Charles Kraus: Cheap'n'cheesy: can bargain classical CDs go any lower?

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Cheap'n'cheesy: can bargain classical CDs go any lower?

Customers are the winners in the classical price-cutting craze, but some of the repackaging could do with a makeover

I've just bought Furtw�ngler's Rome recording of Wagner's Ring for less than �40. I never know how it makes economic sense for EMI, or any other record company, to release some of their best back catalogue at bargain-basement prices, but for less than �3 per disc, you can now get one of the legends of the gramophone, a set that I remember in my teens trying and failing to justify putting all of my life savings into at the late-lamented Tower Records in Glasgow, when it cost about a hundred smackers. However deleterious it may be to the economics of the majors, the customer is the winner with all this price-cutting, and the more people who get to hear Furtw�ngler's unique vision of Wagner, the better.

But even EMI's latest repackaging of their Furtw�nglerian legacy isn't as cheap, and it certainly isn't as cheesy, as the Rise of the Masters. I'm not talking about a new Doctor Who spin-off, but a series of cut-price downloadable albums by 12 of classical music's greatest composers. (A list that not surprisingly disagrees with Anthony Tommasini's top 10.) They're halfway through releasing the individual albums of their appointed genii of music, with those still to come theatrically hidden behind a red velvet curtain. The sheer amount of music you get for your money defies logic: on the Beethoven compo, you get the complete symphonies, four piano concertos, handfuls of piano sonatas and chamber music, for �5.99.

I can't vouch for the quality of performances of the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra and Jansug Kakhidze ? but clearly the best thing about this series is the artwork, the photos of lookalike actors kitted out in ultra-camp garb in front of an idealised Italianate landscape. Marvel at the effeteness of Mozart, the terrible wig of Beethoven, who also bears a passing resemblance to Joaquin Phoenix ? or maybe that's just me ? and the scary severity of Bach. And await the resurrection of the six composers still to come: the release times of each vast compilation are called "date of rebirth" on the individual composer pages. And all for less than �6. But how low can these companies go before they're virtually paying us to take their music?