Winning the first classical GRAMMYs for Naxos, the recording cemented the relationship between conductor and record company. Regular releases of both American and European repertoire appeared in the following years, including John Adams’s Violin Concerto played by the young English violinist Chloë Hanslip and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Slatkin’s tenure as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (2000–04) made him a familiar figure in the UK, which paved the way for further Naxos recordings there in addition to those in the US. In 2005, following the death of Kenneth Schermerhorn, conductor of the Nashville Symphony, Slatkin stepped in as music advisor. Naxos of America was based in Nashville and had an established relationship with the Nashville Symphony, so it was no surprise that in June 2006 Slatkin found himself in the Laura Turner Concert Hall recording works by another composer friend, Joan Tower. The CD contained the Concerto for Orchestra, but of special interest were the premiere recordings of Made in America and Tambor. The disc won two GRAMMY Awards in 2008, including Best Classical Album.
By the time of the award ceremony Slatkin was already deep in his next project for Naxos: the complete music by Leroy Anderson. ‘Anderson is one of those composers whom a lot of people don’t know by name but once they hear his music they know exactly who he is. I suggested to Klaus that for the centenary of Anderson’s birth [2008] we should record as much as we could of what we know exists in his catalogue. It turned out to be five CDs and I think out of those there are perhaps nine pieces which have never been recorded before.’ Slatkin chose to record the Anderson collection in London with the BBC Concert Orchestra (which he had conducted in the BBC Proms); it was perhaps a surprising choice, but the orchestra is known for its facility with light music. ‘The players have a really good feel for the style and the requisite sense of humour. They didn’t know all the music but they knew how to play it.’
Slatkin’s appointments as music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and of the Orchestre National de Lyon mean that both orchestras appear in future plans for Naxos. He has started a Rachmaninov symphony cycle with the DSO and regards the first disc – Symphony No. 2 coupled with Vocalise – as one of the best he has ever done. His work in Lyon will bring more Berlioz and Ravel onto Naxos, as well as the world-premiere recording of Gabriel Pierné’s The Children’s Crusade (although a major twentieth-century work, it has never been recorded before).
Slatkin has worked for many record companies – EMI, RCA, Vox, Telarc, Decca, Philips and Chandos – but his association with Naxos is what he wants now. ‘With Naxos, I don’t feel under pressure to record things just because they will sell. There seems to be a real commitment to the music that the label is producing. Yes, the money is tight but I am not doing it for money. Also, at this point in my life I don’t have to record anything I don’t want to. That is a good feeling. I don’t have to worry about how I am being perceived. I have found that Klaus loves the things that are unusual like Bolcom or Pierné. And with Klaus, just when you think there is a change in the industry that is going to sink Naxos, he always comes up with some new way to rethink the industry itself. He is a good businessman, very easy to talk to, and very direct.’
Robert Craft
For nearly two decades the conductor and writer Robert Craft has been methodically recording the major works of the two composers with whom he has been so closely associated for most of his life: Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. From 1947, when he first came into contact with Stravinsky, Craft found himself catapulted into a milieu of music and the contemporary arts that was one of the most exciting and creative of any age; he met many of the greatest figures of the post-war period in Europe, America and the Far East – not only composers but artists, poets and ‘makers of the twentieth century’. In 1950 Craft met Arnold Schoenberg, who was then in the last year of his life. A highly able musician himself, Craft proved to be indispensable to Stravinsky; he conducted and organised many performances and recordings of his music both during the composer’s last two decades and after his death.
The purpose of Craft’s assiduous and energetic recording programme, undertaken in the face of some obstacles, was simply to create a special archive, a legacy of a musical view of these two composers from someone who ‘had their confidence’. Craft has handpicked the orchestras and soloists and been extraordinarily diligent where the editions are concerned: he has often clarified details that he knew concerned the composers but perhaps were never documented; and he has brought out features that he is sure they would have wanted. These two archives have never been compromised by insufficient funds since Craft created a foundation that could allow the highest artistic standards. The recordings feature top orchestras in the US and the UK (Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble and Fred Sherry String Quartet in America; Philharmonia Orchestra in England); they took place at leading venues, such as London’s Abbey Road Studios; and immense care was taken over technical issues in their recording, editing and mastering.
Among them is the world-premiere recording of The Firebird in its complete original version, which reinstates the presence of two long, valveless trumpets, each playing a single note that stands out above the entire orchestra. It is a thrilling effect and is, in all likelihood, heard on this recording for the first time since 1910.
The collection so far contains fourteen discs of Stravinsky and eleven discs of Schoenberg, ‘the two giants of twentieth-century music’, as Craft puts it. There are also two discs containing the main works of Anton Webern, and Naxos offers the complete works of Webern in three volumes, which Craft recorded in 1957, to download or stream online. While Craft sees all these recordings as an important legacy, he makes no claim that they are definitive (he is far too aware of the range of possibilities when it comes to interpretation); but he does feel that the composers themselves would approve of the performances. Together they form ‘The Robert Craft Collection’.
When Craft began this momentous task the recordings were released by two American labels: Music Masters and Koch International Classics. As time passed, these labels were unable to continue their commitment, and the ownership of the masters reverted to Craft. He sought a label that could match the dedication he was making to the music of these three composers, and the collection found its home at Naxos, starting in 2004.
At the time of writing, Robert Craft is eighty-eight and still actively seeing recent programmes through the editing stages as well as planning new recordings. ‘The collection is the greatest pride of my musical life. The musicians on these recordings, like the Philharmonia, give marvellous performances, at a level that has never been achieved before. They have been cooperative and they are able to handle the technical problems in a way that was not possible at the time so much of this music was written.’ Craft knows so well the music he is conducting that he even asks in advance for certain orchestral musicians to play in specified works. ‘I give notes in advance that, for example, I would like a particular oboist to play in Stravinsky’s Symphony in C: the second movement is almost like an oboe concerto! This careful choice is especially important with singers. The most musical singers are not always the singers with the best voices. I must have singers with good ears who can manage the dissonant intervals – the large intervals going to remote notes – but who also have a keen musical sense of rhythm and very little vibrato. This is important in modern music because we care about the pitches so much.’
Craft also enjoys taking advantage of the improvement in the technical side of recording since the early days, when generally only one microphone was used – though he acknowledges that this used to give a very real perspective of a work. ‘You do get a balanced orchestra: we don’t really care about the second contrabassoon in The Firebird. But now, using many microphones, you can give certain instruments more volume, more power; you can have close-ups of passages that would not be heard by a single microphone.’
He feels his recordings of Schoenberg serve a special purpose. ‘Ninety-
five per cent of Schoenberg’s music is unknown to the general musical public – most of the works are never heard in the concert hall. But it is the kind of music that needs to be heard frequently. That is why I wanted these recordings to be with a record label that would keep them available to the public.’ Of the Schoenberg discs he has a particular affection for the Gurre-Lieder. ‘The performance is wonderful because it shows the hidden Wagnerism in me. There is that side of me that has not been able to come out through Stravinsky’s music. I would have liked to record The Ring.’ Of his Stravinsky recordings he singles out The Rake’s Progress, played by the Orchestra of St Luke’s. Craft first met Stravinsky on the same day that Auden delivered the completed libretto to the composer; he was immediately involved in the composition, helping with the pronunciation, vocabulary and rhythms of the English text.
In 2006 Naxos published in hardback a fascinating collection of thoughts and memoirs by Craft called Down a Path of Wonder. Many major figures of the twentieth century make an appearance within, including George Balanchine, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden and Aldous Huxley – as well as Stravinsky and Schoenberg.
James Judd
With the Heymann family having maintained a home in New Zealand for many years, it was not surprising that Naxos established a relationship with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. When the English conductor James Judd arrived in Wellington in 1999 to take up the post of music director, the relationship had temporarily halted and one of Judd’s intentions was to revive it. ‘The NZSO is an incredibly versatile orchestra, one where the musicians read very fast, like in London. You can put the red light on straight away and start recording. I was keen for the orchestra to work again with Naxos because while it had done some recording and a little touring, it was really a secret in the musical world. But it was a terrific jewel of an orchestra.’
The NZSO is a very cosmopolitan group, with musicians from Europe and the Far East, but it also has a nucleus of homegrown players who have benefitted from the country’s high standard of music education. It had never had a music director before Judd, working instead with many conductors and playing a wide range of repertoire in an equally wide range of styles. ‘The musicians understand what a Brahms sound is, or a Mozart sound … but they were also accustomed to recording contemporary works, especially the music of New Zealand composers, for small labels.’
As music director of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra Judd had recorded Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 and the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; it was logical, therefore, that his first few Naxos discs with the NZSO should contain American repertoire: Copland’s Symphony No. 3 and Billy the Kid, followed by Gershwin’s An American in Paris coupled with music from Porgy and Bess. More Bernstein followed, but Judd was keen for the orchestra to branch out. English music was an obvious step.
‘I wanted to do English music because I felt we would do that especially well, but by then – 2002 – Naxos already had quite a lot! I particularly wanted to do Elgar, and we started with smaller pieces, both of The Wand of Youth suites and a volume of marches. Eventually I asked Klaus to give us a list of things he wanted, which opened up a very fruitful dialogue.’ Vaughan Williams’s Fantasias with the Norfolk Rhapsody was an early recording. Those which followed included Beethoven’s incidental music for Egmont, Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau (‘The Mermaid’) and Sinfonietta (Judd had been performing Zemlinsky in concert), and two versions – one English and one German – of Mendelssohn’s complete incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream; a few years later, Naxos added the spoken text, read by English and German actors, to form a world premiere.
The NZSO was also keen to record music by New Zealand and Australian composers. The chief executive of the orchestra, Peter Walls, had always programmed contemporary works by national composers in concerts, and Heymann, living in the region for part of every year, was committed to supporting its music. In 2003, under Judd’s direction, the orchestra recorded Earth Cry and the Piano Concerto by one of Australia’s most prominent composers, Peter Sculthorpe, and followed this a few years later with John Antill’s music for the ballet Corroboree. For its first twentieth-century New Zealand music disc, Naxos again turned to an established figure, featuring orchestral works by Douglas Lilburn, described by Judd as ‘the elder statesman of New Zealand classical music’. Judd was particularly impressed by the music of Lyell Cresswell – born in New Zealand though resident in Scotland – and recorded The Voice Inside with other works. ‘That music is quite unique and unusual. Cresswell is a composer who I think should be better known. It is challenging to record contemporary music, when the composer is there. But it is important because Naxos, with its outstanding distribution, can take the music around the world.’
Judd has always maintained an international career – he is now conductor emeritus with the NZSO – and has recorded extensively in the UK as well. He suggested Bax to Heymann, and the Symphonic Variations coupled with the Concertante for piano left hand was recorded with the pianist Ashley Wass and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Wass joined him again, this time with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, for Vaughan Williams’s Piano Concerto, which was released with The Wasps and other works.
‘I love the process of recording. What I am trying to do is to get something that is not just slick and clean but something that lives, where you can hear the hearts of the musicians pulsing hard on the page. I do find it a painful business listening back to the edits, and though I don’t like doing it I do take it seriously. Fortunately I can trust the producers I work with – Andrew Walton and Tim Handley.’
Eleven
Composers of Our Time
There are many commercial reasons why a classical label selling at budget price should exercise caution when approaching contemporary music, or simply music in copyright. It comes down mainly to a question of margins. A royalty on all recordings sold – whether bought as physical CDs, downloaded or streamed – goes to all living composers, and then to their estates for a specified period after their death: seventy years in the EU and the United States (with some variation); fifty years in most other countries. The level of royalty is calculated according to the dealer price (the price at which the distributor sells to the shop). It means, in effect, that a recording of music in copyright generates between 20 per cent and 50 per cent less for the label than one of music in the public domain. In addition to this so-called mechanical royalty, many publishers demand a substantial upfront rental for the use of their scores and parts in the recording, a charge many record companies consider to be double-dipping. The other key factor, perhaps peculiar to classical music, is that recordings of contemporary music generally sell far fewer than those of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, because the majority of classical music lovers often find music of their own time unappealing. There are many exceptions, of course, but on the whole this is true.
Naxos initially focused on public-domain repertoire and among the first 100 releases only one title was in copyright: Orff’s Carmina Burana. Klaus Heymann’s personal attitude was divided. On the one hand, he was a collector who had started with Marco Polo, a label designed for world premieres; what’s more, his first recording was of his wife Takako Nishizaki playing a contemporary Chinese violin concerto. On the other hand, he was a businessman and Naxos was a business proposition. He realised that if he wanted to build a comprehensive catalogue of classical music he had to record the essential masterworks of twentieth-century and contemporary music. Within two or three years the die was cast: Naxos was becoming a fully fledged record label, which meant that this music must be included, whether it was Stravinsky (leading to the ambitious project of the complete orchestral works conducted by Robert Craft), Schoenberg or Shostakovich; or leading figures in twentieth-century musical iconoclasm such as John Cage (music for prepared piano), Edgard Varèse or Conlon Nancarrow (with his complex rhythms). Somehow Heymann would have to make the numbers add up, by attracting sponsorship or doing deals or selling far more
records than past experience predicted or, in the final instance, swallowing the loss through success in other areas of repertoire. He tried never to make a recording that was guaranteed to lose money, but there were occasions when he approved a project while looking the other way.
In considering the music of our time that is available on Naxos and the composers who have been highlighted, it is interesting to note how methodical the coverage has been, with some clear national threads. The compositional line can be followed from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first. There seems to be an almost academic design. Heymann cannot say that it was planned that way; it happened somewhat organically, culminating in the works of key contemporary composers who, on the whole, have been delighted to find their music available at a low cost so that listeners can be adventurous in their choice. The collection is not comprehensive (that would be impossible); but after twenty-five years of Naxos recording there are interesting discernible threads, notably American, Polish and English. In addition, Naxos documents other developments that are less well known, such as the fascinating growth of Spanish and Japanese classical music – the latter represented in recent years by Toru Takemitsu and Toshio Hosokawa. Many other composers of our time appear in the Naxos catalogue, though perhaps on only one or two recordings: figures as different as Gian Carlo Menotti and Luciano Berio. Naturally the catalogue is growing all the time: György Ligeti was represented only by Idil Biret’s recording of the Études for piano until 2010, when the Parker Quartet’s performance of his quartets was released. (It went on to win a GRAMMY Award in 2011.) Naxos now records more contemporary and twentieth-century music than any other record label, major or independent.
The Story of Naxos Page 23