A Musical Lament...

[endlessrarities]

Question:  WHY IS CLASSICAL MUSIC SO EXPENSIVE???

There's a Mehul overture, La Chasse de Jeune Henri, that I really want to get hold of.  Horse lovers who enjoy Classical music would love it - it inspired me to take up the French horn because of its wild and atmospheric depiction of a medieval hunt.

Only trouble is, that I'm going to have to fork out between nine and eighteen pounds to get hold of something that lasts about ten minutes!  Which isn't really good value to me...

Okay, I know the answer to my own question.  Because orchestral musicians need to live, and because classical music is so niche, it's impossible to produce CD's as cheaply as it is for the mass popular market.

BUT IT'S STILL REALLY ANNOYING!!  AARGGHHHH!!!!!

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I guess it deosn't help either that Mehul is comparatively obscure and only to be found on classic geek labels like Hyperion.

Fwiw and for future reference Hyperion's own website does some pretty tasty discounts.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

'Classic geek labels like Hyperion' - I love it!!

Just my luck to hanker after a geeky piece of music. I blame my parents...

I'll check out the link - thanks!!

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

All musicians need to live.

On the folk scene albums are often produced in limited quantities of 500 or 1000 and we can still sell them for between £10 and £12 each. The actual length of the piece of music does not affect the price. A CD costs as much to produce whether it has five minutes of music or 74 (the maximum length for the standard CD). The actual cost of manufacturing is dependent on the packaging, and the number of pages in the print booklet and the print process on the disc. The card CD packaging (rather than the usual plastic 'jewel' case) costs a fair bit more to produce, but on average the actual production cost is less than a pound per CD. Of course, then you have to pay royalties to the composer and/or possibly the arranger (for classical that's in the public domain) plus fees and royalties to the musicians if you're horing in orchestras and choirs. (There are set rates for session fees backed by the various unions such as MU and Equity.) Then there's the design work on the packaging. And then the advertising and business infrastructure for the firms that distribute the CDs (often why you can get bargains frem the record companies because they are cutting out both the distributer's cut and the retailer's cut.)

At the end of the day the musicians are not the main beneficiaries of ylour nine to eighteen pounds unless (like many folkies) they have got together to make and release their own CD.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Most of the time I have absolutely no problem with paying between ten and fifteen pounds for a CD, because I'd rather the artists were paid a decent amount. Same goes for books. But a lot of the time, Classical CD's are way off the scale, and you're having to pay between thirty and seventy pounds for a couple of CD's, which is pretty prohibitive.

I don't suppose the cost of the Mehul is too bad, when you take into account that you get the symphonies for good measure. But all I want is one overture, and paying all that money for one very short piece of music seems a wee bit extravagant to me.

I'll probably indulge, though. I just listened to it on You Tube, but it's not the same as hearing it on the stereo system!!

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

And if you want Hi-fi sound, an mp3 download is just not high enough quality.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I don't do MP-3's or i-pods for that reason. They're just jumped up personal stereos, as far as I'm concerned.

Music is, and always has been, one of the most important things in my life. A good quality sound system is, to me, far more important than a decent telly!!

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Aside from the classical and opera, I'm also a folkie and I guess folkies aren't having to pay a full orchestra and the studio space they require. The last album I was involved in was put together by four of us in a bus shelter on Sidmouth sea front! :o)

Top end hi fi? Oh yes!

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

Tell me. I spend more money on CDs and opera DVDs than I do on books (except some non fiction; but that I need which can't be said about a DVD of Anna Bolena).

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Until very recently, I just haven't earned enough money to buy classical music on a regular basis. It's been too much of a luxury...

[paulie123.livejournal.com]

It may not be the same but YouTube have a version

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's the same alright! And the more I think about it, the more I realise I am prepared to spend nine quid on it just so I can have the pleasure of hearing it on the stereo.

[paulie123.livejournal.com]

And doesn't the sound quality of some downloads set the teeth on edge?

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

You're so right...

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Only trouble is, that I'm going to have to fork out between nine and eighteen pounds to get hold of something that lasts about ten minutes! Which isn't really good value to me...

Ah, but how many times are you going to play it? :)

Of course, my problem is that I keep spending money on different recordings of my favourites. I realized I passed "Rational" quite a while back when I tried to work out how many Mozart Piano Concerto cycles I own and I had to count three times to get it right.

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

I have three versions of Wagner's Ring on DVD and don't get me started on my Verdi collection. :)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Sounds like perfectly normal behaviour to me. Especially when you consider the price of a normal opera ticket. Although there's still something magical about feeling the sound move through the air around you and realizing that it is all coming from the body of the person singing in front of you.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I don't like much in the way of opera. Scottish Opera did the Ring Cycle a few years back, but I couldn't afford to go:-(

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, I don't like my odds of ever seeing one. Although Adelaide had one a few years ago and I've heard there's one planned for Melbourne (courtesy of the Wheelers who founded Lonely Planet and the BBC who bought them out).

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Verdi collection?

Oh yes! I recognise that problem, although I'm not a Wagner lover (it's Richard Strauss in this household :o)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I think I'll be splashing out on a Berlioz collection is a few weeks time.

I'm not a big fan of Richard Strauss - not for listening, at any rate. Except for the Four Last Songs... But I love playing Strauss 1 on the horn.

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

I love Berlioz, too. I got Damnation du Faust and Benvenuto Cellini on (what are those old black thingies called) and really need to replace them on CD, but I want the version with Nicolai Gedda, dangit. :) I've considered getting Les Troyens on DVD if I can find a good one - it's a very visual opera and needs to be done right, plus I want singers who can pronounce French. I know, asking for much here. :)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

It's Harold in Italy and Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale I'm after in particular. I've already got Symphonie Fantastique - lovely piece of music, but I have mixed feelings about it. When I toured as part of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland we were made to spend our day off sight-reading Symphonie Fantastique. It was supposed to be relaxation...

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

:o)

I love the Strauss operas, I have to admit.

The four last songs are sublime!

There's a really good (and cheap) recording of 'Les Troyens' with that Berlioz champion, Colin Davis, conducting on Royal Opera's own label.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I don't know Les Troyens at all - which is a terrible admission, considering my French Horn is named 'Hector' after Berlioz...

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

It's Richard Strauss in my father's household.

Well, the amount of Verdi operes I have on CD and DVD is scary, lol. I got every opera he wrote on CD (including Il Giorno di Regno, the first verison of Macbeth, and both versions of the re-composed operas Stiffelio/Aroldo and I Lombardi/Jérusalem), and a lot of them on DVD as well, some (Traviata, Nabucco, Don Carlos, Aida, Rigoletto, Simone Boccanegra)) in more than one version, though a few of those I recorded from TV.

Then there's also impressive CD collection of obscure Donizetti operas and whatever of his operas I could get on DVD, I got (including a Maria Stuarda sung in English which even works; though I'm looking for a good Italian one as well).

I have more Wagner, of course, and some Bellini and Rossini and more. My father has the Puccini colletion. :) And all the Mahler symphoninas several times over on CD and those old black thingies. He's as crazy as I am.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Mahler I can relate to! And some Verdi. I'd love to get a hold of Aida..

But not the Donizetti or the Rossini. It's the kind of music my father likes - and too set-piece for me.

Now Mussorgsky's a different matter. Must check out recordings of Boris Godunov sometime...

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

I have that old one with Boris Christoff.

Boris Godunov is actually the first opera I heard. I was five, sitting on the fuffy carpet in our living room trying not to get noticed by my father who listened to it on the radio.

Of course, he did notice me, and from that time on started to get me acquainted with all sorts of classical music. The first opera I saw in the theatre were the Mastersingers - I was seven and got my first long skirt. :)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I was a pretty early opera goer, too. I did see Mastersingers once when Scottish Opera did it, years ago. High point in my opera viewing years was probably seeing Cunning Little Vixen. Low point Cosi fan Tutte. Or some Rossini opera which I can't remember anything about whatsoever, except that there was a stunning French horn solo slap bang in the middle of it. I woke up for that.

I'm much more of an orchestral person. Though I do like some of the BIG choral works!!

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

I'm more and opera and lied person. But yeah, Cosi fan Tutte isn't exactly one of my favourites, either. I like Don Giovanni, though.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

On the song cycle front, I do love Wintereisse... Very depressing, though...

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I had a funny sort of revelation about Così fan tutte a while ago. It was the only Mozart opera that I didn't enjoy the first time I saw it (Le Nozze di Figaro is my all-time favourite), but now it's one of my favourites. I love the way it uses emotions in a kind of counterpoint, in the same way as the best writers.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Nope. Too subtle for me.

I prefer these big, melodramatic wearing-their-heart on their sleeve German and Russian Romantic operas...

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Cunning Little Vixen? I saw Lesley Garrett in that part- really the part she was born for! :o)

Janacek is one of the great opera composers for me.

Have you seen: 'From the House of the Dead'?

And talking of Eastern Europe., how about Bartok and 'Duke Bluebeard's Castle'? Now THERE'S a powerful piece!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I saw From the House of the Dead when I was a student - a great cameo role was played by Snorbitz the eagle, who swooped around the stage at the end.

I'm not a big fan of Bartok, I must admit - maybe I should revisit him now my tastes have matured a bit.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Bartok! :o)

Here's a taste from Duke Bluebeard's Castle (his only opera) which I consider one of the most dramtic moments in all opera! I saw it in Budapest three years back and was just blown away!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I got the New York Met version of the Ring on DVD at Christmas - that's good enough for me!

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

The Levine one? It's my favourite, too. That and Karajan's version of the Rhinegold - too bad he never did the rest of the lot.

We have a second hand store here that specialises in genre fiction (mostly Fantasy) and for some odd reason, also uses to have a bunch of opera DVDs. I got the Kupfer/Barenboim version of the Ring cheap or I'd not have bought another one. And then I was a bad girl and recoreded the La Fura del Baus version when it came on TV.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

That's the one.

We don't get many Ring cycles on telly over here. The first one I saw was the Boulez Bayreuth festival version of ?1984. It had Gwyneth Jones as a rather peaky-looking Brunnhilde and Manfred Jung as a not very handsome Siegfried. And the costumes were dire! Lounge suits and a spear just don't go together. But Siegfried Jerusalem as Siegmund made it all worthwhile, and I remember the two Wolsung twins were at it on the stage as the curtain fell, which was quite risque!! The Valkyries were also lugging about 'corpses', which was a nice touch.

The next one I saw was the Met version, and I was hooked. It looked mythical. I taped it on VHS, and was absolutely delighted when I realised that I could replace my 8 odd videos for a neat DVD box set.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I think I may want to play it quite a few times...

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... An observation... When you comment to individual comments in the thread, you wind up sounding really disjointed because all the comments are piled up at the end....