Paul Westcott, the bon viveur!

Paul Westcott Press and Promotion Officer
Thanks largely to the political machinations of today's political image makers, 'Press Officers' and 'PR' have as much credibility as a nineteenth-century quack doctor offering an anti-aging miracle cure. If government press releases - highlighting their triumphs and obscuring their disasters - aren't bad enough, their Public Relations machine is practically hysterical, spewing out so much rhetoric and hype that we have become irredeemably cynical. For sheer temerity, witness the unbridled disingenuous spin from the nuclear, tobacco and oil industries. One has to admire, though, the plucky PR executives of the British rail companies who, in the face of total and obvious disaster, have press releases reading like holiday brochures.(With Chandos being based in Colchester and the musical world in London, the railway system plays a large part in the Chandos Press Officer's life.)

Hopefully the classical music world's PR activities aren't quite so Machiavellian in its motives, though with the current batch of the so-called child prodigies promoted by some companies, one wonders! At Chandos, Press and PR is a simple matter of promoting our recordings in every way possible, without buying advertising - which is domain of marketing managers.

The past couple of months have been a pretty busy period for me. On a typical day, job one, after a quick infusion of caffeine, is e-mail duty; and every day I wonder how this time-saving way of communicating takes up so much time. Once the routine stuff is out of the way, it's time to drum up some publicity. At times, the phone seems welded to my head. I'm surprised I haven't been used in scientific research about the harmful effects of mobile telephones. I'm sure if there were any ill effects, I would be dead by now, but I'm not, so onward.

Some interviews take months to organize while others just fall into place like a child's jigsaw. Radio interviews tend to be more last minute as their lead-time is generally much shorter than magazines. For a record company, BBC Radio 3's CD Review is regarded as the most important CD review program on the British airwaves, and the team is nothing if not enthusiastic, and when our enthusiasms coincide, the result is an interview. Most recently they have agreed to interview Matthias Bamert and tied it in with the release of his new Wranitzky CD in February, part of the successful 'Contemporaries of Mozart' series.

Next, it's time for Howard Shelley to have a PR push and, along with his agent Caroline Baird, a string of interested parties were contacted, either in person or on the phone. Of the piano magazines, both International Piano Quarterly and Piano Magazine have come up trumps offering front-cover features, whilst Gramophone agreed to do a feature later in the year, which will be extremely useful as so many important concerto CDs will have been released in the first quarter of 2002.

So it's back to the office to organise interviews with the composer and artist. Menotti has a Scottish residence - a castle no less - where he sometimes lives. When I telephoned the castle I expected to speak to staff and it was somewhat shocked and delighted to speak to the legend himself. Though 91 years old, he is extremely lively, amusing and interesting - this is certainly one of the perks of the job. Next an interview with the conductor, Richard Hickox, has to be set up. Here it was simply a matter of contacting his agent, Intermusica, who were able to get a date in the diary in February. Getting dates that both artist and journalist can manage is never easy, but it really helps when the artist's agent is both professional and efficient as in this case.

Equally difficult is trying to co-ordinate interviews with CD releases and concerts, which really is in the lap of the gods, but if releases can be tied to major concerts it helps immeasurably. It really is a matter of juggling around dates and information and knowing what else is going on in the music world. During the Verdi Festival, for example, it would be difficult to push a major feature on Bellini. The September 11 crisis had a big impact on arts coverage, though things seem to be regaining some sort of normality.

A large percentage of my time is spent out and about in London, and sometimes further a-field. But there is an equal and hefty amount of paper work to deal with too, not least the endless task of tracking down, sorting out and filing CD reviews, and organising the dreaded monthly mailing list (groan!). The constant requests for review CDs and the subsequent task from separating the wheat from the chaff is a perennial problem, as is the constant driving pressure to keep Chandos' presence in all the relevant media. However, when I see the weary faces of the commuters going home on the late trains, after I've been to a terrific concert at one of London's concert halls, and spent time in the company of some of the most interesting people in the music industry, I know it's worth it in the end.

Today I have an appointment with Barry Millington, the Reviews Editor of the BBC Music Magazine. On route to him however, if I have time, I'll pop in to see Edward Greenfield, the 'father' of critics, who is heard by millions the world over on his long-running radio program The Greenfield Collection on the BBC World Service. Edward Greenfield is not only known for his journalistic abilities: he is now Master of the Art Workers' Guild in London and, more importantly as far as I am concerned, is a superb cook and tremendous bon-viveur: no-one who visits his beautiful Queen Anne house manages to leave, how shall I put it, totally sober. His reviews have had a highly positive influence on the record world for over 40 years and continue to do so with the same infectious enthusiasm for which he is renowned.

Barry Millington has a dry sense of humor which must come in very handy dealing with so many press officers bombarding him with masses of information. I have to persuade him, as I do all music magazines editors, to review as many Chandos CDs as possible. Though, as with all journalists, what we at Chandos consider important and what they consider important doesn't always coincide. We generally do well with our review coverage in the magazines, especially considering the sheer volume of new releases every month. I have a meeting with Ashutoch Khandekar, the Editor of Opera Now magazine, another one of my contacts who is always great fun to see as well as being charismatic - even aristocratic - and always in possession of superb sartorial elegance. He and Opera Now are important to Chandos as our Opera in English series is one of our most prestigious projects. We managed to find a rare thing in London: a reasonably priced restaurant which offered amazingly good food and service - the latter two attributes often being these days available only at a price (they even turned off the 'piped' music for us!). Which reminds me, must ring John Alison of Opera magazine tomorrow to push Opera in English as well.

Now back at my desk for the beginning of another new year - 2002. We have some strong releases to kick off with, and with meetings at Time Out magazine, the BBC (to see my always industrious and helpful contact at In Tune, Emma Bloxham) and the Danish Embassy this week, I have a good chance to wear my new Next suit which I brought in the New Year sales. The question is, do I wear my new tie from my Auntie Maud, or the bright green and orange one from my 'humorous' old school friend? Nope, I'll wear the one Simon (who sits next to me) chose for me for my birthday present from Chandos. I see it's going to be a year of tough decisions!

Henry PURCELL
(England, 1659-1695)
King Arthur; The indian Queen

George Frideric HANDEL
(Germany, 1685-1759)
Semele; Julius Caesar; Acis and Galatea; Rinaldo; Xerxes; Samson

Christoph Willibald GLUCK
(Germany, 1714-1787)
Orfeo and Eurydice

CHAN 3078

Dame Janet Baker
James Bowman
Yvonne Kenny
John Tomlinson
Della Jones
Bruce Ford
Valerie Masterson
Sarah Walker
Diana Montague

David Parry
Sir Charles Mackerras

The Opera in English label presents a unique collection of arias from some of the finest operas of the baroque era.

The works on this disc are performed by some of the greatest names in British opera.

As with all discs in this series, this release is available at mid-price.

Notes on Baroque Opera

REVIEWS

Chandos' Opera in English series has received enthusiastic support:

'…this issue should convince doubters of the merits of such a series.'
Opera Now on CHAN 3000(2) (Tosca)

'This is an issue to delight far more than devotees of opera in English… I look forward to more in the series.'
Gramophone on CHAN 3000(2) (Tosca)

'…another in Chandos' splendid Opera in English series…'
BBC Music Magazine on CHAN 3011(2) (Don Pasquale)