 and still others were $30.00-$40.00!! Some single classical CD's
can be as low as $2.99. I also picked up a book 'Naxos Catalogue 2001' with all their classical recordings. So, I'll have to start looking into that.

Joy

[Jin]

Originally posted by Peter:
The price of CD's is ludicrous, but this applies to pop as well as classical.

However, pop fans have more alternatives. Get a pal to burn a copy, download online, even record off the radio, whereas one can't exactly turn to just anyone and ask for a copy of rare (or "popular", for that matter) classical works.

[Jin]

Originally posted by Joy:
Some single classical CD's
can be as low as $2.99. I also picked up a book 'Naxos Catalogue 2001' with all their classical recordings. So, I'll have to start looking into that.

Joy

I dunno...I look askance at CDs priced so cheaply. Makes all my "wary consumer" hackles go up. Generally, classical CDs are cheaper than pop albums, but a CM composer has an expansive corpus. If I wanted Jimi Hendrix's complete works, it'd be a five or six disc set, but if we're talking Beethoven...

Hmmm...I've never heard of CM catalogues. Is this one pretty comprehensive? Wonder if I could get one through the mail.

[Rod]

Originally posted by Jin:
... whereas one can't exactly turn to just anyone and ask for a copy of rare (or "popular", for that matter) classical works.

What are you talking about? You can do presisely that at this site! Have you not checked out the 'Rare works' page yet!?

------------------
"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Jin]

Originally posted by Rod:
What are you talking about? You can do presisely that at this site! Have you not checked out the 'Rare works' page yet!?

I'm just saying in terms of accessibility it's not as easy as obtaining pop works.

[Peter]

Originally posted by Jin:
I'm just saying in terms of accessibility it's not as easy as obtaining pop works.

You can request any rare Beethoven piece you like Jin and we'll try to oblige!

------------------
'Man know thyself'

[Claudie MICAULT]

Hi, Rod, we have the same point of view : I cannot listen Harnoncourt, in Haendel or others composers !!!
And you are true : Haendel's operas are more expensive than oratorios.... But there are more singers in the distribution, generally speaking, it can explain this difference (???).
Speaking of Haendel, we all know what Beethoven thought of him, but Chopin also was a great admirer of Haendel, asking a song of him sung by Delphine POTOCKA at his death bed.

Claudie

[Rod]

Originally posted by Claudie MICAULT:
Hi, Rod, we have the same point of view : I cannot listen Harnoncourt, in Haendel or others composers !!!
And you are true : Haendel's operas are more expensive than oratorios.... But there are more singers in the distribution, generally speaking, it can explain this difference (???).
Speaking of Haendel, we all know what Beethoven thought of him, but Chopin also was a great admirer of Haendel, asking a song of him sung by Delphine POTOCKA at his death bed.

Claudie

Harnoncourt's phrasing of the orchestra is very rough and idiosyncratic, devoid of grace. I don't think he understands the heart of Handel. The 'singing' is also awful in these (late 1970's) recordings - the late-Romantic bravura does not work with this kind of music, a wholely different technique is required.

I don't know about the operas having more singers, you would not need big stars to sing every part. The oratorios all require choruses, unlike the operas, as well as at least 5 soloists and typically a more complex orchestra. No, I'm sure the cost is higher purely on grounds of social class distinctions! Oratarios for the middle class, opera for the upper class, as it was in Handel's day! They don't let me in to hear either in Covent Garden, I just sell apples from a barrow outside, wearing my old flat cap... before the police move me on.

Haydn said Handel 'stands above us all'. He was greatly impressed when hearing 'Joshua' performed in London. I wonder who Mozart rated the best?

------------------
"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Peter]

Originally posted by Rod:

Haydn said Handel 'stands above us all'. He was greatly impressed when hearing 'Joshua' performed in London. I wonder who Mozart rated the best?

Well obviously not Beethoven! He admired Handel, Gluck and Haydn - but especially J.S.Bach. I think we have to realise that in the late 18th century composers such as Handel and Bach were considered old hat and their music was only kept alive by a select band of connoiseurs such as Van Swieten. Performances must have been few and far between as contemporary music was all the rage - there was a public hunger for new music - what a difference to our times!

------------------
'Man know thyself'

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 08-07-2001).]

[pianojones]

Originally posted by Rod:
I've just this very minute pain £47 for Handel's opera Orlando!! It's 3 cd's but there's no justification for this price. The only alternative recording is priced just as high. Most of Handel's operas are priced like this (in London) yet his oratarios which are also on 3 cd's are typically at least £10 cheaper than the operas.

Living in the US, I'm not qualified to compare prices overseas, and while I'm not wild about high prices either, it must be very expensive to produce a high quality CD of a Handel opera. You have to engage the best singers as well as take into account that you aren't going to sell a million copies.

[Jin]

Originally posted by Peter:
You can request any rare Beethoven piece you like Jin and we'll try to oblige!

It's good to know I have that that comfort!

[Joy]

Originally posted by Jin:
I dunno...I look askance at CDs priced so cheaply. Makes all my "wary consumer" hackles go up. Generally, classical CDs are cheaper than pop albums, but a CM composer has an expansive corpus. If I wanted Jimi Hendrix's complete works, it'd be a five or six disc set, but if we're talking Beethoven...

Hmmm...I've never heard of CM catalogues. Is this one pretty comprehensive? Wonder if I could get one through the mail.

I just walked into 'Tower Records' and there they were in the classical music room for free! Yes, it's pretty comprehensive. From Adolphe Adam to Xiaogu Zhu. They also have a segment of 'Classical Music Used in Films.'
Maybe you could try E-Mailing them at www.naxos.com Good luck!

[Rod]

Originally posted by pianojones:

Originally posted by Rod:
I've just this very minute pain £47 for Handel's opera Orlando!! It's 3 cd's but there's no justification for this price. The only alternative recording is priced just as high. Most of Handel's operas are priced like this (in London) yet his oratarios which are also on 3 cd's are typically at least £10 cheaper than the operas.

Living in the US, I'm not qualified to compare prices overseas, and while I'm not wild about high prices either, it must be very expensive to produce a high quality CD of a Handel opera. You have to engage the best singers as well as take into account that you aren't going to sell a million copies.

Then explain why Naxos can produce recordings that are, in some cases, better in every manner than their big label equivalents yet cost at least half the price, sometimes even a third. And they do sell millions overall! They do it by not giving the performers a cut of the sales, instead they just give them a one-off payment for the recording. There is a lot of 'added value' with some of the expensive sets - such as fancy boxes and artwork - stuff I can do without and doesn't justify the cost anyway. You sure ain't going to sell 'millions' by charging £47 a go for a single opera that is on 3 disks but, I have discovered, could have been squeezed on to 2! The version of Fidelio on Naxos is as good as any currently available, sonically and musically, and costs just £10.

------------------
"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 08-08-2001).]