There are other classic plays too, including Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (with two memorable performances – from Juliet Stevenson in the title role and Michael Maloney as George Tesman). A brilliant four-hour production of Goethe’s Faust starring Samuel West in the title role and Toby Jones as Mephistopheles was released in 2011. This fully dramatised performance, directed by David Timson, was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Naxos AudioBooks marked the centenary of 16 June 1904, one of the most celebrated dates in literature (the day Leopold Bloom walked out in Dublin), with an unabridged recording of Ulysses, read by Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan. This twenty-two CD production was directed by Naxos AudioBooks’s Joycean expert Roger Marsh and presented with extensive, helpful notes, a listener’s guide written by Marsh, and a CD-ROM containing supplementary material. It has been praised by critics as one of the finest audiobooks ever produced. It is joined in the Joyce offerings by Finnegans Wake – in abridged form!
It was Marsh who directed another pillar of the label: the unabridged recording of Dante’s The Divine Comedy in a sparkling new verse translation by Benedict Flynn, read by the idiosyncratic playwright, actor and author Heathcote Williams. Flynn went on to translate for Naxos AudioBooks Beowulf and Gawain and the Green Knight, and to write modern versions, for younger listeners, of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (read by Sean Bean, it is the single ‘Junior Classics’ bestseller) and retellings of Homer, Robin Hood and Irish myths.
Naxos AudioBooks was the first audiobook company to offer all its titles on CD and remained at the technological forefront in being the first to offer its own download site within naxosaudiobooks.com (designed and maintained by the freelance IT consultant Arthur Ka Wai Jenkins). It offers all its titles for streaming as part of the Naxos Spoken Word Library, a unique resource that enables people to listen to titles on demand and even read the texts online at the same time.
The label expanded its range to include key religious works from Christianity and Buddhism, and philosophy texts (Plato, Lucretius, Descartes, Nietzsche and others). It also established a reputation for outstanding original works that introduced classical music to adults and children. The History of Classical Music and The History of Opera, written by Richard Fawkes, were followed by The Story of Classical Music and Famous Composers, written by Darren Henley and read by both the Naxos conductor Marin Alsop and Aled Jones. This series grew fruitfully into other ‘Histories’, covering Theatre (written by David Timson), Literature (Perry Keenlyside) and Poetry, Science and Western Art written by the versatile Peter Whitfield.
Yet Naxos AudioBooks has continued to serve fiction. In the first years of the twenty-first century the growth of downloads and the availability of MP3 players have resulted in an increasing demand for unabridged recordings. Thirty hours of recording is considerably more manageable physically in the MP3 format than on CD. Many of the classics have therefore been re-recorded in unabridged form, and the label is aiming to have in its catalogue all Dickens’s major novels in unabridged form by the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birth in 2012 read principally by Anton Lesser, Sean Barrett and David Timson.
Naxos AudioBooks now has more than 700 titles and it continues to grow. It is a world leader in classic literature but has made an impact in the contemporary field too, notably with the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami (his major novels on the label include Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore) and with the American Pulitzer Prize-winner Cormac McCarthy (Rupert Degas’s atmospheric reading of The Road and the Irish actor Sean Barrett’s highly praised Texan performance of No Country for Old Men feature strongly). It also remains perhaps the only label worldwide that is consistently commissioning new texts specifically for the audiobook medium. There are non-fiction junior programmes, varying from Great Explorers of the World by David Angus and Great Rulers of Ancient Rome by Hugh Griffith to Stories from Shakespeare by David Timson; and new titles for adults (A Guide to Wine, The History of the Olympics, and a broad range of subjects in the introductory ‘In a Nutshell’ series, such as Napoleon, Cathedrals, Afghanistan and Confucius).
Over nearly two decades Naxos AudioBooks has developed one of the most distinct and accomplished spoken-word catalogues in the world, and been one of the most innovative labels in its field.
Naxos Hörbücher
Audiobooks in German command the second-strongest market after those in English, and in 1998 Klaus Heymann set up a German audiobook label with Sören Meyer-Eller. It began, as did Naxos AudioBooks, with the intention of producing classic literature, though it was decided to concentrate on unabridged works where possible. Schiller, Hoffmann, Heine and Goethe started the list, followed by Kleist, Grillparzer and Kafka. Its most marked commercial success came with a series of CDs by the German performer and storyteller Lutz Görner; he toured Germany and accumulated handsome sales for the label. Naxos Hörbücher branched out to include translations: of children’s classics such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland; of Alexander Pushkin, Alphonse Daudet, Robert Louis Stevenson and Guy de Maupassant; even of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. It has some 130 titles in the catalogue.
Naxos Educational
There was an educational purpose to Heymann’s involvement in classical recording before Naxos began: the Budget Classics cassette line in the early 1980s was designed to introduce classical music to a new audience, and a substantial booklet containing an introduction to the subject (written by Keith Anderson) was offered free to collectors of the whole series. Even Naxos itself was partly targeted at first-time classical buyers.
It didn’t take long, after the initial rush of the label’s early years, for specific educational projects to appear. They took various forms but unquestionably the most successful were The A–Z of Classical Music and The A–Z of Opera: massive two-CD and 250,000-word projects with composers in alphabetical order, again written and compiled by Anderson. Despite the huge booklets (printed in China and slipcased with the CDs, making a very chunky package) these were sold at a normal Naxos two-CD price around the world; consequently they were seen as an absolute bargain. Even bookshops sold them in the front of their stores. The profit margin was tiny – just a few pence – but as far as Heymann was concerned the educational value and the broadening of Naxos’s profile made it worthwhile.
There were other similar projects, which led to the establishment of Naxos Educational shortly after the millennium. The label then began promoting its educational activities more specifically. With the audiobook histories on classical music produced by Naxos AudioBooks behind him, Heymann could see a more particular opportunity for music to be presented in this way and he commissioned a number of composer audiobook biographies from writer–broadcaster Jeremy Siepmann. Each release in the ‘Life and Works’ series was designed as a four-CD set; Siepmann’s narration was interspersed with letters and writings (of the composer and of those who played a part in his life) that were read by actors. Woven into the whole was music. The listener learns about the life, meets the composer through his own words, and hears some of the most important works. It is an ideal format for a composer biography and one not widely developed on CD. Eleven composers are featured in the series.
The second major audiobook strand brought into Naxos Educational was ‘Classics Explained’, with a sister series, ‘Opera Explained’. In ‘Classics Explained’ Siepmann throws the spotlight on particular works, going through them step by step. There are eight titles (each of two CDs), ranging from Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The intention is to open up a work for the non-musician; few technical terms are used. Each of the single-CD ‘Opera Explained’ titles focuses on a particular opera: the script by opera buff Thomson Smillie presents the background and storyline, and introduces the big arias and set pieces. These are read by Naxos AudioBooks actor David Timson (himself a singer), and with knowledgeable sound editing they provide an entertaining a
nd informative introduction to the regular opera-house repertoire. There are now thirty in the series, from Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and four of Mozart’s operas to Verdi, Puccini and Wagner. Its most recent addition is the two-CD introduction to The Ring of the Nibelung, written and narrated by Stephen Johnson: a flagship for the series.
Attractive though they are, the spoken-word productions did not sell particularly well and Naxos Educational began to focus more on CD packages with extended essays. ‘Art and Music’ is a series of single-CD titles with extended essays. It reveals how the major developments of art and music have not run in tandem (music developing half a century or so later). Many artists were touched by music in their life and work, and exploring both areas side by side also yields some fascinating connections. Artists include Canaletto, Rembrandt and Picasso. Written with authority and wit by Hugh Griffith, they are illuminating and at times surprising.
In the bold ‘Portrait’ series, contemporary music is put into the spotlight. Two CDs of a composer’s key works, and sometimes a short interview with the composer himself, are supported by a long essay. Bartók, Maxwell Davies, Pärt, Prokofiev, Rodrigo, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Tavener are the featured composers. In the same format were issued The Story of British Classical Music written by Anthony Burton and The Story of American Classical Music written by Barrymore Laurence Scherer.
The ‘Discover’ series also began life as a two-CD set slipcased with a 100-page booklet. The first five titles covered the established periods in music – Discover Early Music (Jenkins), Discover Music of the Baroque Era (Unger Hamilton), Classical Era (Johnson), Romantic Era (McCleery) and Twentieth Century (McCleery) – before specific genres were introduced: Symphony (Huth), Chamber Music (Siepmann), Choral Music (Hansell), Film Music (Riley) and Opera (Kimberley).
Naxos Books
In 2005, keen to extend its brand even further, Naxos moved into book publishing. It began with an enterprising project of music biographies that combined a book with two CDs and a dedicated website offering many hours of further listening. The ‘Life and Music’ series presents ten principal composers, each biography written in an accessible style by an established music writer. First to be published were Mozart and Beethoven, both written by Jeremy Siepmann, then Chopin by Jeremy Nicholas and Mahler by Stephen Johnson.
With Naxos’s unequalled catalogue of American classical music recordings, it was possible to offer the same format (a book with two CDs and a website) for the first lengthy account of the subject, A History of American Classical Music by Barrymore Laurence Scherer. Naxos Books then underpinned its publishing credentials with Down a Path of Wonder – the fascinating personal view of twentieth-century music, musicians and art in general by Robert Craft, Stravinsky’s protégé and heir. On the more compact side, Naxos Educational’s ‘Discover’ titles covering the periods in music history were turned into attractive low-cost books with websites (some have also been issued in audiobook form).
Naxos Books has made its strongest impact on both sides of the Atlantic with two imaginative books about classical music for younger readers, by Genevieve Helsby. Lively illustrations and an informal yet informative text make My First Classical Music Book the perfect introduction to classical music, composers and instruments, for children between the ages of five and eight. It is accompanied by an audio CD full of the music mentioned in the book. Meet the Instruments of the Orchestra!, illustrated with hundreds of photographs, is aimed at an older age group; in addition to being a reliable and engaging guide to its subject, it has an accompanying CD-ROM packed with music as well as games and other historical information.
The distribution of books worldwide depends on a totally different network from that of CDs, and at times Naxos has struggled to gain a presence in bookshops. The children’s books were instrumental in gaining the necessary foothold.
Naxos became one of the very first companies to bring together e-texts with music recordings, for both smartphone and tablet consumers, and to develop classical music apps. The ‘Life and Music’, ‘Portrait’ and ‘Discover’ series have been successfully converted for e-readers, while My First Classical Music App was released to broad approval. Once again, Naxos is at the cutting edge of technology.
Artaria Editions
One of the least-known and more specialist corners of Naxos, Artaria Editions is a boutique music publishing house devoted to rediscovering and publishing music of the Classical period – primarily the Viennese eighteenth century, though it has more recently expanded into the early years of the nineteenth century. Founded in New Zealand in 1995 and named after the original publisher of Haydn and Mozart, it was the brainchild of musicologist Allan Badley and Klaus Heymann. There still exists, Badley maintains, a wealth of music from the age of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven waiting to be discovered. ‘Performers welcome these ideas from the Classical era that appeal to audiences looking for something new but familiar.’
The Artaria venture was originally intended to provide new and unique material for Naxos’s list of eighteenth-century repertoire but eventually it took on a life of its own. It now publishes more works in a year than Naxos can possibly record and release.
Artaria has published nearly 500 works by some thirty composers who have, for centuries, been mainly footnotes in musical history. These include thirty symphonies by Franz Ignaz Beck (1734–1809), who was born in Mannheim though spent most of his professional life in France, living through the difficult years of the French Revolution; thirty symphonies by the prolific Johann Baptist Vanhal (1739–1813), regarded by Badley as one of the most talented composers of the period; and thirty-six works (symphonies, concertos, sonatas and a motet) by Leopold Hofmann (1738–1793), Kapellmeister at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. Haydn’s star pupil, Ignaz Pleyel (1757–1831), one of the most popular composers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, is also well represented in the catalogue with important editions of symphonies, symphonies concertantes, concertos and chamber works. Artaria’s ongoing publication of the complete works of Joseph Martin Kraus (1756–1792) promises to be one of the milestones of eighteenth-century scholarship, with editions of the complete symphonies, ballet music, keyboard music and violin sonatas already complete. One of the major initiatives in recent years has been the publication of the complete works for piano and orchestra by Beethoven’s pupil Ferdinand Ries (1784–1838).
A growing discography has emerged from this publication programme; it includes concertos for oboe, violin, cello and flute by Hofmann; four CDs of sinfonias and the complete keyboard music by Kraus; symphonies by Christian Cannabich; and overtures by Domenico Cimarosa. There are also recordings of rare choral works, such as Masses by Vanhal and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.
Artaria’s scholarly editions are intended first and foremost to be of practical use to the performer, although they contain detailed information about the sources used and reflect scrupulous editorial standards. As Badley explains, ‘Autograph scores and authentic copies (those corrected by the composer) of eighteenth-century works are extremely rare and the reliability of the extant performing material is extremely variable. This can pose great challenges to the editor, particularly in instances where a work survives in a single copy; but it does have the advantage of simplifying the choice of sources used for the edition.
‘Many of the compositions, however, survive in multiple handwritten copies and preference is usually given to sources that are close to the composer or are associated in some way with his professional activities.’ Even with all this research, Artaria does not publish ‘critical editions’ in the strictest sense of the term. The firm’s objective is to produce clean, erudite scores and parts that as far as possible faithfully represent the composer’s intentions as transmitted by the source or sources being used. ‘More often than not, one has to be content with a clear, professionally copied set of parts as the working source material and hope that most of the notes are there! Occasionally we need to
do some fairly advanced reconstructive surgery on the pieces. I’ve become pretty adept at writing missing parts over the years and pride myself on the fact that my additions are undetectable in performance, although they are scrupulously marked in the score.’
Artaria moves outside the central European focus from time to time. It offers seventeen chamber works by the English violinist and composer William Shield (1748–1829), a friend of Haydn; overtures and the opera Polly (a sequel to The Beggar’s Opera) by another English composer of the period, Samuel Arnold (1740–1802); violin sonatas by Pietro Locatelli (1695–1764); and symphonies by the Walloon composer François-Joseph Gossec (1734–1829).
Fifteen
Behind the Scenes
A&R, New Recordings and the Release Schedule
Naxos releases are unquestionably more numerous and ambitious in repertoire than those of any other company in the world. In the twenty-five years of Naxos and Marco Polo together, it has regularly released more than 300 recordings in a year – a staggering number given the international complexity of its recording schedule and the worldwide spread of its operation.
The Story of Naxos Page 31