Too Little Choice


Another recent thread about a Carl Orff piece prompted a thought. How many people believe the Orff only wrote Carmina Burana? If you to a music store you have lots of Orff choices, as long as all you want is Carmina Burana. Even Catulli Carmina, which used to be semi available is disappearing. Lieder und Gesange, Veni Creator Spiritus, Trionfo di Afrodite and lots more are missing from most stores.
The issue isn't just for us Orff fans. Why do record producers pound away at the same old chestnuts and complain that no one wants classical music. Well how many copies of Mozarts Requiem do they think we need? It seems only Naxos is addressing the under recorded music. And that's a lot of music.
keis

Showing 1 response by jimtreanor

Rcprince is on target with respect to the corporate mentality, a mindset doubtless conditioned by the numbers--last figures I saw (about a year ago) indicated that classical purchases constitute less than 3% of the U.S. market. And yet...there _are_ labels besides Naxos who transcend the "warhorse" paradigm...among them ASV, Channel Islands, BIS, Lyrinx, and Hyperion (all of which, incidentally, appear to be risk takers by nature, given their willingness to also give SACD a tumble).

Labels such as these may be harder to find in the typical CD outlet, but that's where the Internet can show its stuff. What they produce is certainly worth the effort of a Web search.

If you run across a good Catulli, by the way, let me know.