NEWS

Our look at the world of Music, its reproduction and delivery
Last updated
27 March 2002

Chandos to Record Long-Lost Danish Composer
Chandos continues to search out and release unfairly neglected or forgotten composers and is proud to announce that - alongside other Nordic series including Nørgård, Langgaard, Berwald and Gade - it will record and release music by Esrum-Hellerup.

See Press Release

Chandos Awards Loyalty Points
Chandos now awards loyalty points to all direct customers. An accumulation of 100 points allows the customer to choose a single CD of their choice absolutely free.

For details click here.

EU to Ban Noise in Music
The European Union is to introduce legislation to place a limit on the sound-pressure levels in the workplace. This will include orchestras who would therefore be unable to rehearse or perform such works as Berlioz and Verdi Requiems and Belshazzar's Feast which exceed the proposed noise limit of 87 decibels by peaking at over 110dB.

A Health and Safety Executive spokesman said 'Noise is noise. It doesn't matter whether it's Tchaikovsky or a power-drill'!

Protection Problems
 Tel-Aviv based Midbar Ltd, developers of the Cactus Data Shield copy-protection technology, which is used by a number of record companies, claim that there are over 10 million CDs using their 'copy-controlled revenue-generating' protection system already in circulation .

Despite reports of playability problems (reported last month) of some copy-protected CDs, Midbar claims that the lastest version has banished these problems. Philips is still not convinced that these CDs follow the Red Book standards.

Noise and Speed
No, not more news on the dead-before-it-has-arrived broadband issue, but scientific research that concludes that the speed and volume of music at which a driver listens can increase their heart rate and the speed at which they drive. Research has shown that a driver listening to fast music is twice as likely to have an accident as those listening to slower tracks.

Previous research had shown that a link between loud music and accidents exists. Monitoring the heartbeat of drivers listening to any music shows that the heartbeat varies less than with no music at all, which shows that drivers are distracted by music.

Web-Wise
 Internet use in the US is down - hours and minutes spent on-line are fewer but the time spent on-line is spent more productively. The average session time has fallen from 90 minutes to 83 minutes. This may be more of a change of attitude and browsing may be less prevalent whilst its use for work or personal finance more widespread.

Principal Trumpet Player Beaten by US Police
Rodney Mack, Principal Trumpet of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra was beaten so badly that he had to cancel a US tour with the orchestra. The under-cover officers attacked him because he broadly fitted the description of a car thief. Although he showed them ID and his car with trumpets in it he was arrested. He plans to sue for assault and wrongful arrest.

Universal 'Classics'
 After its success with Nana Mouskari, Universal Classics is going to try its luck with Demis Roussos. A tour and album will be jointly promoted. (This is not an April Fool!)

Long Live Core Classics!

More Ormandy-isms

"Who is sitting in that empty chair?"

"I'm conducting slowly because I don't know the tempo."

"I cannot give it to you, so try to watch me."

"I was trying to help you, so I was beating wrong."

"I am thinking it right but beating it wrong."

"I can conduct better than I count."

"I guess you thought I was conducting, but I wasn't."

"I purposefully didn't do anything, and you were all behind."

Sergei Rachmaninoff and Eugene Ormandy at Rehearsal with the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1939

"Even when you are not playing you are holding me back."

"Don't ever follow me, because I am difficult."

"It is not as difficult as I thought it was, but it is harder than it is."

"The notes are right, but if I listened they would be wrong."

"I wrote it the right way, so it was copied the wrong way right. I mean the right way wrong."

"At every concert I've sensed a certain insecurity about the tempo. It's clearly marked 80...uh, 69."

"It is not together, but the ensemble is perfect."

"Someone came too sooner."

Older News, last updated February 2002

CHANDOS WINS ANOTHER PRIZE
Galuppi Il mondo alla roversa
 The Fondazione Giorgio Cini have awarded the 'Premio Internazionale del Disco Antonio Vivaldi' for the best production in 2001 'Opera'. The prize giving ceremony will be held on 9 March in Venice.

Copy Protection leads to disgruntled consumers
More CDs are being produced and sold with copy protection systems. This is contrary to the Red Book standards set by Philips which, in principal, allow any CD to be played on any player bearing the CD logo (a CD player, PC, games player, etc.) with any operating system, and many CDs encoded with protection will not play on certain players.

BMG (pop) have already fallen foul of this and are having to replace complainants discs. Now Universal are to start producing discs with the Cactus Data Shield system on them to prevent copying. Many other discs including 'enhanced' content discs will not play on CD players, examples have been released by, among others, EMI Classics.

Philips Gets Heavy...

This has not surprisingly annoyed Philips who still hold the patents for CD. They are saying that discs not manufactured to the Red Book standards cannot bear the CD logo and cannot be sold as CDs. The standards are being violated by those companies who are adding copyright protection to the discs and thus preventing them playing in the universal manner intended

Philips want those companies violating the standards to issue a plain warning that these discs are not CDs and will not work on all players. They are worried about the retro-fitting of a copy protecton system to an established standard.

Philips also contends that protected discs now manufactured are not covered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 as they restrict playback and not the actual act of copying itself.

Maestro Menotti
A composer who has been at the centre of much of Chandos' activities over the last few years lives in a large and elegant Robert Adam house set in rolling parkland in Scotland, he lives in and uses all of the house which boasts a ballroom and chapel. Although a successful composer he still feels the need to enter the UK National Lottery draw every week and sends one of his staff to the local village shop to buy tickets 'for the Maestro'.

He is well-known locally as 'The Maestro', but also, in local Scottish shorthand, as Mr McNottie!


Susan Graham Photo:Erato

Sopranos!
Said to BBC Music Magazine's David Stearn in his interview with soprano Susan Graham: 'I heard Charlotte Church on TV the other night, and the poor girl! She can't be receiving the proper training'.

Pirates Move On-Line
Internet-related music piracy is on the increase according to MCPS, which according to its findings says it has doubled in the last year. More raids now involve counterfiet CDs that are sold and advertised over the internet. The trend is reflected in the pirate's move away from factories and warehouses to non-stock-holding domestic operations in which stock is produced on demand.


Classical Label with a Difference
A new label has appeared! 'Avante', the brainchild of Simon Foster (ex of EMI Records UK and founder of Virgin Classics) and Melanne Mueller formerly of BMG Classics, is picking up musicians who have been left 'high and dry' by the recent merciless cuts in contracts by the majors' restructuring antics.

The company will operate on behalf of these musicians who will retain the copyright of their recordings and release their recordings under the umbrella of Avante. It is a novel idea which turns the traditional ownership model on its head! The first eight discs will be released in March.

Nimbus Under New Control
The founding directors of Nimbus records have regained control of Nimbus Records as Wyastone Estate Ltd, trading as Nimbus Records. They have control of the assets including masters, finished goods, contracts and trademark. The receivers are still looking after the defunct company's financial committments.

Wyastone Estate will sell direct from its warehouse to the trade and to the public and will only distribute its own product. The new focus is on the label and its core product keeping things 'simple' by focussing on its acknowledged strengths.

DVD's Replacement unveiled - Already!
The world's 'big nine' electronics companies have joined forces to develop a new standard called blu-ray for record and playback onto the - outwardly - similar silver disc. In the process they are stealing the thunder of some member's new record/playback DVD formats which are just going on sale.

The new format uses a blue laser as opposed to the red and infra-red lasers of CDs and DVDs. The blue laser can be focussed more tightly onto the playing/reading surface and this new format can store up to 27Gb of computer data, compared with 4.7Gb on a single-sided DVD. Thus it can store 2 hours of HD video and stream fast enough to be able to support HDTV

Ormandy-isms
Collected by the Philadelphia Orchestra while they were under the legendary control of Eugene Ormandy...

"Why do you always insist on playing while I'm trying to conduct?"

"I conduct faster so you can see my beat."

"The notes are right, but if I listened they would be wrong."

Eugene Ormandy
conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra
1936

"Did you play? It sounded very good."

"Percussion a little louder." ["We don't have anything."] "That's right, play it louder."

"Brass, stay down all summer."

"Bizet was a very young man when he composed this symphony, so play it soft."

The poor guy's dead now. Play it legato."

"I never say what I mean, but I always manage to say something similar."

"Let me explain what I do here. I don't want to confuse you any more than absolutely necessary."

Older News, last updated January 2002

Two Grammy Award Nominations
The success of the Chandos recording of the Vaughan Williams 'A London Symphony' continues unabated. It has just been nominated for two Grammy Awards, including the most prestigious prize of 'Best Classical Album'. The other nomination is for 'Best Engineered Album', another feather in the cap of our Senior Engineer Ralph Couzens.

Life After Nimbus
Since the demise of Nimbus Records and the distributor Complete Record Company in October of last year, new distribution deals are taking shape. Harmonia Mundi UK will take over the retail representation of Warner Classics UK, while Independent Distribution, part of the Apex group, has taken on the likes of Dutton, Testament and NMC.

The distribution side of Priory has taken on Meridian and Ivory Classics and are being approached many times a week by other labels.