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.

Opera for the Color-Blind

Universal's Blinding "Opera!" Reissues To Hit Shelves, Blind Customers.

The DG Figaro conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Original slip-case cover art, with the famous chair.

On July 12, the venerable Decca and Deutsche Grammophon labels (which, in case you don't read this blog, are the same company) will re-launch their "Opera!" line. The series presents new pressings of recordings of major repertory operas. But in another brilliant move by the Universal Classics marketing department, these recordings have been repackaged a little differently.

Which is to say, they're really ugly.

Now, we all know that record labels, with their deep vaults, are endlessly recycling and regurgitating their catalogues, especially following the over-recording of the CD boom, where every kapellmeister worth his salt would be laughed out of the musician's union unless he recorded heavily.

All over Europe and America, these first (and second) rate maestros felt inadequate unless they recorded and released a Bruckner (or Mahler) symphony cycle, a complete set of Mozart operas, and possibly a Ring. Some of these performances were released. Others languished (and may continue to languish) in the import catalogue or gathering dust in a German warehouse.

Same case. Same recording. New art. Ugh.

The point is, that the catalogue is glutted with recordings, and the ones that came out at the end of the boom (late '80s, early '90s) are the hardest to sell to connoisseurs.

Which is why this supposed "consumer friendly" Opera! series has come out. I guess they figure by stripping anything to do with opera from the covers, people roaming record shops will grab and buy--just because it's, y'know, RED.

This Figaro is just one of the series. Other reissues getting this non-deluxe treatment include:

• Sir Georg Solti's Aida with Leontyne Price and Jon Vickers. Hope it's the remaster and not the "bad" original CD pressing with the dodgy sound.
• Sir Colin Davis' Peter Grimes with Vickers and Heather Harper.
• Jeffery Tate's Tales of Hoffmann with Jessye Norman and Cheryl Studer.
• The Metropolitan Opera/James Levine Die Walküre, which is currently available as part of a budget box with the whole Levine Ring. Bet the Met just loves the purple-and-orange cover with their new Ring in progress.
• Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Cav is under Semyn Bychkov. Pag is led by Riccardo Chailly. Both are good conductors who deserve better fates.
• The second, lesser Herbert von Karajan recording of Der Rosenkavalier with Anna Tomowa-Sintow. Skip it.
• Giuseppe Sinopoli's Madama Butterfly with Mirella Freni, near the end of her career and pretending to be a teenager.
• That really weird Lucia di Lammermoor (conducted by Ion Marin. (Who?)) with Cheryl Studer (again!) and Placìdo Domingo totally miscast as Edgardo. See above.
• Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie conducted by Marc Minkowski. Maybe it's not a total loss.