A decade after the move to Franklin, Naxos of America had become one of the major players in classical music. By the end of 2010 it was the largest distributor of independent classical labels in the US; and in the number of CD sales it was second only to Universal (which depended upon crossover titles for its ranking). The ‘American Classics’ series, comprising some 360 titles, represents a major achievement; and the list of independent labels distributed (which includes one of the UK’s leading labels, Chandos) is still growing. In 2010 one of the majors came into the fold for distribution: Warner Classics, comprising Warner Classics, Erato and Teldec. This became the second-highest seller on the distributor’s roster after Naxos. The company remains the leading distributor of classical DVDs (it also acquired distribution rights to Jazz Icons, which proved a commercial hit).
Naxos of America is now playing a major role in Naxos’s digital musical presence worldwide, liaising with the DSPs as well as managing the maintenance and continuing development of the Naxos Music Library and ClassicsOnline. The company is also responsible for the digital distribution of many independent classical labels. At the time of writing, its business is comfortably spread, with audio over 40 per cent, DVD sales touching 30 per cent, digital revenue nearly 20 per cent, and licensing 10 per cent. The US tends to lead the way in retail trends, and though Naxos of America is itself an industry leader it is also sufficiently flexible and light on its feet to accommodate change.
While business and commercial activities as well as ‘American Classics’ drove Naxos of America to its current position, a handful of close musical relationships were of immense benefit too.
The special association that developed between the Nashville Symphony and the Naxos label shortly after Naxos of America moved to the area in 1998 proved mutually beneficial. Both were ambitious and fast-growing companies. Alan Valentine, president and CEO of the Nashville Symphony, had recently taken over the reins when Naxos arrived, and had plans to build the orchestra into a prominent force in American music; to this end, he recognised the need for a recording series with a major international label. The orchestra’s music director, Kenneth Schermerhorn, had already recorded for Naxos (Finlandia and other tone poems with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra) and had a good relationship with Heymann. Schermerhorn had a particular interest in American music, especially the New England composers, so Nashville was an obvious place for Naxos to record some of the key works in its ‘American Classics’ series.
Hanson’s Symphony No. 1 ‘Nordic’ and Merry Mount Suite marked the beginning of the association. It was followed by Ives’s Symphony No. 2 and Robert Browning Overture, using the new Ives critical editions; the orchestra’s performance of the works in Carnegie Hall highlighted the forthcoming recording, which on its release was admired by the critics. More than twenty discs followed over the years, covering a range of repertoire. Some of the ideas came from Heymann, such as Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto and ‘Gaelic’ Symphony, and Bernstein’s West Side Story. When Heymann asked the Nashville Symphony to record West Side Story Valentine characteristically took the idea further, joining with the Tennessee Repertory Theatre for a co-production in the city. It gave the project extra prominence and the recording itself became a Naxos bestseller. Not all the repertoire recorded in Nashville was for the ‘American Classics’ series; other requests from Heymann included important central classical works (such as Beethoven’s Missa solemnis), which demonstrated the respect he had for Schermerhorn and the orchestra.
Ideas that came from the Nashville Symphony side included a disc devoted to John Corigliano (A Dylan Thomas Trilogy and other works), conducted by Leonard Slatkin and featuring the baritone Thomas Allen; and overtures and tone poems by Thomas Chadwick. The recording of Joan Tower’s Made in America, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company Fund, was another special event in the Nashville Symphony’s history. Coupled with Tambor and the Concerto for Orchestra, and again conducted by Leonard Slatkin, it went on to win three GRAMMY Awards in 2008.
The association between orchestra and label was given an extra boost by the opening in 2006 of the Laura Turner Concert Hall in Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, a hall that was designed to be ideal for recording; all the Nashville Symphony’s Naxos discs have been made there since its opening. Alan Valentine believes it has made a real contribution to the quality of the recordings. ‘You can hear the hall!’ he says.
Valentine feels that the Nashville Symphony has two distinctive qualities which can be heard on all its recordings, whoever the conductor may be. One is specifically related to the performance of American music. ‘The orchestra is situated in Music City USA where lots of American music is made – country music, R&B, a lot of pop music. When they have time, many of our musicians play sessions as well here. This means that they “get” the idioms of American popular culture, which very often is fused into the music by American contemporary composers writing for symphony orchestra. Take Leonard Bernstein – his West Side Story, or Dybbuk and Fancy Free – or Daugherty’s Metropolis: the orchestra just gets that music instantly. The playing is idiomatic and that comes through.
‘The other thing about the orchestra is the string playing that has developed beautifully in our new hall. It has a really interesting quality. It was coming with that early recording of Hanson’s Rhythmic Variations on Two Ancient Hymns, and it has become even more refined since.’
Valentine adds, ‘The relationship between Naxos and the Nashville Symphony has been good for both of us, but I have to give a great deal of credit to Klaus and Naxos for the reputation we have been able to build. Frankly the incredible trajectory of the orchestra’s growth was helped by our relationship with Naxos because it sparked the imagination of our community and our community leadership about what was possible. Klaus has been a great partner.’
The last decade has also seen an increasing number of recordings from two American conductors in particular, very different in personality and style: Gerard Schwarz and JoAnn Falletta.
For more than a quarter of a century Schwarz was music director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. From that base came numerous ground-breaking recordings, most notably those featuring the music of William Schuman, Walter Piston and Howard Hanson; and, through the Milken Archive of Jewish Music, works by David Diamond and other Jewish composers. Falletta has been music director of the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra for more than a decade. She has, on disc as in the concert hall, championed music by contemporary American composers, including John Corigliano and Kenneth Fuchs, as well as the works of Aaron Copland, Ern Dohnányi and Richard Strauss.
Now in his mid-sixties, Schwarz has had personal contact with major American figures of the twentieth century, as a trumpet player in his early years and later as a conductor. ‘I’m old enough to have been a friend of Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland, and to have studied with Paul Creston, Milton Babbitt, Jacob Druckman and Vincent Persichetti. Gunther Schuller is a close friend, as was David Diamond. So when I came to Seattle in 1985 I made a determined effort to promote not only these composers but such masters as William Schuman, Walter Piston and Howard Hanson, whose music at that time was being almost completely ignored, thanks to the rise of the avant-garde, and of serialism. Their more conservative music wasn’t just neglected but actually looked down on. It seemed people were no longer interested in the kind of well-grounded, well-structured symphonies that Hanson wrote. It was almost like there wasn’t time for his music to gain a following because we had moved on, and become interested in other things. Since then, though, two recording companies in particular have made a major contribution to the fortunes of American music. First came Delos, and now we have Naxos, who have helped a huge amount. What Naxos is doing with their American series is really tremendous. Fantastic. Still, what we really need is for everybody to be doing it!’
For Naxos Schwarz conducted Hanson’s important 1933 opera Merry Mount on a two-CD set, a recording based on the performances given by the soloists and the Sea
ttle Symphony in 1996 (the centenary of the composer’s birth); he has recorded the eight published symphonies by William Schuman, coupled with other works, creating an important discography for the composer; and he has recorded Piston’s Symphonies Nos. 2, 4 and 6 as well as The Incredible Flutist and other orchestral music.
With a total of nearly 250 recordings made over the years for a wide range of labels, Schwarz has cast his net far further than just American music. Recently he has undertaken a series of Rimsky-Korsakov recordings for Naxos. Among these works is, of course, Sheherazade; but he is pleased also to have conducted many lesser-known pieces, including various overtures and suites from Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas. ‘One album is devoted entirely to overtures, and I’m very excited about them all, quite frankly.’ All these Rimsky-Korsakov recordings are played by the Seattle Symphony.
In 2009 Falletta’s recording with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra of music by John Corigliano – Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan and Three Hallucinations (from Altered States) – won two GRAMMYs (Best Classical Vocal Performance, and Best Classical Contemporary Composition for Mr. Tambourine Man). The composer himself took an active producing role in the recording sessions of Mr. Tambourine Man at the Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York, working with Naxos’s own producer Tim Handley. Falletta went on to record Corigliano’s Violin Concerto The Red Violin (with Michael Ludwig as soloist) and Phantasmagoria (a suite from his opera The Ghosts of Versailles), also with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. These Corigliano recordings have certainly been a highlight in the decade of association between Naxos and Falletta.
‘Well, I must say first of all that throughout our association, Naxos has been just an unbelievable partner, with their continuing appetite for unusual music. They’ve encouraged us to seek out, discover and record all kinds of things, from an orchestral version of Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet to a disc of orchestral music by Duke Ellington. They’ve opened the door to so many wonderful projects and maintained an untiring appetite for the unusual. One thing I particularly like is finding old works that haven’t been played – Romantic repertoire that has somehow fallen through the cracks, for whatever reason. You know, people tend to think, “Well, if it were any good we would know about it already.” I don’t believe that. There are lots of reasons why music gets lost.’
Falletta has made two discs of Dohnányi that cover both violin concertos and Variations on a Nursery Song, and she has been rediscovering for Naxos the music of Josef Suk (Dvoák’s son-in-law), including the Fantasy for violin and orchestra, a tour de force for the instrument. In April 2010 she travelled to The Netherlands to conduct a recording of Arvo Pärt’s Lamentate for piano and orchestra. ‘I was working with Ralph van Raat, a fantastic pianist who is particularly involved with new music and loves that vocabulary of sound. When we’re dealing with someone like Pärt, the sound is very nuanced: it’s intimate, and the vocabulary of the piano is greatly expanded by the tone colours he uses. Lamentate, like most of Pärt’s music, is a very profound work. It has its roots in his spirituality, in his views on the pains of war, of our modern world, and the challenges that everyone faces; it deals with our individual confrontation with the pain and the tragedy that surround us, and how we make our way through that. It’s not only profound, it is very beautiful music too.’
With Copland’s Prairie Journal and The Red Pony Suite, Daron Hagen’s opera Shining Brow, and works by Respighi, Jack Gallagher and Marcel Tyberg also gracing her discography, JoAnn Falletta has covered for Naxos a very wide range of music indeed.
Germany: Naxos Deutschland
The market share of classical records in Germany is the highest in Europe, at around 7.5 per cent. In a way, this makes it a particularly tough market to break into with something new: the audience is knowledgeable and experienced, but also largely traditional. The buyers know what they like. Certainly it was not an easy market for Naxos to enter. For the first six years Heymann struggled to get it away from the bargain bins in supermarkets. This may have been acceptable for the first couple of years of the budget label, but by the early 1990s Naxos had matured into a serious classical company. It desperately needed to make the move into the mainstream classical retail outlets, especially as Marco Polo, handled by the same distributor, was there too and rather uncomfortable in a cardboard bin.
One day in 1990 Chris Voll, chief salesman for a leading classical music distributor, Fono, decided he really should try out these cheap-looking CDs that he had been noticing in the bins for some time and he took two home with him. He put one in his CD player and went into another room: a distant background sample would probably serve, he thought. He became involved in something else, and it was fifteen minutes or more before he returned to that room and heard the music. He had totally forgotten what he had put on, but stood and listened. It was rather good, he concluded. He looked around for the case and was astounded to find it was a Naxos disc. He listened to the rest of it. Then he put on the second disc and was similarly impressed. Sadly, two decades later, he can’t remember what the music was – but he knows he was astonished.
Shortly after this, he went to MIDEM Classique, the classical music trade fair in Cannes, for the first time. It was January 1991. He was walking through the Palais where the exhibition halls were and came across Naxos and Marco Polo. He made an appointment and met Klaus Heymann. They talked for a long time and found a lot in common, including contact with the Vox label, which had pioneered some of the ground Naxos was to tread. In the end, Voll offered to distribute Marco Polo. This was clearly a specialist label that would sit well in a company of Fono’s reputation. He made no bid for Naxos because he didn’t think it was available. Within two months he was distributing Marco Polo in Germany; it was scarcely more than another two months when he received a phone-call from Heymann in Hong Kong, who asked if Fono had supermarkets as its customers as well as the specialist music shops (of which there were hundreds in Germany at the time). ‘Yes,’ Voll replied. Heymann explained that he was seeking a replacement distributor for Naxos. Would Voll and Fono take it? ‘Certainly,’ said Voll. ‘Ok,’ said Heymann, ‘you can take over next week.’
It was a big step for Naxos and for Fono. The distributor was challenged on all sides. ‘We had to learn how to handle big quantities, to discuss prices, bonuses and incentives with supermarket buyers,’ Voll recalls. ‘We were not used to this.’ They also had to face prejudice from the classical world that they knew so well. ‘We had to convince our serious and conservative specialist shops that “respectable” Fono hadn’t made a terrible mistake taking on a label like Naxos.’ Inroads were gradually made, and Naxos eventually became Fono’s biggest label.
For five years Voll and his team at Fono worked on Naxos, before the growing strength of the label and the necessity of a change in distribution policy suggested a fresh direction. Klaus Heymann decided to form his own sales, marketing and distribution company, Naxos Deutschland. On 1 January 1997 Chris Voll, as managing director, opened the doors of the new company in Münster with a small team of three, including Ludger Diekamp as marketing manager. A former key member of the EMI team, Diekamp was a well-known figure in Germany’s classical recording scene. These two were to direct the Naxos fortunes in Germany for the next fifteen years. With a four-man sales team, all ex-Fono, Voll set out to establish Naxos more firmly in Germany. ‘Naxos was only one label in Fono. By calling our company Naxos Deutschland we were demonstrating the particular commitment to the label.’ Nevertheless it was joined from the start by a small group of independent German labels, including Hänssler Classic and Preiser Records. It was, appropriately, the tenth year of Naxos.
The first campaign was intended to make an impact, and it did. Voll and Diekamp designed a series of ten ‘limited edition’ five-CD boxed sets of popular and useful compilations. They were stamped ‘Jubilee’ to mark Naxos’s first decade and included Beethoven’s complete symphonies, Chopin’s solo piano music, Vivaldi’s
most important concertos, and a set of classical guitar works. They were offered at a very low price, and some of them sold more than 100,000 units. The concept was so popular that there was clearly a strong demand after the year was up, and Voll told dealers that the offer would be extended to one more order per retailer. Large orders came in but the demand continued … Voll admits that some of the sets are still available and sell to this day.
This campaign was followed by other ideas, such as the ‘Trio’ series: three original CDs in an attractive German-language slipcase (Albinoni’s oboe concertos, Beethoven’s piano concertos and Festliche Barocktrompete, for example). There were forty titles in the series, with the slogan ‘3 CDs for the price of 2’: it is an overworked marketing tactic now but it was unheard of in the late 1990s, certainly in classical music. Some of them sold 50,000 units in Germany alone. Then there was the enormous success – mirrored throughout all the main Naxos territories – of The A–Z of Classical Music, in a German version, with one CD and a booklet of 1,000 pages. It was more of a gamble in Germany because there was the added expense of translating it; nevertheless it sold more than 250,000 units at an extremely competitive price (just a few pence above the manufacturing cost). For Naxos Deutschland it was as much a marketing tool with a small profit margin as a genuine product for sale.
The success of all these initiatives underpinned the growing presence of Naxos in the shops, and prompted such spectacular in-store presenters as the huge acrylic Naxos pyramid. Behind them all was the hard graft of establishing Naxos as a respected classical label in Germany. ‘Our motto was: “Hohe Qualität – niedriger Preis” [High Quality – Low Price].’ It was branded on all the displays, and low price it certainly was. When Fono took on Naxos, it sold each CD for DM9.90. When Naxos Deutschland started, the price continued. When, in January 2002, the euro was introduced, Naxos Deutschland kept the price low: €4.99. But it simply couldn’t make a reasonable profit margin, and a year later raised it to €5.99. Other Naxos distributors in Europe and elsewhere raised prices as well, but few met with the kind of resistance that emerged in Germany. The big supermarkets said they would refuse to carry Naxos, and prepared to return all the stock. The independent sector was already in decline, and it now encountered opposition from customers who felt betrayed. Naxos Deutschland experienced much the same response. ‘We had so many postcards from individuals saying that they had been a great fan of Naxos and had 180 CDs or more in their collections, but now they were going to say goodbye.’
The Story of Naxos Page 39