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Dear friends,
I can only agree with what is written above.
We all had been a bit disappointed by Magnus but that's life, he was not our choice but Philippe's who had already worked with him on opera productions in Germany.
Sometimes the stage performance, made up of acting and singing, is no longer enough when the acting is removed...

I dream of one day doing an opera again and having control over all the choices, including having the time! Can you imagine that we recorded one act a day?
It's all so expensive and time is really a lot of money. This means that sometimes it's not possible to dwell too much on one section or another. As an artistic producer, I had to make decisions due to lack of time and I always tried to find the best compromise between quality/time and money.
The budget for this production was already half a million Swiss francs...
Magnus really prepared his role and did the best he could, and that's  what we have.

I think the whole team made progress during this production, everyone gave their best and also learnt a lot.
Myself included!

Salutations de Bern, Fred.

By the way our Samson is Nominiert für den preis der Deutschen SchallplattenKritik, we know that since yesterday...

https://www.schallplattenkritik.de/bestenlisten/longlist/longlist-3-2024

Wish you all a nice weekend.

Salutations de Bern, Fred.

It's a British problem. The distributors contacted did not reply, or were not interested. By the way, there have been no English reviews since the opera's release, even though it has been sent to Musicweb, BBC Music, the Arts desk, etc.

And it's not a question of "time", because the same people were sent Schoeck's CD with Nachhall months ago and... nothing.

Maybe only this forum is interested in Swiss music.

I should also mention that Graziella is working for the first time with a German agency to try to "open up" the Schweizer fonogramm market, and that this agency has made it clear that England is very special...

The German-language reviews are virtually unanimous, and we even received top marks in "das Opernglass" for the July/August issue.

We're trying, as hard as we can and with the obvious aim of making our work known, but it's not working.

I know that Graziella tried to find a distributor in the UK but received a negative response from several who didn't think the label was big enough... or interesting enough.

She is in contact with Naxos to find a wider international distribution but nothing is done yet.
Unfortunately, at the moment, only JPC is distributing.

Dear Friends,

Here is one of the first reviews (in German):

https://klassik-begeistert.de/cd-rezension-joachim-raff-samson-klassik-begeistert-de-8-juni-2024/

Salutations de Bern,

Fred

Dear friends,

Please don't forget Robin Adams as Abimelech!
2 days before the first rehearsal with orchestra (unique, by the way...) the singer scheduled for Abimelech let us down!
Robin was in Bern and available, almost sight reading the score and literally saving the production.
Not only is he extremely likeable, but I'll always be grateful to him for his incredible performance in these circumstances.

As I've already written, producing an opera is a total adventure, much more complicated than a symphony production.

Like all producers, I am a great admirer of what John Culshaw was able to do in his day.
I must say, in all modesty of course, that I remember the anecdotes he quotes in his book 'Putting the record straight', sometimes describing the recording of operas as a mad world...
He was right.

But it's also extremely exhilarating and exciting.

Salutations suisses,

Fred.

That's very good news, Fred. Could you please let us know when the CDs can be ordered? Thanks!

Dear Alan,

I asked Graziella and it should be around the 20 of May...
Fred.

It's here!

Dear Friends,
The records should be here, in Switzerland, tomorrow! 

Dear friends,

Schoeck's Lieder Op.17 by Olena will be broadcast on Sunday 10 March at 2 pm - Swiss local time - on the radio station SRF2 Kultur.
https://www.srf.ch/audio/ch-musik/lieder-von-othmar-schoeck-im-orchestergewand?id=12537146

Olena is a beautiful person, not at all complicated, an excellent artist who is very easy to work with. We chose her for this production as well as for Samson and I really hope that these recordings will bring her to the attention of a wider audience. She's an artist who deserves to be known.

Below are a few photos from the sessions under my microphones.

Dear friends,

Next Saturday (February the 3rd) at 10am (Swiss local time), there'll be an interview with Philippe Bach, the Samson's "baton".
Tittle of the interview: "Kaffee mit dem Dirigenten Philippe Bach - alles Raff?".

You should have the opportunity to listen to some few extracts of the opera, the radio asked me for some audio material.

Release date: Frühjahr 2024, i.e. Spring next year.

Probably begining of March. The audio is already finished but I think the booklet is taking longer than expected...

Graziella will also be working with a new marketing team in Berlin and it's a great idea. Schweizer Fonogramm productions should have more visibility and a greater marketing return than at present. That's important for the development of the label.
This new team needs the final product 8 weeks before the official release.

"Samson" was a very big budget and if the label doesn't get more financial returns than usual, there won't be any more opera productions because they are much more expensive than symphony productions.

Raff's 'Dame Kobold' is already in discussion but 'Samson' has to be a success first.
It's better to release a few weeks later but in better marketing conditions, which is in everyone's interest.

Fred.

The release is coming soon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAgVg-pmHY

Merry Christmas.

Dear Friends,

Graziella from Schweizer Fonogramm asked me to prepare a short extract from Samson.
I'm allowed to post it here before she does on her social media.
Here is the end of Act1.
http://www.adcsound.ch/VideosPhotosDocuments/Samson_Acte1_765FIN.mp3

Enjoy!

Fred.