Philly's profit share fillip
The new recording contract was only made possible by several innovative departures from conventional contracts. The most important is that the orchestra players are not taking an up-front fee, but instead are participating in a profit share. The profit share compromise was achieved in defiance of union policy. If recordings are loss making, they will be underwritten by funding from the orchestra's endowment set aside for recording activites. The recordings are to be made live at concerts with later 'patching' sessions if required. And artistic approval of recordings is shared between Ondine, music director Christoph Eschenbach, and the musicians themselves.
What about the music that will be recorded? It seems to be a mix of safe (Tchaik 5) with adventurous Czech (Gideon Klein's 1944 Partita for String Orchestra and Martinu's Memorial to Lidice Gideon). Here are the first two recordings:
First Release (November 2005):
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
Bohuslav Martinů: Memorial to Lidice
Gideon Klein: Partita for String Orchestra (1944)
Second Release (February 2006):
Piotr Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Six Movements from The Seasons for Piano (January-June) (Christoph Eschenbach, piano, this will be the first solo piano recording by Christoph Eschenbach in nearly thirty years).
On An Overgrown Path has previously been critical of the low payments reportedly made to LSO musicians from LSO Live recordings. I am afraid that the Philadelphia players are not going to be on a much bigger earner from this deal. Orchestra president Joseph H Kluger has said "this is not going to be a source of net revenue" which I guess is at least realistic. But the good news for their many fans is the orchestra's recordings will be back on sale, and cutting a deal with Ondine is a smart way of getting the clout in the distribution chain which the orchestra owned labels currently lack.
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Comments
But it is an interesting point you raise.
Recordings are increasingly being made live on the back of concert performances (e.g. LSO Live and the new Philadelphia deal). So recording and concert programmes are increasingly becoming linked.
The Klein and Martinu recordings I write about are being made live, so they must be in the Philadelphia programmes. It is interesting to speculate as to whether they are being recorded because they are programmed, or they are programmed because they are being recorded.
Does anyone know if the Klein Partita for Strings is currently in the orchestra's repertoire?
In the USA it seems to have been the normal practice to make recordings only after subscription performances, so I doubt that we would see an increasing link between recordings and concerts. But from the viewpoint of the Philadelphians, I'd think that the alternative to "risk-averse" CDs is no CDs at all.
and closing with Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. Here is the link to the program and notes:
http://www.philorch.org/styles/poa02e/www/prognotes_20050505.html
Here is Vojtech Saudek's link:
http://www.musica.cz/comp/saudek.htm
I would guess that James Conlon might have performed this work, in Europe, and possibly even recorded it; though I could be wrong.
http://www.br-online.de/programme/bayern4/index.jsp?show=6&date=20050719