Hans Gal's Symphonies from Avie

[jerfilm]

OK, one final paranoid thought and then I'll shut up.  IF Avie knows they're dealing with something of a niche market (and I see that no one has agreed with me that we ARE a niche market), then why put all the goodies on ONE disc?  Better to sell 2 or 3 or 4.

Of course, they may not take into account that there are many download sources now where a download of the full album is approximately half the price of the cd.  Thus will I download these, if and when available, make my own CD and toss the Schubert which I am already well endowed with......

Jerry

[eschiss1]

we're a submarket of a (repeat several times here...) submarket with certain defined... I'm pretty sure I agree with you that we're a niche market...

[jimmosk]

It may be possible to purchase downloads of individual tracks, so you can skip the pieces you already have. The Pop music world has been talking about "the death of the album" for so long they don't even talk about it anymore; it's only the length of movements, and some online music stores' refusal to sell individual tracks if they're above a threshold length, that's delayed the same discussion in the Classical world.

-J

P.S.  Gal symphonies!  Swoon!

--
Jim Moskowitz
The Unknown Composers Page: http://kith.org/jimmosk/TOC.html
My latest list of unusual classical CDs for auction: http://tinyurl.com/jimsCDs

[TerraEpon]

www.eclassical.com is the only site that I've seen that wants people to buy individual stuff. All other places are reletively speaking much less worth it to buy individual works, even the ones that DO have works priced alone.

[M. Henriksen]

A favourable review of the first disc in Avie's Hans Gal series:

http://classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=13415


Morten

[kenwoodscc]

Hi everyone

I hope you will forgive a well-intentioned interloper dropping in on this very interesting conversation. It is so exciting to read of everyone's interest in Gal's symphonies having spent an enormous amount of work in the last few years getting some of this music recorded.

I'd like to chime in with some behind-the-scenes information about the couplings which some of you have raised questions about. First of all, the Hans Gal Society (and the Gal family) has been very proactive in encouraging contextual programming  of Gal in both concerts and recordings. This is not an economic philosophy but a musical and educational one. In general, they've tried hard, as per Gal's own sense of his place in music history (which he wore with great modesty), to place his output in the context of the Austro-German symphonic canon.  In this sense, there has been a past reluctance to treat Gal too much as an "Entartete Musik" composer, but to show him as an heir to Schubert, Brahms and Schumann.  One can agree or disagree about whether an all-Gal disc would tell you as much or more about Gal as a Gal-Schubert disc, but there is a lot of idealism behind the decision.

The two Zehetmair discs were projects of the Gal Society- the Kindred Spirits pairing was the idea of the Society (in discussion with Zehetmair and the orchestra), not a marketing idea from Avie.

On the other hand, there are very real economic issues that have to be faced to get these records made. An all-Gal disc would cost about twice as much to release because mechanical copyright law, which licenses music under copyright by the minute of disc time).  Avie works on an artist-ownership model (http://www.avie-records.com/about.php). They work like LSO Live or other artist-owned labels, except they're not tied to one particular orchestra, instead working with us at Orchestra of the Swan, TZ and Northern Sinfonia, Bychkov/WDR, Petrenko/RLPO  and they handle all the San Franciso/MTT discs outside the US and so on. What this means is that each disc is funded by the orchestra (not the record company), the artists or a sponsoring organization (like the Gal Society). Each of the Gal discs to date has required years of work to fund. As each disc sells, the proceeds (to call them profits rather stretches credibility!) go back into the artist's Avie account. Eventually, there may be enough in the account to do another disc.

This can be a slow process- the good news, is that as new Gal discs have come out, Leon's wonderful piano disc has improved its sales. Now that the symphonies are out, the Violin Concerti/Triptych disc I did with Annette-Barbara Vogel last year sells a bit more. The more discs out there, the more likely more new discs can be made.

Our series with Orchestra of the Swan is going to be a full cycle of Schumann and Gal symphonies (the next recordings with be Gal 4 and Schumann 2 in December). The only way the project can work (i.e. happen at all) is to tie it to concerts (as most orchestral discs are now done), and record all the rehearsals and the concert. To do an all-Gal concert for a professional orchestra is an economic impossibility at this time (our performance of Gal 3 last year was the first Gal symphony concert since the 1970s).  We considered going in 2 year cycles and releasing 2 Gals on one disc and 2 Schumanns on another next year, but one can't really plausibly fund the second year without the revenue from the first (it also takes at least 6 months for sales revenue to start to return home from all the distributors and retailers).

I happen to love the musical paring of Schumann and Gal, but, of course, I love both composers' music. Gal wrote a wonderful book on Schumann's orchestral works (he also wrote wonderful studies of Schubert and Brahms) and you can learn a lot about Gal's music from what he says about Schumann and Schubert. I agree with the Gal Society (my cycle is an Orchestra of the Swan project, but we work very closely with the Gal Society, and Simon Fox-Gal is producing all our discs) that hearing his music in the context of his forefathers helps bring his music to life, and I also think one learns about Schumann and Schubert by listening to them in new contexts. The Schumann symphonies are a huge labor of love for me, and I know Thomas Z was deeply invested in the Schuberts that appear on his discs (to the best of my knowledge, TZ is not planning a full cycle of Gal). In both cases, the Schu's are anything but an afterthought. I really enjoyed TZ's Schubert 6, and I hope some of you will find something new in our Schumann 3 (and Schumann can be plenty unsung, too!).

The good economic news is that projects like this tend to keep selling for a long time. At some point, we're hopeful that all involved will actually make some money, but that is likely (unless something takes off and becomes a best seller, which we'd love) that that will take many years to happen. To those of you who feel like you don't need or want another Schumann or Schubert, I would just encourage you to think of that half of your purchase price as a small but incredibly valued contribution to the next recording. If all goes well, and we get the project finished, of course, there will be a strong incentive to box up all the Gal symphonies with Triptych and maybe some newly recorded string orchestra works. The important word is "if." Your six bucks/pounds/euros spent on the coupling you may-or-may-not want makes a big difference to us getting all four symphonies recorded. For the foreseeable future, every penny we take in on these discs just goes back into the recording pot towards the next CD, not into the maestros limo fund or Avie's new palatial office suites. If everyone waits, no box happens, because the project runs out of gas.

If I can just make one final plug- we're working on a micro-site within my blog for the 4 year Gal/Schumann project. It's very much under-construction (the disc has only been out 2 weeks), but we'll have all kinds of podcasts, video of the concerts, essays and interviews with players, experts and Gals  there, as well as all the current reviews and news. Lovers of Gal's music will find lots of goodies there over the coming months and years: http://kennethwoods.net/blog1/bobby-and-hans/

Many thanks for your interest

Ken Woods

[Alan Howe]

This is invaluable background information. Thanks very much indeed!

[Mark Thomas]

As Alan says, Ken, this background is hugely appreciated.

[eschiss1]

I do notice though that Records International mentions some sort of problem recently between you and the orchestra, and Avie, suggesting that in consequence there may be a wait for symphony 2 for instance. Have not heard the discs so far as it is but looking forward to them and to any continuations of course.

[FEBCT]

All four Gal symphonies - no unwanted couplings - on two discs:

http://www.avie-records.com/releases/the-four-symphonies-2/

[Miles R.]

^Ah, well—good fortune for those who have not already bought the four discs of Gál-plus-Schumann!