Dissing Decca

[rauschwerk]

Almost every time Christopher Hogwood's recorded legacy is discussed, phrases like, 'Shame on Decca', 'Decca is for ever to blame' get bandied about. I find this exceedingly tiresome. Decca pulled the plug on Hogwood's Haydn symphony cycle because sales were very low. What else should they have done? Throw good money after bad? Hyperion did the same with Goodman's proposed cycle. Does anyone on this board blame them? Not as far as I am aware.

Hogwood recorded all the symphonies to No 75 (except 55), four of the London symphonies and two others - 80 in all. All the missing ones are available in other, fine, versions. Let's be grateful for what was recorded!

[cloughie]

Almost every time Christopher Hogwood's recorded legacy is discussed, phrases like, 'Shame on Decca', 'Decca is for ever to blame' get bandied about. I find this exceedingly tiresome. Decca pulled the plug on Hogwood's Haydn symphony cycle because sales were very low. What else should they have done? Throw good money after bad? Hyperion did the same with Goodman's proposed cycle. Does anyone on this board blame them? Not as far as I am aware.

Hogwood recorded all the symphonies to No 75 (except 55), four of the London symphonies and two others - 80 in all. All the missing ones are available in other, fine, versions. Let's be grateful for what was recorded!

I guess in years gone by when Decca were Decca they would have completed the project, but more recently the International budgets of Universal do not allow this. The compensation for the classical collector are the big boxes at very attractive prices per CD! I'm still learning to live with Decca labels on what were the basics of the Philips catalogue!

[umslopogaas]

There's also the fact that Decca already had a complete Haydn symphony cycle, from Dorati and the Philharmonia, which was a popular item. Given that Hogwood would have been in competition with this, it is a bit surprising that they even let him start, though I guess his Haydn would have been distinctly different from Dorati's, which dates from the early 1970s.

[Roehre]

I guess in years gone by when Decca were Decca they would have completed the project, but more recently the International budgets of Universal do not allow this. The compensation for the classical collector are the big boxes at very attractive prices per CD! I'm still learning to live with Decca labels on what were the basics of the Philips catalogue!

Decca pulled the plug before it became part of Universal IIRC

[MickyD]

And you can bet your sweet life that Universal and Decca will now be jumping on the bandwagon, re-releasing all sorts of Hogwood tributes.

Sorry, Rauschwerk, but I really cannot forgive them for what they did, low sales or not.

[Bryn]

Hmm. How about dissing Decca for not including Symphonies 76 and 77 (which recordings they licenced to BBC Music Magazine for Volume 11 Number 9 of the cover disc series in 2005) in the big boxed set re-issued earlier this year?

[vinteuil]

... I have mixed feelings about this. As a completist, I am exasperated; if, like Micky I had been collecting the boxes as they came out, I wd have been beside myself with fury.

And yet, and yet...

Christopher Hogwood was a Big Player in the classical music scene - had he really wanted to complete his series - whether with decca or someone else - I'm sure he wd have found a way of so doing. It's curious, as Bryn points out, that 76 and 77 are orphans (I'm eternally grateful for him for flagging this up earlier, so that I cd acquire them... ) - and here it is surely remiss of decca that they didn't recapture them for their lovely big cheap box.

As our opening poster indicated, we have a fantastic collection of the Hogwood Haydn, to be celebrated.

The 'incomplete' aspect of this - well, we'll just have to swallow hard and accept - as we did for the Goodman Haydn, the Fadini edition of the Scarlatti scores, the scholarly editions of Lamb's letters and of Pope's letters...

[MickyD]

Yes, Vints, I was indeed exasperated at that decision, having shelled out around £40 per box when they first appeared. And it would have turned into such a handsome series on the bookshelf, too. Luckily I managed to get my copy of the 'orphan' CD some time ago, thanks to friends at the AAM letting me know about it. So odd that they didn't make their way into the big box.

[Dave2002]

Christopher Hogwood was a Big Player in the classical music scene - had he really wanted to complete his series - whether with decca or someone else - I'm sure he wd have found a way of so doing.

Indeed, up to a point, Lord Copper. I recall that JEG managed to ressurect his Bach cantata series, but it's too late for Hogwood's Haydn now, so let's be happy with what we've got. OTOH Goodman is still with us, so maybe he could carry on. I enjoyed what he started.

Crowd sourcing/crowd funding maybe?

[Richard Barrett]

"Sales were low" probably because the original issues were very expensive... as I remember the boxes cost the equivalent of a multiple of the going price for single CDs. I didn't buy them because I couldn't afford them, and picked them up second-hand later on. So that wasn't a very good idea on Decca's part. Also, in days gone by, the "major" labels had no problem releasing some things that weren't likely to make much if any profit; presumably the A&R people could argue that they would enhance the label's reputation in one way or another, whereas later the beancounters' influence increased greatly as it has in many walks of life.

[richardfinegold]

Does anyone on this board blame them? Not as far as I am aware.

Actually, quite a few boarders are blaming them.

[rauschwerk]

Actually, quite a few boarders are blaming them.

Then I respectfully suggest that they are not in touch with reality.

[Bryn]

Then I respectfully suggest that they are not in touch with reality.

Sorry rauschwerk, but if you have read this thread, and yet failed to note that quite a few boarders were blaming Decca, it is surely you who are not in touch with reality, whether those who were blaming Decca were right or wrong to do so. What excuse can you offer for Decca's failure to include their recordings of Symphonies 76 and 77 in the Hogwood Haydn Symphonies box?

[richardfinegold]

Decca was within their rights to terminate a project that wasn't profitable. After all, they aren't a Public Charity. To do so, however, so close to the finish line is maddening. Imagine going to The Sistine Chapel and seeing Michelangelo's ceiling 3/4 completed with gaps and spaces.
Yes, they had the Dorati cycle, but the two cycles were so different that if properly priced, many people would have bought both, and the audience for HIP recordings was growing at the time. As RB mentioned a more intelligent pricing policy probably would have increased sales.

[aeolium]

I read rauschwerk's question "Does anyone on this board blame them?" as referring to Hyperion, because of the preceding statement: "Hyperion did the same with Goodman's proposed cycle."