Chandos and the First Twenty Years (1979-1999)

To give the record lover a general overview of the Chandos and of the Couzens philosophy there follows a number of extracts from interviews given to Gramophone and the American magazine Billboard.

Paul Cutt of Gramophone wrote of Chandos:

'And while it [Chandos] was once identifiably British in character - founder and Managing Director Brian Couzens still refers to it as a 'collector's company' - Chandos has begun embracing the international market in a way not previously seen.

''A larger percentage of our repertoire is British,' asserts Couzens, 'and we have been built that way. But we have tried to move way from it, and we do steer clear of the mainstream. The recordings catalogue is saturated and the industry is on the verge of collapse,' he continues… 'I feel the record-buying public is still there, and still buys records, but that it has become frustrated by the big companies. Record stores are flooded with 500 new releases every month, and anything that is not high-volume turnover is taken off the shelves. The public cannot get the stock it wants, and it gets fed up. The future of the industry is the internet, and direct selling to customers. We have built up a large database of people who cannot find product in stores and who purchase from us direct.'

''Our whole catalogue is now available on line,' adds Ralph Couzens, Brian's son and Chandos' chief engineer. 'People now have direct access to our entire output for the first time.' ''Ultimately, downloading from databases is the way of the future,' Couzens adds 'The changing public taste and demands have led Chandos to shift with it.'

Gramophone continues:
''Stores want the Bryn Terfels, the Three Tenors,' says Brian. 'There has been a dumbing down and I have noticed more and more people - even BBC Music magazine - are pushing the idea of concept music'. Chandos has responded, exploiting the odd composer anniversary and the seemingly endless public thirst for compilations, but in typically independent fashion; Craig Ogden's Guitar 'Meditations' was being marketed in the June catalogue on exactly the same premise and promise as any other 'Mood Music' disc from the likes of ClassicFM. What distinguishes Chandos' approach, however, is the repertoire included: forget Rodrigo or Albéniz, listen to Lovelady, de la Maza and premiere recordings of Yoshimatsu instead.

'Chandos has always tried to build special relationships with artists, and it is this nurturing aspect that is a part of Chandos' success. Couzens says of Richard Hickox, 'We have developed a very special relationship with him and thanks to that mutual trust we've achieved great things. Hickox makes things work. When we did Britten's War Requiem, a double Gramophone Award winner, it was Richard who finally pulled together all the necessary forces and finances.'

'Gramophone goes on to say:

But of all Chandos' successes, the Opera in English series has proved to be the most glowing. Funded by The Peter Moores Foundation, it has proved a jewel in Chandos' crown, reaping critical rewards and proving highly popular with a new opera audience. 'I am happy with the way we are going in terms of opera,' Brian Couzens says. 'We are getting good coverage and great reviews. With what Peter Moores was offering us, I thought Chandos couldn't lose. He calls the tune and pays the bills, and there are times when I disagree with him… But for me it's not just about Opera in English. I feel that if we can give people a good production with good sound, we can reach a new audience.'

Richard Hickox

Yan Pascal Tortelier

Howard Shelley

Matthias Bamert

Yuli Turovsky

There are many other relationships of which Chandos is justifiably proud: the association with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra; the Residentie Orchestra The Hague; the BBC Philharmonic and Yan Pascal Tortelier; The London Mozart Players with Matthias Bamert and Howard Shelley; Collegium Music 90 and Simon Standage; the Russian State Symhpony Orchestra and Valeri Polyansky; I Musici de Montréal and Yuli Turovsky - to mention just a few.'

Looking towards the future, Couzens told the American trade music magazine Billboard:

''It was a wide-open market place when we started; now it is flooded,' he says. 'More than that, this business is the worst for cutting itself to pieces with price. And unlike the turnaround from LP to CD, DVD just doesn't hold that much promise for music. So, I used to enjoy taking risks, but now my accountant makes it very hard. I'm never going to retire, but at 66, I do recognise that these are the twilight years. 'Sorry, I'm a musician - I get emotional about things,' Couzens adds. 'I do see hope, particularly with the internet… There is also still some very interesting music out there to record, especially in rare French and Russian repertoire. But you know what truly makes me want to press on? It's when I listen back to some of the records we've made over the years. I often think, 'my this is beautiful. We have to make a few more as nice as those.''