# Naxos is the new Mercury Living Presence



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Making my way through the two Mercury Living Presence box sets, of course I've drowned in a deluge of pops, but I realized today that it was actually mostly contemporary music. People like (browsing through) ...

- Douglas Moore
- John Alden Carpenter
- Bernard Rogers
- Burrill Phillips
- Colin McPhee
- Roger Sessions
- Virgil Thomson
- Morton Gould
- Florent Schmitt
- Percy Grainger
- Vincent Persichetti
- Eric Coates
- William Schuman
- Howard Hanson

... and so on were alive or only recently dead when these recordings were made. Of course they aspired to popularity with an audience that essentially no longer exists, so things have changed, but what it put me in mind of is Naxos, with its recordings of people like Joan Tower, Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom, and so on.

I know this is a USA-centric observation, and Naxos also does plenty of recordings of contemporary composers from Asia, Eastern Europe, and so on. Also, it may be that contemporary composers have even better coverage today than they used to, thanks to labels like Kairos, and actually Sony and DG (through its 20/21 series) both do a bit better than we tend to appreciate. The latter labels all seem to me strive generally (though with exceptions) for a bit more high-brow stuff, while Naxos indulges unselfconsciously in things like Hovhaness, Rorem, Higdon, Diamond... as readily as in anything else.

I realize that not many of us would argue that the pops tradition was something worth sustaining, and as usual I'll abstain from judgment either way, but this hypothesis interests me. Is Naxos carrying on the pops tradition? In a hypothetical 2050, if for some reason technology froze in 1995 and Naxos were in a position to release 50-cd box set, would it be loaded up with the likes of Rorem and Creston and Diamond the way that the MLP boxes are loaded with Hanson and Sessions and Grainger and Coates?

And finally, if Naxos isn't the most middle-brow label out there, what is? (Keep in mind that "middle-brow" probably excludes the likes of "Mozart for Relaxation" and "Bach for Babies." It probably includes the artsier New Age and Techno music ~ "Echoes" ~ and moves up [notice the implied modernist hierarchy here] through anything that Gidon Kremer or Esa-Pekka Salonen would record.)


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

In real life, I'm afraid I have a very high brow. But, musically, I think I must have a middle brow...but, not a unibrow, please.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Naxos also have made a name for themselves in recording works by forgotten or lesser-known composers of previous centuries. But they have lower overhead, so they can take the route of maximum diversification. DG has big-name soloists, orchestras, and conductors, and spends more on marketing and packaging than Naxos, so they have to be more selective.

Contrary to perceived wisdom, DG does indeed record some Neoromantic/middlebrow music alongside the avant-garde (even Einaudi has shown up in the DG catalog), just not very much of it (and they've cut back on the number of new releases of new music recently).


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Wait . . . Higdon and Diamond are pops? Maybe I should get back to work on my _Sonata for prepared belches and pot lids in § minor_.

I think Naxos is trying single handed to record everything anyone ever called music.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Hyperion's British Light Classical series is the closest to Mercury's records.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

science said:


> Making my way through the two Mercury Living Presence box sets, of course I've drowned in a deluge of pops, but I realized today that it was actually mostly contemporary music. People like (browsing through) ...
> 
> - Douglas Moore
> - John Alden Carpenter
> ...


The entire premise of Naxos is to buy up old recordings on which the copyright is nearly up (the recording copyright), over, and or classical which is older and CHEAP, to remarket those, and to make a big profit. It seems they are doing enough right that many extol the praises of their catalogue, and what they do -- but it is a fire-scale scavenging profit maker, conceived of as such. I doubt if there is any real "aesthetic rudder" or wish to have one identity over another, if any at all, except better and interesting older recordings which could be bought up cheap in which they thought might still sell.

Evidently, a lot of purchasers benefit, but I'm not so sure if composers and the performers of those get much of anything for the resale of those old recordings to Naxos.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

PetrB said:


> The entire premise of Naxos is to buy up old recordings on which the copyright is nearly up . . .


I'm afraid you may be misinformed on this. They do have a line of older recordings, but that is not their entire premise nor even their initial premise.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> The entire premise of Naxos is to buy up old recordings...


Naxos got its start by contracting with artists in the Eastern European countries newly released from Soviet control, many of whom were subsidized by their governments and happy to pick up a few extra bucks easily. But Naxos is now very active in marketing new series, quite substantial, of contemporary music and new performances by contemporary artists.

If Naxos is still buying its performances cheaply, certainly the artists are free to contract with whomever is willing to pay more.

Reissuing recordings with expiring copyrights is an initiative in recent years, though it appears Naxos can't sell many of these recordings in the US.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Naxos got its start by contracting with artists in the Eastern European countries newly released from Soviet control, many of whom were subsidized by their governments and happy to pick up a few extra bucks easily. But Naxos is now very active in marketing new series, quite substantial, of contemporary music and new performances by contemporary artists.
> 
> If Naxos is still buying its performances cheaply, certainly the artists are free to contract with whomever is willing to pay more.
> 
> Reissuing recordings with expiring copyrights is an initiative in recent years, though it appears Naxos can't sell many of these recordings in the US.


Beg pardon, I haven't followed them or any other new or older established label because I am such an infrequent purchaser of CD's, and almost all of those are second-hand. It is "whatever is at hand and affordable."

initially, they did buy up old copyrights, and that is what gave them their start -- I think they bought up older vox recordings as well, which were already inexpensive good recordings with young and not EuroCentric artists... sort of "double cheap" while quite good -- not at all a bad move.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> initially, they [Naxos] did buy up old copyrights, and that is what gave them their start -- I think they bought up older vox recordings as well, which were already inexpensive good recordings with young and not EuroCentric artists... sort of "double cheap" while quite good -- not at all a bad move.


I really don't believe this is correct. If you have examples, that would be helpful.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Just quietly, I am a Naxos recording artist - somewhere in this one:


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

^ For which we are grateful.


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