Also, Adams accusation of young composers “dumbing” down though I think is true in some instances is a paradoxical statement – many music lovers would point to Adams ‘ works as the start of dumbing down classical music (I neither agree or disagree with that statement, honestly. I think at times he does so unintentionally).

Finally, you have to wonder what was left out – I mean Newsweek for space consideration definitely edited Adam’s comments.

You raise good points and I enjoyed Ann’s article very much. Thanks for linking it!

Are composers concerned with making money on their recordings or with gaining wider awareness of their music? For many of the composers featured in the American Classics series, I imagine that breaking even and getting their work out there is the goal of releasing a CD. This is increasingly the case in pop music too; the acts make their money off of touring, not recording!

But for Heymann and his colleagues at Naxos, the calculus in the coming years will need to be as follows: how many ‘loss-leaders’ can they afford on the backs of the sales of ‘Best of Chopin’ discs and Naxos Library subscriptions? At what point does the market for the American Classics series get saturated? Who makes the cut at that point?

Other labels are increasingly having to sharpen their pencils too; who will be recording American music in the future?

Unrecorded composers such as myself watch nervously and hope that the classical record industry will still be around when we’re ready to release a debut CD…

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Armando,

For me, the issue with John Adams isn’t so much about how his remarks impact his own working relationship with the label; that’s his affair. But in the Newsweek piece, which I’ve linked above, he sounds off about both young composers and Naxos in a very negative way. Given that this article (from 2009) is appearing in Newsweek, a mainstream publication that doesn’t regularly cover contemporary classical music, this is troubling. It’s hardly likely that this interview will encourage Newsweek readers to seek out music by young composers or, for that matter, a classical recording of any sort.

Whether he likes it or not, Adams is the spokesperson for contemporary classical music that media outlets seek out. His lack of temperance and prudence in interview comments is not doing any of his colleagues – or the next generation of contemporary classical composers – any favors.

In the Newsweek piece, he seems to relish being a curmudgeon, but I prefer his advocacy as a composer and conductor, where his energy and commitment to American music is much more positive.

BTW Although I understand the pressures of a deadline, I’m sorry Adams didn’t have time to comment on the Heymann interview. It would be nice to see that fence mended.

“[As for regular sales:] right now, in the first five months our recording of the Spohr concerto for 2 violins sold 7,000 worldwide. Then Vaughan Williams, “Dona nobis pacem,” 6,000 in only 3 months. 4,500 Vaughan Williams Sacred Choral Works. Alsop Dvorak Symphonies 7 and 8, 4,000 in only two months. Petrenko Shostakovich 8 Liverpool also about 4,000 in only 2 months. Khachaturian cello concerto also about 4,000. Haydn Stabat Mater from Trinity New York also 4,000, but that’s not selling so strongly any more. Roussel Symphony No. 4 also 4,000 in 4 months.

It’s a very odd repertory nowadays. It’s in many ways gratifiying that all this material [is selling]. Of course with sales of 4,000, you’re not making any money. [What really sell are things like] The Best of Chopin, which is is probably now up to 300,000 or 400,000 in total. Most of what is downloaded on iTunes is this kind of thing. They download the whole album. [As for our other releases,] many of these things will eventually reach 6, 7,000. Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem with orchestra and chorus, in copyright, probably loses us $10,000 or $15,000. But long term, with all our other revenue sources, we’ll probably break even…”

The full article is here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2010/07/the_future_of_the_recording_in.html

So Naxos needs to sell between 5 and 10,000 CDs just to break even or make a small profit – even assuming production costs are low. I want to see Naxos prosper, but it is hard to see how they are in a position to advance the cause of new music. For those on the cutting edge of the art form, CD sales by Naxos would not seem to be part of the equation.

And what’s with John Adams these days? Is it me, or do his public utterances seem almost self-destructive at times?