NEWS

Apologies
We apologise to our customers who ordered CDs on our web site between Friday 22nd & Tuesday 26th August as no e-mail confirmations were sent out. This was due to a technical problem with our email server. If you have any queries about your order, please contact Chandos Direct by email.

Noseda Extends Contract
Gianandrea Noseda, the new Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, has extended his contract after just one year into his original three-year contract. He will now stay with the BBC Philharmonic until 2008.

BIS is Thirty Years Old
Chandos wishes BIS records many congratulations on its 30th birthday.

Apology
Schumann Piano Quartet and Quintet
We mistakenly claimed on the cover of CHAN 0698 that this was a premiere recording of these works with period instruments. A number of customers have pointed out our error. We apologise for the misleading information. Future reprints of the booklet will have an altered cover which does not show this incorrect claim.

CHAN 0698

No Classics Here
The Mercury music prize, which celebrates the best in English or Irish music regardless of genre, will go ahead this year without any 'classics' on the nominations lists. Last year classical pianist Joanna MacGregor nearly beat popstar Miss Dynamite to the prize.

Ground Zero
Hopes for New York City Opera to have a new home built at Ground Zero, the site of the destroyed World Trade Centres, have been dashed by claims that the footprint is not large enough to house a modern opera house.

A performing arts centre or some kind of multi-use cultural centre seems much more likely.

Independent Distribution
Independent Distribution have gone into liquidation and have ceased trading with immediate effect. Labels that have been affected include Signum, Testament, Ondine and Dutton. Most seem to have been able to temporarily rely on on-line sales prior to setting up new distribution, which for smaller labels becomes more and more difficult in this time of significant hardship for the classical record business.
(see below)

Classical CD Market Hits Low
The down-turn in the CD trade has hit the classcial market badly. Trade deliveries at 13.1 million are at an all-time low since the 12.9 million of 1993. The classical market share is 5.8% by volume and 5.5% by value, the lowest since records began 20 years ago. (Traditionally it is 12% in a healthy state and has been as high as 20%.)

Specialist multiple outlets are up by 0.9% at 48.1% and independents are down by 0.7% at 15.3% of sales. Supermarkets are still at 12% share.

Rattle Mahler 5
EMI's hard push of Mahler 5 with television advertising must have had limited success as it can now be found heavily discounted in certain chain stores for only £6.99

SACD
Universal Classics have now put their backing behind SACD. The only major pursuing DVD-A is Warner.

PRESS RELEASE
Chandos wish to announce that from June 1st 2003, Brian Couzens will step down as Managing Director in favour of his son Ralph. Brian will continue as Chairman and Senior Record Producer but he will not be involved in the day to day running of the Company nor any A & R projects.

Ralph, in addition to his role as MD, will continue to work as the Company's Senior Engineer and will gradually take over the majority of A & R projects. Sue Revill, Finance Director, will continue to manage the Finance and Administration functions and will work with Ralph running day to day operations.

Brian, who was seventy earlier this year, has decided to take things a little easier in future although, as he points out, he will still be making a sizeable commitment to producing new recordings including many large scale opera productions.

Brian Couzens

Predictable Sales Boom for Brit Albums
As would be expected after the television highlights of the awards ceremony, the most popular album and artist combination (Bocelli's Sentimento) received a boost of 500%, the string 'Cor!tet' Bond's album Shine a 300% boost and Aled Jone's eponymous album 200%.

Although the show was billed and hyped as getting 'prime-time' TV coverage, it only managed a late-night slot and a recent late-night repeat slot!

Classic FM and Henry Kelly
Classic FM has awoken the wrath of its generally placid ABC1 audience by axing the popular Henry Kelly from the morning 'Drive-time' slot. They have replaced him with the ex-BBC Radio 1 DJ Simon Bates.

CFM has been fielding irate calls and messages from disgruntled fans. Henry Kelly was taken by surprise with the move. CFM listeners will be deprived of Kelly's trademark 'unusual' pronunciation of composers and their works as he has left the station altogether.

BBC Philharmonic serenade Shoppers
The BBC Philharmonic serenaded shoppers at an Asda supermarket in Manchester. They played Barry Russell's Supermarket Symphony - a commission from Asda and North City Arts and subtitled '…like everything else, it's something different'.

The event was part of the orchestra's Pop Up Project - a series of cultural activities which 'pop-up' in unexpected places.

Stradivarius Recovered Before Stolen
In Vancouver, a $600,000 Stradivarius was stolen from the boot of violinist Esther Boisvert's car, but was spotted in the hands of a known thief at a pawn brokers 20 minutes before it was reported stolen.

Classical Honours
Sir Charles Mackerras has been named a Companion of Honour, recognising 'conspicuous service' to the UK. Baritone Simon Keenlyside gets a CBE and Alan Spedding, organist of Beverley Minster, gets an MBE.

BBC Launches Classical Label
The commercial arm of the BBC, BBC Worldwide, is launching a label called Inversion Records and will include classical and other genres of music. This will be the first time that the BBC has released competing records onto the market using its own new artist signings.

The competition would be unfair if the BBC uses public radio and television to promote its own recordings, and if rates given by its orchestras to record labels differ from those given to Worldwide.

BBC Singer of the World
Sunday 22 June saw the opening of the BBC Singer of the World competition that launched, among others, Bryn Terfel on the road to international stardom.

For more information see the website for more details

Apple iTunes
Apple's iTunes online music store has sold (at 99cents each) 5 million songs in the first two months. It clearly shows that there is a legal and successful way of distributing music over the internet.

This non-subscription service is currently only available to Apple users in the USA, but worldwide roll-out is planned, as is Microsoft's own version.

RIAA get Heavy on Pirates
Cary Sherman of the Recording Industry Association of America has announced a determined effort to identify and file lawsuits against illegal users and swappers of music files. Those found and identified using software such as Kazaa and actively swapping, and perpetuating swapping, files will have a $150,000 lawsuit filed against them. The first lawsuits are expected to be filed in the next 6-8 weeks. Last month 4 students were forced to pay damages for such offences.

File swappers trade an estimated 2.6 billion songs, films and other files each month.