Gramophone

[MickyD]

I just had to share this latest delicious contribution to the debate on the Gramophone site:

"I've previously commented on this unfortunate decision. If the editors of gramophone claim that the expanded format and easy accesability of the player trumps the Covermount CD, then why not go one step further and eliminate the printed issue altogether. Imagine how much more information could be made available to the reader that is now forced to go to the computer anyway in order to listen to the monthly snippets. Links galore could be made available. And, since cost is apperently not the issue, then the editors could present it all for free. Better for the environment and easier for the lovers of classical music. Farewell Gramophone! All good things eventually come to an end."

I'm dying to hear the reply from the editorial team.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've just collected my December Gramophone from the newsagent. In general, it isn't too bad this month. Not too much to raise the hackles. But the recently introduced feature, judging, for and against, a classic recording (in this instance, Beecham's Die Zauberflote) is rather pathetic and is reminiscent of the sort on confrontation we are fed on television programmes such as the X-factor and Big Brother.

A bit of a howler on the page featuring Ansermet, commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death, and then mentioning 1968 performances by the aforementioned.

[Panjandrum]

I just had to share this latest delicious contribution to the debate on the Gramophone site:

"I've previously commented on this unfortunate decision. If the editors of gramophone claim that the expanded format and easy accesability of the player trumps the Covermount CD, then why not go one step further and eliminate the printed issue altogether. Imagine how much more information could be made available to the reader that is now forced to go to the computer anyway in order to listen to the monthly snippets. Links galore could be made available. And, since cost is apperently not the issue, then the editors could present it all for free. Better for the environment and easier for the lovers of classical music. Farewell Gramophone! All good things eventually come to an end."

I'm dying to hear the reply from the editorial team.

I love the comment of one contributor on the audio editor's somewhat robust stance: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
"

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Hmm. This confirms what I have thought for some time.

[MickyD]

Over a month ago, I wrote to the editor of Gramophone, expressing my dismay at not only the dropping of the CD covermount but also the way in which dissatisfied subscribers had been mocked on the Gramophone Forum. I told him that as a result I would be cancelling my subscription after 30 years.

Answer came there none. Until today, when Haymarket sent me another of their stock "gentle reminders" that my subscription still hadn't been renewed. Is there really absolutely no contact at all between editorial and subscription departments?

I see on the Gramophone Forum that some brave soul has just also tried to speak up once more for the CD, but I'll bet will soon be shouted down again.

[VodkaDilc]

Patience, Micky!! The staff of Gramophone are too busy reducing the great choirs of the world to an X-Factor-style league table to have time to listen to their readers. (I'm quite saddened to read some of the names of the "judges" in this farcical "competition". Many of them are surely above such nonsense!)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Over a month ago, I wrote to the editor of Gramophone, expressing my dismay at not only the dropping of the CD covermount but also the way in which dissatisfied subscribers had been mocked on the Gramophone Forum. I told him that as a result I would be cancelling my subscription after 30 years.

Answer came there none...

Don't be so impatient. I've been waiting for over 4 years for a reply to several letters requesting the correct answer to one of their CD competition questions - the name of the arranger on a recording of Parry's Jerusalem. The cerebally challenged creator of that month's competition had given the answer as Elgar, which, of course it wasn't. Imagine having to admit such an error publically. But I wasn't asking for that.

[Ferretfancy]

I let my subscription run out some months ago, and will not be returning to Gramophone. BBC Music Magazine has its flaws, but its popular journalism never quite reaches quite such a low level, and the reviews are quite good. For me the CD of complete works is also an attraction, some of them are very good indeed. My main reading now is IRR and CRC. I thought that I'd give up my Fanfare subscription because of online difficulties, bit I've resubscribed.

It's a shame, but Gramophone has fallen victim to the need to reduce magazine writing to the infantile, it's really to tedious to be bothered with, and the same goes for the overwhelming coverage of pop culture in the newspapers and their supplements, in which new "superstars" appear overnight. Culture? Please!

[salymap]

Igave up the Gramophone years ago. Anyway, at work I received a free copy as my firm [me] placed an advertisement in it. I quite like the BBC Mag and at £3 ish a month the CD is worth the price and the mag is passed on to a cousin anyway.

[MickyD]

There are some more new names on the Gramophone Forum thread, bemoaning the loss of the CD and how subscribers have been treated. I'll be watching the editorial response with interest - the issue is clearly not going to go away as they had hoped.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think Gramophone has been taken over by Ofsted inspectors.

[BetweenTheStaves]

Ever since I read the 'authoritative' review that waxed so lyrical over the Brennan JB7, but which is so totally unsuited to classical music, that I gave up on the Gramophone. The fact that the same (and subsequent) issues featured large paid adverts for the Brennan had absolutely nothing to do with the 'impartial' review, of course.

Regarding the passing of the cover CD, I suspect that it might be an age thing ....young flibbertygibbets running the editorial (and accounting) departments dismissing our views as old-fashioned and boring. Quality of life and listening pleasure must give way to the latest shiniest techologically 'superior' whizzy idea to come out of Silicon Valley.

It is the same across all walks of life. That quirky item is no longer made. That carefully designed and lovingly made jewellery box is now a mass-produced piece of junk from China. The quality of many of our clothes that were bought ten years ago are still wearing extremely well, still elegantly stylish and a joy to wear. Compare and contrast to today's offerings where it is becoming harder and harder to find anything of comparable quality and value.

Sorry..gone a bit OT there..but feel strongly that the attitude being voiced by the Gramophone is part of the same problem.

[Ferretfancy]

BetweentheStaves

Not OTT at all!

I think that there's a very real risk that cultural life is being seen more and more as a game, as if the most important thing in life is not to grow up.
All this is encouraged by the media in general, and journalists in particular, as we are all being persuaded to enjoy increasingly infantile pursuits.
Twittering our way into the childish future doesn't seem to offer many insights into a rather cloudy life ahead,does it?

[Alison]

By the way Ferret,

What is CRC ?? I am being very slow !!

[PJPJ]

Just changed its name to Classic Recordings Quarterly

http://crq.org.uk/