Thread: BIS thread

Posts: 4131
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Post by krisjan August 14, 2009 (711 of 4131)
Robert - congratulations on the latest award! It is well deserved.
Post by tream August 19, 2009 (712 of 4131)
Just placed my order for Brautigam's Beethoven, Vol. 7....and one other - don't know how I missed this, but the coupling of Beethoven piano cto #2 with the WoO 4 piano concerto (and WoO 6)....I saw the positive review in Gramophone.

While I am a major Beethoven aficionado (well, almost everyone is), I have long felt that my Fleisher/Szell set of the piano concertos tells me just about everything I need to know about those works and so have not collected a lot of versions. But, based on the piano sonata recordings, Brautigam is the real deal as an interpreter of Beethoven, and Bis has done something to be greatly commended with this release by coupling these works together - I have never heard the WoO 4 before, and I doubt if many others have as well. This concerto should be at least as legit a work as the Mahler 10 or Elgar 3 symphonies. I am excited about receiving this SACD.
Post by Edvin August 26, 2009 (713 of 4131)
International sales of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s recordings for BIS Records have now exceeded a million discs. In classical music, sales of a million discs by a single artist or ensemble are unusual, and by Finnish standards such a performance is unprecedented. Almost all of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s more than sixty BIS recordings were made during the orchestra’s long collaboration with its chief conductor Osmo Vänskä (1988–2008).
Post by mahlerei August 26, 2009 (714 of 4131)
Edvin said:

International sales of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s recordings for BIS Records have now exceeded a million discs. In classical music, sales of a million discs by a single artist or ensemble are unusual, and by Finnish standards such a performance is unprecedented. Almost all of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s more than sixty BIS recordings were made during the orchestra’s long collaboration with its chief conductor Osmo Vänskä (1988–2008).
Not at all surprised, given the technical and artistic quality of their discs. The Aho series, which I have written about elsewhere, is well worth investigating.
Post by TerraEpon August 29, 2009 (715 of 4131)
Well it doesn't hurt that they released some of them multiple times (I for one have bought most of the Sibelius discs both individually and later in the Sibelius edition, and a couple of times even a third time as my original used copy turned out to be an MHS version which I had to replace)
Post by bissie August 29, 2009 (716 of 4131)
Seth:

I too applaud Bis for making the commitment they do. However, Robert was making it sound like discs such as the Gubaidulina were answering the requests of members here and the sales results were disappointing. (And if I'm overstepping in saying this, please Robert set me straight.)

My point was that he was comparing apples to oranges.
____________________________________-

No, you're not overstepping here.
I see the constant "demands", "wish-lists" or whatever one would like to call them, of, shall we say, less than standard repertoire (like Linde, Valen, little-known Liszt etc) from members of this Forum.
And I agree with them - let that be clear.

But, it is one thing to wish and demand, it is another to be the one that has to pay for it, and try to eke out a living doing so. As Seth also said, "the further you get away from the Brandenburgs...", the facts remain that we sell less and less of such repertoire, the further we get away. I find this regrettable and a testimony to the reluctance with many buyers to dare to venture out of the known box to see what else there is.
Shortly said, it is a stretch for us - without any subsidies - to record the modern repertoire at all, and it is true, most of those products are totally supported by our BCJ Cantata series, the Van Beethoven symphonies and some soloists' discs. If it is a stretch to record them at all, it is a far bigger stretch to record and publish them in SACD surround, since the extra costs for us necessitate AT LEAST some 600 extra copies to be sold (there is a very long thread dedicated to this question). It is my feeling that we basically never reach this goal (the 600), and so the correct economical solution is to stop making SACD:s. Bottom-line companies, like Naxos, Telarc and now Hyperion have made the same calculation and drawn the consenquences. BIS so far refuse.
But the general public should be aware that the only way you will get that not-totally-standard repertoire is to support what we SACD labels DO release. When we have gone through the standard repertoire, we have to turn to the non-standard, unless we want to start a second round with those same works.
I think you'll find, if you look at the repertoire offerings from the three biggest SACD labels (Exton excluded, as they aren't available) that BIS is, by a long shot, already now more adventurous (and yet we are so standard in the SACD products that I blush with embarrassment) when it comes to repertoire, and we will continue to be so, more and more, as we hack our way through the standard repertoire. We are now taking the steps to record more non-standard rep on SACD, like the Fitkin piano SACD, Lutoslavski/Dutilleux Cello Concertos, unknown Haydn, Barber/Bernstein/Bloch VC:s, etc.

That is, if we are supported by the buying public...


Robert
Post by rrkradio August 30, 2009 (717 of 4131)
The only way to see in the future other BIS SACD is .... buy them.

In the last 2 months i purchased 10 BIS titles ... now playing (with Mcintosh MCD 301) Edvard Grieg Choir Music: 5 stars without any hesitation for performance and stunning recording.

Cheers from Italy,
roby
Post by Edvin August 30, 2009 (718 of 4131)
bissie said:


I see the constant "demands", "wish-lists" or whatever one would like to call them, of, shall we say, less than standard repertoire (like Linde, Valen, little-known Liszt etc) from members of this Forum.
And I agree with them - let that be clear.
I don't understand. Linde is available on SACD so you won't have to record that. Valen, well it is a pity they weren't SACD. But they are wonderful anyway. What do you mean by little known Liszt? What people want is the tone poems and the Faust Symphony. Hardly little known Liszt.

The different wish lits have included composers like Hindemith, Stravinsky, Lilburn, Sculthorpe, Walton (looking forward to the symphonies), Barber, Harris...Is it possible that a Gubaidulina SACD sells more copies than a Hindemith would? If so, this is a strange world. A perfect Hindemith SACD: Mathis der maler, Symphonic Dances, Nobilissima Visione!
Thomas
Post by fafnir August 30, 2009 (719 of 4131)
Edvin said:

IA perfect Hindemith SACD: Mathis der maler, Symphonic Dances, Nobilissima Visione!
Bring it on! I don't know the Symphonic Dances but the Symphonic Metamorphosis on Weber is terrific and When Lilacs Last on Dooryards Bloomed is a masterpiece. Their continued neglect on SACD is a pity.
Post by Edvin August 30, 2009 (720 of 4131)
His Symphonische Tänze is a masterpiece. I can't understand why it so neglected.
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