Orchestra brands

[Dave2002]

Just listening to Music Matters, and a discussion about orchestra branding, and "own label" recording.

With a catalogue like some of the ones here - http://classical-live.com/ - mentioned in the programme, why would anyone want to subscribe to streamed audio/video even from some of the major orchestras?

Very conservative selection - surely not at all interesting. I'm not suggesting that the performances aren't good - but just such a totally uninteresting selection of material.

Now moved on to La Monte Young discussion - this is fairly new to me and quite interesting.

[pastoralguy]

Well, I was working today so I won't get the chance to hear Music Matters until tomorrow. However, I subscribe to Die Berliner Philharmoniker's Digital Concert Hall and I've had tremendous enjoyment from it over the last two years. I suppose the music is largely 'conservative' but so well played and conducted by world class musicians. I think it's worth the 33.6p a day I pay for it.

The fact that it's live is a very real bonus giving us a sense of involvement in the proceedings. (I often get a tweet from Sarah Willis, a horn player in the orchestra, during the interval which makes the 711 miles between Edinburgh and Berlin seem irrelevant).

[Zucchini]

I often get a tweet from Sarah Willis, a horn player in the orchestra...

I think she's a bit more than just 'a horn player', not one to hide her light under a bushel - isn't she now the BPO's principal second horn, a regular TV presenter, has a string of features on YouTube - and is a pretty good looking bit of fluff as well

[jean]

...a pretty good looking bird as well...

Oh dear...slightly passé term there, no?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh dear...slightly passé term there, no?

Indeed. We'll be getting wolf-whistles next.

[Dave2002]

Just listening to Music Matters, and a discussion about orchestra branding, and "own label" recording.

With a catalogue like some of the ones here - http://classical-live.com/ - mentioned in the programme, why would anyone want to subscribe to streamed audio/video even from some of the major orchestras?

Very conservative selection - surely not at all interesting. I'm not suggesting that the performances aren't good - but just such a totally uninteresting selection of material.

Now moved on to La Monte Young discussion - this is fairly new to me and quite interesting.

Hi PG

I'm glad you are enjoying the Berlin Digital Concert Hall service. I should try it - I think I've got a free 7 day pass which is still valid.

I get scared by quoting daily prices - too reminiscent of adverts which go like - "It's only 55p per day for your membership, and 95p for your whole family. You owe it to your family and your own peace of mind to take up this special offer on health cover!".

If you think you are getting satisfaction and value for money, then I certainly won't argue, though 33.6p per day is still about £122 per year by my reckoning.

Another issue which we have, is that mrs d and myself don't have the same tastes, so I wouldn't be able to watch most days - though you are perhaps right in bringing this forward, as if I could only use it once a week that'd still only be about £2.50 per week, which compares well with going out. We do go out quite a lot to the cinema live performances, which are usually about £15 (e.g ROH, RSC, NT) or £20 for Met performances. However, would I always want to watch the BPO - maybe sometimes I'd want to see other orchestras e.g VPO, LSO, Boton PO, Philadelphia, NYPO?

Perhaps this is a way forward, though I've sampled some other arts streams - such as Medici TV, and so far the video and audio quality has not enticed me.

Is the Berlin DCH fixed to schedules, or is there an on demand feature - and on demand at full quality levels? I guess if I activate my free trial I'll find out.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Talking of own-label recordings, the VPO started one but it appears to have fizzled out.

[MrGongGong]

Oh dear...slightly passé term there, no?

That's one way of putting it

With jazz horn god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm9J66t60v0

[pastoralguy]

Hi Dave. All the concerts are archived and are 'on demand'. This includes content from the Orchestra's archives which is added to on a pretty regular basis. There are also documentarys on the orchestra and the artists who have worked with it. I'm sure you'll find the 7 day pass interesting.

Yes, other orchestras are available but why settle for second best...?!

[Dave2002]

Hi Dave. All the concerts are archived and are 'on demand'. This includes content from the Orchestra's archives which is added to on a pretty regular basis. There are also documentarys on the orchestra and the artists who have worked with it. I'm sure you'll find the 7 day pass interesting.

Yes, other orchestras are available but why settle for second best...?!

OK - that's good to hear. Also, I've just been looking at the details on my voucher, and it looks as though it should work on mobile devices as well, which could be interesting.

>>>>why settle for second best>>>

Here I don't agree. It depends on repertoire, and also on the conductor. Rattle is very good, and I followed him during the CBSO period, and also with some of his other collaborations - Glyndebourne for example. However, I don't always want to hear Rattle's interpretations, nor do I always want to hear a very large orchestra playing some of the repertoire. It would be wrong to suggest that Rattle doesn't push boundaries either - he has championed composers such as H K Gruber, but there are other modern composers who are worth hearing, and other conductors and other orchestras promote them.

OK - I might put the BPO among the top 50 (probably actually the top 10-20) or so orchestras I'd sometimes like to hear in appropriate repertoire with the appropriate conductor, and I certainly don't want to go the other way and start looking out for poor quality performances by "lesser" orchestras and directors. I just don't think there is a simple measure for how good an orchestra+conductor+music combination is going to be.

I'll give a very simple example - I went to see the live performance of Idomeneo at Blackheath performed by a community opera group earlier this year. For many reasons it was very good - though clearly the orchestra, singers, and staging were less good than (say) the LSO, and the ROH with star singers (actually the soloists in the Blackheath performance were very good ...) , but it was still very enjoyable. Also, I preferred to see and hear that rather than go to hear yet another Beethoven or Mahler symphony in the RFH or Barbican which might (arguably) have been better performed. Variety is the spice of life, perhaps.

[Zucchini]

Indeed. We'll be getting wolf-whistles next.

That's Helene Grimaud's speciality, not mine.

[Petrushka]

Talking of own-label recordings, the VPO started one but it appears to have fizzled out.

Yes, this was very puzzling. There were, in fact, two labels started by the VPO, the first one being of some performances taken from ORF radio tapes and included the 1941 New Year's Concert under Clemens Krauss as well as CDs devoted to Karajan, Solti, Harnoncourt, Rattle, Böhm and others. The discs were known as 'Edition Kurier' and says 'Vienna Philharmonic Records' (in English) on the reverse. As far as I know, these weren't available in this country but I picked them up via the VPO website and on a trip to Vienna in 2008.

No more discs appeared and seemed to fizzle out. A year or two later there appeared a set of Haydn symphonies on what was touted as the VPO own label. As far as I am aware no further discs appeared and this too appears to have fizzled out.

What seems to be happening is that the VPO's rich heritage of concerts broadcast on the Austrian Radio is appearing on various labels (Orfeo a prime example) but must be only a small fraction of what exists.

This isn't a particularly satisfactory situation but worse, in my view, is that, the New Year concert and Schönbrunn Summer concert aside, the modern day VPO is hardly being recorded at all.

To see how an orchestra own label should work look no further than the RCO and LPO. Both are the very model of how it should be done. These two are the best orchestra own label recordings in the business and other orchestras should take note.

The BPO own label recordings are ridiculously expensive and come in a box shape that is frankly stupid. Both factors rule them out for me.