rant
and a list
by patricia hammond | october 1999

I believe that the job of a classical CD salesperson is a damned important one...there are countless numbers of people out there who would never have come to appreciate music if it weren't for us. I have seen lives literally changed because of what I've made people take home and listen to. I think that a good classical department sales employee is really a teacher, and what they do is an art.

The other day I was reflecting on some of the tools of this art, and I was thinking about the many good booklets on music that the Naxos label provides free of charge to customers. That company knows the best way to build a client base! Then, there are the sampler discs..."The Chandos Sound," "The World of Dorian," etc. that are kept at a low price to introduce the person to a particular label or series, or style of music. And then of course, there are the Classical Music Magazines. Mostly from England, at least four of them come with a free CD (or sometimes two) every month, either of a complete work which they discuss at length inside the magazine, or a sampler, giving previews of various new releases, and pieces that illustrate some of the articles.

I think these are great, and of huge value to all kinds of people. I know that I learned far more from my parents' subscriptions to Classic CD, BBC Music and American Record Guide than I did while getting my Associate Bachelor of Music (you can draw any conclusions you like, but I did get high grades, and I have proof!). However, even if fledgling Classical music lovers read every magazine around, there still is a place for us salespeople that goes beyond taking money, and showing people the good magazines.

Recently, one of the abovementioned magazines had three issues listing "Top One Hundred"s. First it was the top one hundred singers, "of the century" no less, this month's latest has the "best instrumentalists" and last month, it was the top one hundred conductors. Hmm. Now, I'm not about to hold a political affiliation against a musician when it comes to appreciating what they do, but this magazine's rating Herbie Von Karajan as number one was a bit much for this cowpoke. Herbie does some marvellous things on record, and can cause that orchestra of his to surge and churn and make beautiful sounds. I wish there was a Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic Sampler (on DG of course) called "The Beautiful Sound." It would be very appropriate. This is pure and selfish bias showing, and I'm not about to apologise for it. Buying Herbert's 1963 Beethoven cycle when I was 17, on the advice of everyone I knew and everything I read, nearly turned me off Beethoven for life. It certainly did for a number of years, anyway. Why? I can safely say now, having heard the Beethoven of Furtwangler, Harnoncourt, Kleiber, Savall, Walter and Klemperer that Karajan was, to me, devoid of humanness. At the time, I couldn't put my finger on it. It seemed to have Depth and Seriousness and, of course, gorgeous sounds...but, dammit. I couldn't enjoy it. It took the fellows mentioned abouve to tell me what I was missing. Not everyone is going to agree with me; and among those people will be the odd one who has heard some of the versions I've mentioned. Everyone is different. But I have caused enough Karajanites to marvel at the riches these other conductors have to offer to think I'm not being too selfish in saying all this.

It was no coincidence to find that, the same month, another major Classical Music magazine had good old Herbie's face on their cover, plus an insert from DG listing all of their "recommended" Karajan recordings. Kind of like a Ford dealer telling you his or her recommended cars. All this is to be expected. August is some kind of Karajan month, it has been decreed, and they all have to make money and do what they're told.

Fortunately, salespeople don't have to only recommend what the Big Guys tell them to. I think it's our duty to get out there and hear as many different versions of things as possible, and be sure to take the trouble to seek out the lesser-known and less-promoted. Imagine if some huge company told you what recipes to eat every day? I figure that if a person selling classical CDs recommends what the books recommend, without giving the other versions a fair hearing, they aren't doing a good job. They're entitled to this of course, in light of what they are often paid, but then why not go into a better-paying field?

The best Mozart playing I've ever heard was from an 81 year old Vancouver man who's never been to University or studied with anyone famous. Needless to say, he isn't exactly signed to Philips. In fact, no recordings of this man's Mozart exist. Yet there it is. He is a living legend in certain circles, but he's not in the Penguin Guide.

There are some companies out there that deliberately seek out brilliance in non-marketable nooks and crannies. APR (Box 1, Wark, Hexham, Northumberland, NE48 3EW) is one, run by two pianophiles, who do historic reissues and also record living pianists that represent what they call true romantic pianism. Some of the people they record are just too unconventional, or just too unmarketable for the Big Guys. Take a moment one day to look at some CD covers of recent recordings...say, new releases from the last couple of years. You'll notice a pattern of Beautiful People. Renee Fleming, Christine Schafer, Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorgiu, Helene Grimaud, Andrea Bocelli, Vanessa Mae, Andreas Scholl, Jose Cura, The Emerson Quartet, The Ahn Trio, The Eroica Trio, Sabine Meyer, Sophie Yates, Anne-Sophie Mutter...good God, where do you stop? I'm not saying that none of these people have produced anything good, but you can bet your last CD that if Warner or Universal or EMI had to choose between any one of them and someone who was a better musician but less like a model, it would be a rainy day on Mars before they'd choose the latter.

So, blah blah blah, etc. that's my rant.

Who is great and not as famous as they should be?

Ivan Moravec, piano: Try his Chopin Preludes, on the VAI label. He plays the big Bosendorfer Piano, the sound engineering is to die for, but the main thing is this man's playing. On a desert island, if I had only one piano CD as company, this would be it. Absolutely.

Gemal Gecic, piano: vol. 7 on Naxos' Liszt edition. On this disc he plays Liszt's transcriptions of some of Rossini's songs, and in the last track, a paraphrase of the opera "William Tell". Fun, knuckle-busting stuff, played with flair.

Ernst Levy, piano: on Marston Records, with the subtitle "Forgotten Genius," this man knew how to express a world on a keyboard. Not only a world, but space, the mysteries of the infinite, and any other purple prose anyone can come up with.

Oleg Kagan, violin; and Natalia Gutman, cello: Thanks to a label called Live Classics, some stunning live performances of these two, together, individually, and with others in chamber music, are available for us to go out and buy. If you've seen Bruno Monsaingeon's great documentary on Sviatoslav Richter (if not, shame!) there are a couple of minutes of soul-stirring playing involving these three musicians that will make you want to hear anything they've done. One of the CDs of the series is of Shostakovich's Trio no. 2, Opus 67. Every sound is music. Every scrape and slap and wrong note that occurs as a result of the highly-charged atmosphere of this performance is essential. It's as hot as it gets. What more do you want me to say? Kagan died young. Gutman languishes in relative obscurity. She's going to be performing the Prokofieff Sinfonia Concertante in Seattle on Oct. 7th and 9th. Call the Seattle Symphony at 1-206-215-4747. Maria Zadori, soprano: She specializes in Early music, and has made numerous recordings for the Hungaroton Label. They're all great. Her gorgeous, pure, flexible sound is so well-controlled that it sometimes sounds like an instrument. It's a sweet, yet expressive voice. She seems to only sing with top-notch ensembles, because I haven't yet heard a recording of her that wasn't wonderful.

Pino de Vittorio, tenor: Half Early Music, half Folk, his clear, colorful vocal timbre projects all kinds of contrasting emotions, and his wit and charm shine as much as his virtuosity - which is considerable. Where has this guy been hiding? Rush out and order "Oh cielo, oh ammore" on the Symphonia label (SY 91S09), an independent little Italian company. The music on this release is fascinating.

Sara Dolukhanova, mezzo: I've mentioned her in "Understanding Opera part 2: the female voices," but I'll say it again. She's great. People in the former USSR probably know her name, but here very few have heard of her. Born in 1910 (that's the date I have, until someone can give me another one) she enjoyed a long and interesting career, starting out as a coloratura mezzo, later moving on to the lyric and dramatic soprano roles, and singing quite a lot of contemporary art song toward the end, which was around 1979.

It is a rich sound, very well controlled. Her high notes are thrilling, particularly in her studio recording of "O Don Fatale," available on the Preiser label. I've simply never heard it done better. There's also a live concert from Moscow, Jan. 15, 1954--an amazingly varied program, and in very good sound. It's on Russian Disc, as is a recital of post-Shostakovichian Song Cycles...the composers are not household names--Gavrilin, Tariverdiev--but the music and texts are fascinating. On the same disc she does a fiendishly difficult three movement work called "Solfeggi" which is just that: crazily written music to the syllables do, re, mi, fa, etc. The composer, Shchedrin, is a bit more well-known than the others. Then there is the recording of Shostakovich's song collection, "From Jewish Folk Poetry" for soprano, mezzo and tenor, with the composer at the piano. That one also is on that precarious Russian Disc label. News of its well-being is as difficult to determine as anything else going on in that troubled part of the world.

Karel Ancerl, conductor: although not exactly obscure, considering his acheivements he remains terribly neglected by those who shop for CDs. He has the misfortune of being almost exclusively represented by Supraphon, a Czech label with a great catalogue of recordings, but terribly erratic availability to us North Americans. Ancerl's work with the Czech Philharmonic in the 1950s and 60s yielded some amazing performances, available to us in the form of taped radio broadcasts of live concerts, many of which show up on the Praga label (which, despite SRI's assuring me it was gone for good, seems to be staying barely afloat) and in some great studio recordings, on the abovementioned Supraphon. One shining example of the latter is Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," coupled on CD with Prokofieff's "Alexander Nevsky" Cantata. Both are electrifying, and have a rawness that is essential to this music, and sadly lacking in many other major versions. Ancerl's Shostakovich is also great.

Yves Nat, piano: this man was apparantly very shy, and we are lucky he recorded the little that he did. His complete Beethoven sonatas are available on an EMI Special Imports box set, and it is my favorite Beethoven sonata cycle. Period.

Well, that barely scratches the surface, and it's only what I had in my mind just now...but it's a start!

Patricia is a classically trained mezzo who now lives and works in the UK. For more information about her, visit patriciahammond.com.