Independent Record Labels

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Any independents stand out to you as noteworthy?

Why?

What I enjoy most about the independents is the opportunity to discover new and unexplored corners of the classical repertoire. The sheer proliferation of labels has made it easier than ever to explore the wide world of the "unknowns".

Indeed, collectively, that may be the independent's greatest legacy in the world of classical music on record...unlocking all those hidden gems.

Not to mention the fact that many of these labels are in possession of some of the finest musicians out there. Such a wealth of choices these days!

I'd also add the new standards of production values introduced by such labels as Winter & Winter, Harmonia Mundi, MDG, Naïve, BIS, Analekta, Hyperion, and so on... These labels have taken the business of recorded sound and made it an art form.

Recently the upstart Onyx label has made a positive impression on me. Viktoria Mullova records for them now (which is a nice bonus). I find their overall image and production values quite appealing.

Then there are the historical labels, of course. They too have made great strides in the area of recorded sound...or more accurately, the transfer of recorded sound from one medium (78's) to another (CD). Labels like Andante, Marston, Pearl, Naxos (with Marston)...all worth a look for the TLC they bestow on their transfer work.

And what of the majors? Well, there's no getting around the fact that the bulk of opera on records resides there. So they'll not lose their pedigree anytime soon. But, to me, the independents have now established themselves at the forefront of the classical music industry on records and have elevated the game to unprecedented heights.

[George]

Naxos certainly hs the best bang for the buck and their transfers by Mark Obert Thorne that I've heard are excellent. I also like Pearl, in fact, soundwise I like them more, as their surface noise is louder, but because the noise isn't filtered out in the frequencies that lie outside the range of the recording, I find it actually easier to tune it out. Pearl's transfers also have a greater dynamic range and have a truer piano tone than others that I have heard.

One of the problems with some of the independent labels though, is that they can't keep things in print as long as the majors. For the prices that some of them charge, I think that they should be willing and able to press CD's that are OOP for customers. Wouldn't that be nice?

[Maciek]

Sorry if this is a silly question but how exactly do you differentiate between major and independent? What does independent exactly mean? Independent of whom? I don't know much about this. Always thought "independent" meant very small companies that make their recordings in a barn or something... But if Naxos is independent, I'll have to rule that definition out...

[Harry Collier]

Sorry if this is a silly question but how exactly do you differentiate between major and independent?

"Major" tends to be Norman Lebrecht language. In the old days, there were comparitively few classical record companies, since the overheads associated with recording, replicating and international distribution via record shops were pretty horrendous, and affordable only by a few companies. So most artists didn't get recording contracts in the past, and most non-famous musical works were never recorded. After the 1980s and the arrival of CDs and digital recording, the classical recording industry began to become more analogous to book publishing, where thousands of small publishers worldwide produced an endless variety of books -- excellent, good, indifferent, and bad; specialist, best-seller, niche, mainstream, backwater. So we are now offered something like 160 different recordings of Mozart's Prague Symphony. But this is a lot better than the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s where you'd be lucky to find a dozen.

[Don]

Sorry if this is a silly question but how exactly do you differentiate between major and independent?

There's nothing exacting about this.  Personally, I define the majors as companies that are part of a larger corporate empire (Sony, RCA, Philips, Decca, etc.).

Traditionally, the majors were the record companies with the big artist contracts and the largest number of releases.  That's all changed now since the majors have retrenched and companies such as Naxos have risen to the top.

[Maciek]

There's nothing exacting about this.  Personally, I define the majors as companies that are part of a larger corporate empire (Sony, RCA, Philips, Decca, etc.).

Traditionally, the majors were the record companies with the big artist contracts and the largest number of releases.  That's all changed now since the majors have retrenched and companies such as Naxos have risen to the top.

Thanks, I'll use that as a sort of guideline. "Once big now in decline" would probably be a good formula for the "major" labels, right? (Though the "decline" should probably have it's own separate pair of inverted commas... )

By those standards you could probably call Polskie Nagrania (Muza) a major label - they used to be the main, government owned record company in Poland in the old days. They have fantastic stuff in their archives but for some obscure reason they are constantly on the verge of going bankrupt, and they are not releasing more than 10-20 classical CDs per year (why, oh why??).

So Polish independent labels are the only ones that are really doing anything worthwhile. I'd single out three: CD Accord, Musicon, and ProMusica Camerata. DUX is sometimes very good but there are many duds in their catalogue and the sound quality varies too. And Acte Préalable, even though they record truly amazing repertoire, have a very low sound quality standard and an even lower performance standard (they sign up lots of hack artists to do their discs). The first three I mentioned are on the other hand consistently splendid and have often wonderful repertoire.

The profile of CD Accord is closest to that of a major label - their catalog includes recordings by famous foreign artists, like Argerich or Menuhin (they also released a few archive recordings by David Oistrakh, Igor Markevitch, Robert Craft, Stravinsky, Isaac Stern, Arthur Rubinstein). And they usually sign up the very very best musicians from Poland: Ewa Podleś, Wiesław Ochman, Wojtek Drabowicz, Olga Pasiecznik, Jadwiga Rappé, Andrzej Hiolski, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Kaja Danczowska, Krzysztof Bąkowski, Andrzej Bauer, Ewa Pobłocka, Piotr Anderszewski, Rafał Blechacz, Janusz Olejniczak, Władysław Kłosiewicz, Elżbieta Chojnacka, Jan Stanienda, Jacek Kaspszyk, Antoni Wit, Agnieszka Duczmal, Kazimierz Kord, Jan Krenz, Witold Lutosławski, Sinfonia Varovia, the National Philharmonic, (Maksymiuk's) Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Silesian Quartet, Camerata Silesia, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra.

Whew! That's quite a long list but I wanted to show that they really record with lots of the Polish top-shelf musicians. Even though their catalogue is not very large (less than 200 CDs released since 1995), you could say they have taken Muza's place on the market.

The situation is completely different with Musicon and ProMusica. The first of these two is run by a couple of enthusiasts (sound engineers) who do practically everything (except for performing) on their own. They have released less than 40 CDs (since 1991!!!) and each CD is in some way special. They cooperate with a select group of artists, many of them first rate (Camerata Silesia, Concerto Polacco, Marek Toporowski, Marcin Bornus-Szczyciński). The company specializes in vocal (choral) music - mainly Gregorian chant, renaissance and baroque. They have a fascinating series called Musica Claromontana (now into the 12th volume) - recordings of pieces from the library of the Jasna Góra monastery.

ProMusica Camerata, OTOH, is not even a record label per se - it is a foundation that publishes music (CDs and scores). They have released some excellent recordings (45 CD albums in all, usually double) of many half-forgotten pieces by Polish composers: Symphonies by Jan Wański and Wojciech Dankowski ("Gurnian period" composers), the complete works of Damian Stachowicz (a baroque composer - this fits on one CD!), the complete works of Marcin Mielczewski (a baroque composer, this is several volumes), the complete works of Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (another baroque composer, the series has only just started out), the complete works of Antoni Stolpe (a late romantic composer, only one volume released so far), the complete works of Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński (a baroque composer - what is left of his entire output fits on 2 CDs). The Foundation is associated with the Warsaw Chamber Opera, so they have easy access to very good performers and record a lot of opera and vocal music (re independent labels and opera): a recital of various songs by Olga Pasiecznik, another one of Mozart'ss songs also sung by her, Mozart opera arias sung by the male soprano Dariusz Paradowski, and various complete operas and oratorios: Giovanni Paisiello's Te Deum laudamus, Francesca Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, Johann Adolf Hasse's Zenobia, Haendel's Imeneo, Jacopo Peri's L'Euridice, Scarlatti's Tetide in Sciro. And that also includes some rarely heard Polish music: Historia Gloriosissimi Stanislai by Wincenty z Kielc, Jan Stefani's Cud czyli Krakowiacy i Górale (one of the first Polish operas), Józef Elsner's Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi and Moniuszko's Vilnius Halka (critics raved about this one). They do go mainstream sometimes: they have been releasing Mozart's complete Piano and Harpsichord Concertos for a while now (they are currently up to volume 11), and they have also recorded a 2 CD set of tone poems by Mieczysław Karłowicz (with Jacek Kaspszyk at the helm).

I'm not sure where the Polish Radio stands in the independent/major division. They're a label I value highly for releases of contemporary music (especially CDs released by the Katowice division).

Another small label that I like, this time not from Poland, (they record a lot of contemporary music, including many Polish composers) is ProViva from Munich. Unfortunately, as with many small labels, they're very hard to get and I can't find their site on the internet...

Maciek

[Dancing Divertimentian]

One of the problems with some of the independent labels though, is that they can't keep things in print as long as the majors. For the prices that some of them charge, I think that they should be willing and able to press CD's that are OOP for customers. Wouldn't that be nice?

It could be dependent on where in the world we live. In the States a title might be hard to find but still in circulation elsewhere.

But that's different than OOP, of course.

I know of one label (last I heard) which boasts it will never delete anything in its catalog: BIS.

Harmonia Mundi seems pretty good about reissuing their back catalog. Hyperion, too, though at times they'll take the axe to their catalog and send bulk quantities adrift.

On the other hand, there are those labels that seem quick to delete, like Avie and Fuga Libera.

I'd say it's about 50/50.

Some are so new (Onyx, Winter & Winter) there's no telling what they'll do.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

But if Naxos is independent, I'll have to rule that definition out...

It might be stretching things to include Naxos but I figured it'd be worth it to include them here based solely on their work in the area of historical reissues.

None of the "major" companies are willing to ferret out so much recorded material from so long ago. Much less spend the time seeking out quality source material (rare 78's) and producing high quality transfers. With Marston and, as George mentioned, Obert-Thorne in their employment as transfer engineers the historical wing of Naxos is the next best thing to independent.

[Brian]

It might be stretching things to include Naxos but I figured it'd be worth it to include them here based solely on their work in the area of historical reissues.

I think under most definitions of independent labels Naxos counts, since it is not owned by Universal, Philips, Sony, etc. However, by the sheer size of its catalog Naxos dominates the "independent" field and could certainly be considered in a strange class of its own.

Now that Hungaroton, Cedille, Chandos, Hanssler, Profil, Vox, BIS, Da Capo, Onyx, Vanguard, and CPO have joined the Naxos Music Library, I think that the Naxos label can be most accurately described as the leader and representative figure of the independent music field - the dashing young officer at the head of the cavalry charge. 

[George]

I think under most definitions of independent labels Naxos counts, since it is not owned by Universal, Philips, Sony, etc. However, by the sheer size of its catalog Naxos dominates the "independent" field and could certainly be considered in a strange class of its own.

Now that Hungaroton, Cedille, Chandos, Hanssler, Profil, Vox, BIS, Da Capo, Onyx, Vanguard, and CPO have joined the Naxos Music Library, I think that the Naxos label can be most accurately described as the leader and representative figure of the independent music field - the dashing young officer at the head of the cavalry charge. 

Does this mean that the old Hungaroton releases, such as the Annie Fischer LvB PS cycle, will be reissued on Naxos? 

[Don]

Does this mean that the old Hungaroton releases, such as the Annie Fischer LvB PS cycle, will be reissued on Naxos? 

No.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I think under most definitions of independent labels Naxos counts, since it is not owned by Universal, Philips, Sony, etc. However, by the sheer size of its catalog Naxos dominates the "independent" field and could certainly be considered in a strange class of its own.

Yes, Naxos is hard to classify. Technically they're an independent but the scope of their reach is so enormous it's difficult to think of them as a true 'indy'.

To wit:

Now that Hungaroton, Cedille, Chandos, Hanssler, Profil, Vox, BIS, Da Capo, Onyx, Vanguard, and CPO have joined the Naxos Music Library, I think that the Naxos label can be most accurately described as the leader and representative figure of the independent music field - the dashing young officer at the head of the cavalry charge. 

[Brian]

Does this mean that the old Hungaroton releases, such as the Annie Fischer LvB PS cycle, will be reissued on Naxos? 

No, but they are now available on www.naxosmusiclibrary.com, for listeners with subscriptions (primarily public libraries - you might want to inquire - or universities/schools/music organizations).

[hautbois]

www.channelclassics.com introduced me to Peter Wispelway and Bart Schneemann - which is enough for me to say that they are amazing. Modern sound engineering that you cannot complain. And i don't know if you can call Brilliant Classics an independant label but they sure did brought forward some very interesting reissues at a bargain price.

[George]

[/move]www.channelclassics.com introduced me to Peter Wispelway and Bart Schneemann - which is enough for me to say that they are amazing. Modern sound engineering that you cannot complain. And i don't know if you can call Brilliant Classics an independant label but they sure did brought forward some very interesting reissues at a bargain price.

I only have Wispelwey's 2nd recording of Bach Cello Suites, but boy do I agree that he is amazing! 

[Lethevich]

I don't want to start a whole new thread for this question, so maybe in this one...

Naïve is a rather confusing label - what does Astrée relate to within its output? Is it a sub-label or a previous name? Ditto for Auvidis and Opus111.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I don't want to start a whole new thread for this question, so maybe in this one...

Naïve is a rather confusing label - what does Astrée relate to within its output? Is it a sub-label or a previous name? Ditto for Auvidis and Opus111.

Lethe,

It's a bit convoluted, so here's my stab at sorting it all out...

Auvidis is a now defunct French independent label.

There were (at least) three wings of Auvidis:

• Astrée, its HIP wing
• Valois, its more mainstream wing
• Montaigne, its contemporary wing

Here are three examples:








As far as I can determine there was a period of overlap between all three wings before Auvidis settled on a permanent split.

Now, it appears that Auvidis simply got bought out by Naïve. However, for whatever reason (probably name recognition), Naïve decided to keep two of the original Auvidis wings alive: Astrée and Montaigne.

These have appeared in reissues in new packaging yet it's clear these are Naïve products as the CDs I have carry Naïve's copyright (on the backs, out of view). Appropriately, though, anything reissued from the old Auvidis catalog is properly credited and original publication dates given.

A couple of Naïve reissues of Auvidis originals:








As far as the original mainstream Valois wing, it's apparently been absorbed directly into Naïve.


Now, as to Opus111, the situation appears to be no different than that of Auvidis. The back of my Opus111 CD carries Naïve's copyright with the original Opus111 publication date.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Here's the front and back of an original Auvidis/Astrée release:

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Here's an original Auvidis/Montaigne issue:






And here's the Naïve reissue. There's nothing related to Naïve on the front cover. Only on the back:

[Lethevich]

Thank you very much It was the Schubert and Mendelssohn QM discs that confused me the most. I think I may just tag everything as Naïve, as the majority of people will understand what that means