Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Non-Decline of Classical Recording?

I'm continuing to Google around, looking for statistics on whether or not the number of new releases of classical music has declined in recent years. As I wrote in my last post, Scott Spiegelberg found data that shows that new DG releases (including rereleases) are way up. No more statistics yet, but here's an interesting quote from a 2004 Alex Ross post in which he suggests that classical recording is not an industry in decline:

Tony Tommasini wrote in the Sunday New York Times: “For too long, the troubles among the major record companies and leading performing arts institutions have been taken as proof that the entire classical music field is struggling to engage an uninterested general public.” Yes. The former leading labels may be struggling to justify themelves to the corporate (non)entities that own them, but Nonesuch, ECM, Hyperion, and Harmonia Mundi have defined the category "major" out of existence, and there seems to be no end of new glories. I dithered over a dozen rave-worthy releases before picking René Jacobs’ Figaro, the Anna Netrebko recital, and Till Fellner’s Well-Tempered Clavier for my CD column last week. Here are six other recent discs that are evidence of something other than an industry in decline:
Follow the link to read his list. And I would add Naxos to his list of labels.

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