The BSO announced yesterday that it was kicking off a series of recordings on its own BSO Classics label. I’m on three out of the four initial recordings as a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus: the Brahms Requiem, Bolcom Symphony No. 8, and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. The recordings are available at the BSO’s download store now and will be on iTunes and other services next month.
As any observer of the classical music portion of the recording industry knows, it’s a rough time for classical recordings. The bigs aren’t doing much symphonic music any more, partly owing to fees owed to players unions (though some, like Philadelphia, appear to be working around that with revenue sharing agreements).
So the prospect of an orchestra entirely self-releasing its own material is interesting, to say the least. It will be interesting to see which way the BSO’s hedged bet on digital only releases (two of the recordings are also available on CD) will go.
I hope you issue recordings from the orchestra archives of the rare American composers who have been forgotten. The BSO has been a vanguard of commissions for so many composers of the pre WW II era…1900 on…composers like Daniel Gregory Mason, Rubin Goldmark, George Chadwick….this era. I will support your efforts. The Bolcome recording is a great example! Americans have a rich musical heritage and most have no idea.