One Label to Rule Them All

EMI sold to Vivendi: will join Universal Music Group

Endangered Music Industry? The EMI logo. © EMI Music Group.

In a $1.9 billion dollar deal, the troubled EMI Music Group will be sold to Vivendi Universal, making the world's largest record company even bigger. The Red Label will join Deutsche Grammophon and Decca under the Universal umbrella. 

The deal was announced Friday in the New York Times.

There is no word on whether EMI, one of the oldest and most venerable record companies of the 20th century will continue to release music under its own imprint. Current EMI artists include Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, Berlin Philharmonic music director Sir Simon Rattle and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. Pop artists include Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd and Coldplay.

Universal used to have three major labels, but went to two in an effort to cut costs. The victim then was the Netherlands-based Philips Classics imprint which ceased operations in 1999. Its Dutch recording studios were shuttered. Other consolidations in recent years have included the distribution of Warner Brothers Classics by the Naxos group and the merger of RCA Red Seal with Sony Classical. 

EMI was one of the pioneers in the music industry in the 1950s under the guidance of Walter Legge. They were the first label to sign artists like Herbert von Karajan, Maria Callas, and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, who later married Mr. Legge. Their vast symphonic and operatic catalogue includes some of the most important recordings ever made, including the Karajan Der Rosenkavalier, Maria Callas' two recordings of Tosca and Placído Domingo's 1971 Don Carlo conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.

A post about the acquisition on Norman Lebrecht's Slipped Disc blog had a lengthy statement from Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grange:


“This is an historic acquisition for UMG and an important step in preserving the legacy of EMI Music. For me, as an Englishman, EMI was the pre-eminent music company that I grew up with. Its artists and their music provided the soundtrack to my teenage years. Therefore, UMG is committed to both preserving EMI’s cultural heritage and artistic diversity and also investing in its artists and people to grow the company’s assets for the future. As a result, we will be better positioned to fully capitalise on the many new and exciting opportunities in the current marketplace, and also able to better serve our artists, songwriters and business partners, while offering fans even more choice”.

Once ubiquitous, Philips Classics recordings are now as rare as record stores, gone the way of other labels like Argo, L'oiseu-Lyre and Teldec. Parts of the Philips catalogue have been reissued as Decca Classics. Will their once-proud rivals EMI suffer the same fate? Only time and the economy will tell.

Finding Maria Callas...in Brooklyn

An operatic treasure in Park Slope.

Sweet, innocent, and a viper: Maria Callas as Rosina.
Photo © 1958 EMI Classics

Last Saturday afternoon, following brunch, I found myself at Brooklyn Record and Tape, an old, somewhat beaten-up, but interesting record store in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Tony's shop is a living throwback, a record store crammed with vinyl, CDs, cassettes and VHS. He may even have 8-tracks--I've never asked.

And there, on top of a wooden CD crate of hip-hop CDs, it sat. The 1997 EMI reissue (on two CDs) of the 1958 La Scala recording of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. I looked at the prices for the small classical CD collection. $4 a disc. $8 for two. I bought it immediately.

Taking my new purchase home on the B63 bus, I wanted to yell and shout, to exult that I had scored Maria Callas in Park Slope. But nobody would have understood what that meant, and it was better to just take my new-found treasure home quietly.

Needless to say, I've been listening to the Callas Barbiere steadily for the last two days. It is a brisk, professional affair, graced with the presence of La Divina as the ingenious Rosina. Ms. Callas accents the viperish nature and worldly wisdom of Dr. Bartolo's young ward. Her "Una voce poco fa" is lovely, complete with a hair-raising high note in the final bars.

"Dunque Io Sono", Rosina's duet with Figaro, is the highlight of this first act, matching Maria with her longtime onstage sparring partner Tito Gobbi. Mr. Gobbi is a great comic barber, brash and arrogant during "Largo al factotum." He and Luigi Alva soar together in "All' idea di quell metallo" and "Numero quindice. It feels like the conductor Alcero Galliera, is hurrying to keep up with his singers.


This recording features Luigi Alva, early in the role that became the trademark of his career. The bel canto tenor is in good comic form, displaying the comic chops needed for Almaviva's disguised entries into Dr. Bartolo's household. "Pace gioia" elicits real laughter, as Alva puts on an irritating, nasal voice and an air of piety. Fritz Ollendorf is a harsh-toned Bartolo, but surmounts the tongue-tripping challenges of "Un dottor della mia sorta", an aria so difficult that it was left out of the opera for almost a century.

Although this is a studio recording, the nature of Barbiere allows the listener to hear Callas working in ensembles, particularly the big sextet and chorus that rings down the curtain on Act I. She uses the lower range of her instrument to create a mezzo Rosina, as the composer originally intended. And yes, there is a special thrill when her distinctive voice cuts through the texture of the other singers. How often to you get to hear a goddess do comedy?

Angela Gheorghiu vs. Maria Callas

Technology pits Romanian soprano against La Divina.

"Devo veramente a cantare con lei?"
Maria Callas in Cherubini's Medea.
Photo © EMI Classics/La Scala archive.

Like the late diva Emilia Marty, soprano Angela Gheorghiu has made a bid for immortality with her forthcoming CD release: Homage to Maria Callas.

The disc features the Romanian soprano singing some of Callas' favorite repertory in the verismo genre, including arias from Puccini's La bohème, Catalani's La Wally and "La Mamma Morta", the aria from Giordano's Andrea Chenier made famous in the movie Philadelphia.

But the most controversial addition to the disc is a digitally built duet between La Gheorghiu and the late Maria Callas. The two sopranos, one living, one very dead, will sing "L'amour c'est l'oiseaux rebelle", the Habañera from Act I of Bizet's Carmen.

According to a press release (received today from EMI Classics) the new "duet" was created from the original master tape of Callas' 1961 recording of the aria. The engineers chose this over the '63 recording of the complete opera, because it lacked the usual choral accompaniment.

In the engineering booth, the original orchestra (the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française under the baton of George Prêtre) was scrubbed out. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Marco Armiliato re-recorded the music, with the players using a special click track to match the original. Ms. Gheorghiu also chose to learn Callas' particular sense of rhythm and meter, enabling the two divas to warble together, or seperately.


Leaving aside obvious reservations (the biggest one being that the Habañera is intended for one singer!) the new disc will hit New York's few remaining record shops in October, shortly before Ms. Gheorghiu's scheduled appearance with the Opera Orchestra of New York. In the OONY performance, she will sing the title role in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvrer.

Ms. Gheorghiu has a history of recent cancellations and controversies at the Metropolitan Opera. In an interview this weekend with the Los Angeles Times, conductor Leonard Slatkin blamed the diva for his exit from a disastrous 2009 revival of Verdi's La Traviata.

Earlier this year, the singer dropped out of the company's new production of Faust. Scheduled to sing Marguerite opposite Jonas Kaufmann, Ms. Gheorghiu cited "creative differences" with the new production, which updates the German legend to the 20th centiry and makes Faust into Robert Oppenheimer. Perhaps she will use her free time to prepare another tribute, this time to Catalan soprano Victoria de los Ángeles.

Old-School Mozart: The 1950 Karajan Vienna Recordings

The Man, the Maestro: Herbert von Karajan. © Universal Classics.

These two recordings of Mozart operas: Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte, rank among the earliest LP recordings of an entire opera in a recording studio. (Decca recorded Die Meistersinger in 1950 with Hans Knappertsbusch, but that's another column.) They are also the first two complete recordings led by Herbert von Karajan, at the start of his long association with the EMI label.

Both of these sets were made in Vienna in 1950. They are from the early days of LP records, and are in mono sound. (Stereo recording was invented in 1952)

As such, they offer the listener the chance to hear the Austrian conductor at his warmest and most innovative.

Vienna Philharmonic cond. Herbert von Karajan (EMI, 1950)

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
Photo by Fayer © EMI Classics

Le Nozze di Figaro
Figaro: Erich Kunz
Susanna: Irmgard Seefried
The Countess: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Count Almaviva: George London
Cherubino: Sena Jurinac

Die Zauberflöte
Sarastro: Ludwig Weber
The Queen of the Night: Wilma Lipp
Tamino: Anton Dermota
Pamina: Irmgard Seefried
Papagena Erich Kunz

Figaro was made in June and October of 1950. Erich Kunz is a dark-timbred, sardonic valet, who switches over to warm tone in his intimate scenes with Irmgard Seefried's terrific, pert Susanna. Selena Juranac is a fully embodied Cherubino. It is not an insult to say that this trouser role is sung with boyish enthusiasm. The ensembles bloom with warmth, especially in the second act.

An excerpt: Selena Juranac sing "Non s piu cosa son, cosa faccio" 

from Act I of Figaro. © 1950, EMI Classics

George London sings the Count with real menace in the early acts, which melts away at the opera's climax in Act IV. Karajan slows down the tempo for their reconciliation scene, allowing Elisabeth Schwarzkopf to really shine in the final ensemble. She is a marvel here, helped by Karajan's choice of dead-slow tempos whenever she sings.

The Flute was laid down in November of that same year. Karajan takes an even slower tempo here, especially with the three stately chords that launch the Overture. Other key moments in the score: the March of the Priests, the Two Men in Armor scene are rendered in vivid color by the Viennese forces. The choral singing is firm and well-caught.

This set features essentially the same cast (with the subtraction of Ms. Schwarzkopf and the substitution of Wilma Lipp as the Queen of the Night.) And it's a good one. Anton Dermota and Ms. Seefried are an engaging, ideal pair as Tamino and Pamina. He really sounds panicked in "Zu hilfe," and his fine characterization continues throughout. She is warm in "Bei Mannern", reunited (temporarily) with her Figaro, Erich Kunz, now in the role of Papageno.

Mr. Kunz may be no match for later bird-catchers (the role became a favorite of lieder singers in the stereo era) but he is bluff and good-natured. (I'd love to hear him in the opera's comic dialogue.) Ludwig Weber is an authoritative, but not authoritarian Sarastro. This recording captures the Wagner veteran in fine form just before the re-opening of the Bayreuth Festival the following year.

Both recordings feature the Vienna Philharmonic in top post-war form, playing with warmth and their unique, characteristic timbre. And despite being six decades old, the engineering is excellent, from the rattling tone of the timpani to the warm tone of the singers. The distinctive Vienna brass and wind are also captured with clarity on these CD remasters.

There are a few drawbacks. Figaro is missing ALL of the recitatives, which means you have to know the opera to follow the plot. The same goes for Zauberflöte, as no attempt is made to record the spoken dialogue between scenes. A libretto is helpful when listening if you don't know the operas.