mark
7/18/2012 5:25:00 AM
On Jul 17, 9:48 pm, "Matthew B. Tepper" <oy @earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
> With Philips, the example that comes to mind was Viktoria Mullova playing
> violin concerti by Bartok (1938) and Stravinsky, with Esa-Pekka Salonen
> conducting the L.A. Philharmonic. These were recorded in May 1997, issued
> in the UK in March 1998 (not so bad, as the slowly-grinding mills of the
> Universal gargantua go) ... and in the US, not until March 2000. That's
> right, two years when a recording of an American orchestra was not
> officially available in its country of origin. Two years of potential
> profit, casually blown off by the executive in charge, Lisa Altman. Two
> years during which Angelenos could not buy a recording of our own orchestra
> in stores. Not such a big deal now, when it's so easy to buy anything from
> anywhere, but maybe significant then.
Lisa Altman is the person who fought to have Andrea Bocelli's
recordings released in the USA over the objections of Chris Roberts.
Her decision - which was not an easy call at the time - basically kept
the PolyGram labels afloat in the USA. So, she made a very good call
there, even if she blew it on the LAPO. Her great business decisions a
la Bocelli was later rewarded with her being fired by Chris Roberts.
>
> And then there was DGG. First there was the matter of a reissue series
> that Karen Moody decided people in the US "wouldn't buy." The time-worn
> wisdom, "customers won't buy it," right? And what was that series called?
> Why, The Originals, of course! After a year of good sales in the UK and
> Europe, DGG's American division saw what everybody else had seen and began
> to carry the series a year late, and remained a year behind for a while
> after that.
That's not exactly how it went down. Moody - who was the head of DG in
USA - had already committed a huge chunk of her budget to the DG
"Digital Masters" series, because the home office had pleaded with her
to do so because this was to be DGs first release of digital
recordings below full price. They were very nervous about how this
series would sell. The release of the "Originals" got sprung on her
after she had already committed to keeping DG's bacon out of the fire
on the Digital Masters series. I saw the early release sheets and knew
the series was going to be gold, so I arranged to meet with Karen to
se if we could coordinate promotion of the series through our
distribution channels. I was a bit surprised when she told me about
her commitment to the Digital Masters, and she agreed that the
originals had much better potential. She agreed to let me promote the
Originals through the various catalog marketers that were my
customers, even giving me a 6-month window (IIRC) to sell the
Originals before they got their US retail release.
None of this effected the non-NYC PolyGram offices, because none of
them were under the restraints that Chris Roberts had imposed on his
NY labels heads. Karen was put between a rock and a hard place that
she didn't want to be put between. Any blame for the screw-up on the
Originals resides with Chris Roberts, not Moody.
>
> And another example: DGG's American office declined to issue a recording
> of Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. Likewise,
> his follow-up to that, "Harold en italie" (with violist Laurent Verney).
> If I remember correctly, you took the opportunity to release those CDs
> domestically on MHS.
Yes, I did. I offered them as a Featured Selection Double. This
release was one of the very first MHS-issued titles that was done in
full color, at my insistence and over the objections (which were
abating) of the MHS owners.
> I also remember that DGG *did* bother to release
> Chung's "La damnation de Faust" a couple of years later -- and the release
> sheet (the booklet sent to buyers at retail outfits) listed, as a selling
> point for the "Faust" recording, the earlier two CDs!
And why not, as they were promoting these Chung recordings on a
worldwide basis.
>
> Why did the American heads of DGG, Decca, and Philips behave this way?
> Several possibilities come to mind:
>
> Stupidity.
> Incompetence.
> Malice.
> Grudges.
> Laziness.
> Self-sabotage.
> Distrust of American orchestras.
> Contempt for American consumers.
>
> Or, perhaps, the most damning of all:
>
> Hatred of America.
>
> What do YOU think?
I think Chris Roberts put them on a short leash when it came to what
the labels could release in the USA. His rule of thumb was to release
only titles that had the potential to sell 5,000 units in one year.
Someone had stars in their eyes after the success of the 3 Tenors.
Let's face it, few classical titles sell 5,000 units a year even back
then. The label heads weren't short sighted. they were being asked to
divine the impossible, the equivalent os requiring that your pitcher
strike out every batter, or that your batters hit nothing but home
runs.