COPYRIGHT
Published by Hachette Digital
ISBN: 9780748131105
Copyright © 2012 Naxos AudioBooks UK Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Hachette Digital
Little, Brown Book Group
100 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DY
www.hachette.co.uk
Contents
Copyright
Foreword by Klaus Heymann
Preface by Nicolas Soames
One
Dramatic Change in Classical Recording 1977–1990
Two
Klaus Heymann: A Profile
Three
The Early Years: From Frankfurt to Hong Kong 1936–1967
Four
A New Home in the Far East: Building a Business Career 1967–1982
Five
Marco Polo: An International Label 1982–1987
Six
Naxos: A Classical Revolution 1987–1994
Seven
Naxos: A World Force 1994–2000
Eight
Naxos: The Digital Age 1996–2011
Nine
The Artists: Soloists and Chamber Musicians
Takako Nishizaki – Violin
Jen Jandó – Piano
Idil Biret – Piano
Maria Kliegel – Cello
Kodály Quartet
Ilya Kaler – Violin
Maggini Quartet
Patrick Gallois – Flute and Conductor
Norbert Kraft – Guitar and the ‘Guitar Collection’
Ulrich Eisenlohr – Piano
The New Generation
Tianwa Yang – Violin
Ashley Wass – Piano
Eldar Nebolsin – Piano
Christopher Hinterhuber – Piano
Ten
The Artists: Conductors
Marin Alsop
Antoni Wit
Dmitry Yablonsky
Michael Halász
Jeremy Summerly
Helmut Müller-Brühl
Takuo Yuasa
Leonard Slatkin
Robert Craft
James Judd
Eleven
Composers of Our Time
United States
Poland
United Kingdom
Other Contemporary Voices
Twelve
Naxos and Its Labels
The Naxos Catalogue
The Central Classics
Opera Classics
American Classics
Spanish Classics
Italian Classics
Guitar Collection
Organ Encyclopedia
Amadis, Donau, Lydian and Linz
Naxos Jazz
Naxos World
Naxos Historical
Naxos DVD
Deletions
Thirteen
Marco Polo
The Marco Polo Catalogue
Chinese Classics
Marco Polo Classics
Marco Polo Film Music
Yellow River and Middle Kingdom
Postlude
Fourteen
Publishing
Naxos AudioBooks
Naxos Hörbücher
Naxos Educational
Naxos Books
Artaria Editions
Fifteen
Behind the Scenes
A&R, New Recordings and the Release Schedule
Recording, Producing and Editing
Contracts and the Organisation of Recordings
Booklets and Designs
Sixteen
Naxos on the Web
Developing the Digital Services
The Platforms
Naxos Website
Naxos Music Library
ClassicsOnline
Naxos Video Library
Naxos Spoken Word Library
Naxos Web Radio
Seventeen
Distribution: The Growth of an Empire
Naxos Global Logistics
Naxos Distribution Around the World
United Kingdom: Select Music and Video Distribution
United States: Naxos of America
Germany: Naxos Deutschland
The Nordic Countries: Naxos Sweden
Naxos Japan
Australia: Select Audio and Video Distribution
Naxos Far East
Naxos Korea
France: Abeille Musique
Eighteen
Naxos: The Future
Appendix: Awards
Acknowledgements
Index
Foreword by Klaus Heymann
When I look back over the past quarter of a century of the Naxos label – and even further, to the start of Marco Polo in 1982 – I am surprised at how much it all seemed to grow of its own accord. Although I certainly made plans, Naxos developed in unexpected ways, without rigidly following a grand business plan.
The label, with its primary purpose of providing good, new, digital recordings at a price everyone could afford, certainly emerged at the right time. But I know how much of its success was made possible by a few key individuals who believed in what I wanted to do, who were as convinced as I was that the classical recording industry needed to change. They were not establishment die-hards (or they would never have joined a classical music label created by a businessman based in Hong Kong!). And they were not all classical music enthusiasts: some actually knew very little about classical music at the start, though they learned quickly. They just had faith in what I was trying to achieve.
Naxos changed the culture and industry of classical music recording; there is no doubt about that. This book tells how it happened. It is clear, even from the Contents, that this story features a very varied group of men and women who put their talents and energy into a young company that was finding new ways of doing things. There were the fine musicians who would never have been given an international platform by the classical establishment yet proved time and again that outstanding performances can come from unexpected quarters. There were the capable producers and engineers working within the new digital fields; the knowledgeable writers and designers prepared to work to tight deadlines without compromising musicological standards.
Just as important were the distributors, who not only developed efficient networks but also devised fresh and sometimes extremely bold marketing campaigns to make Naxos the most highly visible classical label in the world. The different characters of these individuals were reflected in the way Naxos evolved in countries as far apart as the US, Germany, Japan, France, Korea and the UK. The label’s underlying purpose was international, but there were often discernible national characteristics in what was released and how titles were promoted.
From the start I wanted Naxos, despite its budget price, to be at the forefront of technology, and I am particularly pleased that we remain there twenty-five years on, offering specialist classical web services that are simply unmatched by any other company.
The Story of Naxos recounts how the label became the single most identifiable classical music brand in the world: we were moving so quickly that only in retrospect has it become clear how we did it. It also confirms that with our breadth of artists and repertoire, and our sheer number of releases both popular and specialist, we are now the leading provider of classical recorded music: we have travelled far beyond being a ‘budget’ label. It is a continuing journey. The environment of classical music and the recording world – commercially and technologically – is changing even more rapidly than in 1987, when the first Naxos CDs emerged.
Nevertheless I am still as excited when I open a box of new Naxos releases in Hong Kong as I was when I began collecting classical records as a teenager in Frankfurt.
As a non-musician, I have been extremely fortunate to live my life inside music: to see my wife, Takako Nishizaki, recording the great violin concertos of the world and helping them to become worldwide bestsellers; to create a comprehensive classical catalogue with an extremely wide repertoire; and to build a company that has brought classical music to millions who otherwise may not have encountered it.
Klaus Heymann, 2012
Preface by Nicolas Soames
I first encountered Klaus Heymann’s record labels when I was classical editor of Music Week, the UK’s leading trade magazine for the record industry, covering the main issues of the time and the new releases. I wrote about Marco Polo and then, when it arrived, Naxos, and I met Klaus himself. I also wrote for Gramophone and many national newspapers, and as a journalist I always enjoyed a good story, so I was intrigued by the controversy that soon surrounded these ventures of ‘the German businessman from Hong Kong’ – especially as he was being praised and heavily criticised in equal measure.
In fact, I can remember the first time we met: we were having a drink in a hotel bar in London. I had been warned by my friends in the majors that he was of dubious provenance, and I was rather pleasantly surprised to find not Mephistopheles – which really was how he had been painted – but a straightforward, no-nonsense businessman, who clearly knew his music and musicians extremely well. He was also acutely aware of the issues of the day. I think it must have been around 1990, when Naxos ended its Woolworths exclusivity.
We met fairly regularly after that, either at MIDEM (the music trade fair in Cannes, which I covered annually for various newspapers and journals) or in London. Klaus was always the source of interesting news, or had an angle I could pursue: despite living in Hong Kong he was very well informed.
In 1992 my sister, the clarinettist Victoria Soames, and I started Clarinet Classics; it was an independent label with a clear purpose. I knew various distributors, but I first approached Graham Haysom who had recently set up Select Music as a joint venture with Klaus to distribute Naxos in the UK, because I felt the company was going places. Shortly afterwards, at one of our meetings, Klaus suggested that Naxos could distribute Clarinet Classics worldwide, and with some exceptions we were happy to take him up on it.
On the evening of 23 January 1994, after the Naxos conference day at MIDEM Classique, Klaus hosted a supper at a Cannes hotel for all the Naxos distributors. I had attended the conference during the day, partly as a journalist and partly as a record-label owner. I sat next to Klaus at the meal, which he announced at the start would conclude at 11 p.m. German efficiency, I thought. At 10.50 p.m. I started to talk to him about my next venture: an audiobook label that would offer abridged versions of the great classics accompanied by classical music, making the likes of Homer and Dante easier to approach. Klaus listened attentively; at 10.56 p.m. he proposed a joint venture, specifying the number of releases in its first two years, the financial details, even the basic office set-up; we discussed it for four minutes and at 11 p.m. on the dot we agreed and shook hands. Klaus stood up, thanked everyone for coming, and left the room. I sat there, stunned, trying to take on board that my life had changed direction.
It is eighteen years since that day. The intervening time has seen Naxos AudioBooks win awards on both sides of the Atlantic and grow to become the leading spoken-word label for literary classics. This enterprise has been my primary focus, but I have always kept a close eye on the growth of Naxos itself – after all, for two decades I had written about classical recording and then I found myself inside one of the most exciting classical record stories in the history of the industry. I saw expansion at a remarkable rate and I travelled to most of the Naxos offices. It wasn’t all plain sailing: I saw Klaus right the ship time and time again when his enthusiasm and investment in new recordings had overtaken sensible cash flow. Month after month the new CD releases would come through to the Naxos AudioBooks office and each time I opened the boxes I was astounded by the diversity of music and musicians; here were not only the popular classics but composers I had never heard of – and this was supposed to be a budget label.
These years inside Naxos have been hugely exciting. There have been times of confusion, times of delay, missed sales targets, projects that have gone awry, series with good recordings that have failed for marketing reasons; but the successes have far outweighed the failures, and every month there are those new-release boxes with a remarkable variety of music – and audiobooks – that no other company in the world could begin to match.
I have been privileged, as a former journalist, to see Naxos develop from its original position as an outsider (challenging for a place in classical recording and shrugging off the disdain poured on it by the establishment) to its current position of prominence. It is without question the world leader in the breadth of classical repertoire regularly produced; it is the strongest and most comprehensive worldwide distributor of classical music; and it is the front runner in digital delivery (in various forms) of the classics. Although it can be difficult to mark changes from within, it is clear that the classical music industry has altered forever, and that this is partly due to Naxos.
After a few years of exclusive work on Naxos AudioBooks as well as some occasional work for Naxos, such as producing the much-loved Johnny Morris narrating The Carnival of the Animals, I became involved in other sections of Naxos’s classical music activity. I produced audiobook composer biographies, then general music biographies and histories. After fifteen years I knew that someone, at some point, had to write The Story of Naxos. It wasn’t going to be easy to draw a portrait of such a multi-faceted company, even if that company had a single man at the head of it all. In the end, I simply couldn’t keep away from the task – it was such a good tale.
I didn’t want to write a company history: I wanted to tell the story for the average Naxos buyers – the people who go into the record shops and head straight for the Naxos section. They are such a diverse range of people: students who can afford only Naxos; newcomers to classical music who see a work they recognise clearly titled on the cover; more occasional, discerning CD buyers interested in some of the unusual repertoire; serious collectors, who, like children in a sweet shop, really go to town at Naxos prices. That is the extraordinary thing about the following that Naxos has built up over the years – people come from all walks of life, united by the fact that they know a Naxos CD when they see one.
So this book is written with them in mind. I have set out to chart how it happened, when it happened and in what way it happened. Frankly there is no real ‘why’, other than that Naxos’s founder, Klaus Heymann, saw an opportunity, which he thought would be short-term but which he turned into twenty-five years of unforeseen growth and which was fuelled more than anything else by the love of the thing – and that thing was music.
Nicolas Soames, 2012
One
Dramatic Change in Classical Recording 1977–1990
In 1977, a decade before the first Naxos budget CDs hit the streets in Europe and Asia, sales of the previous format – vinyl LPs – were approaching their zenith. The classical record industry, in profile and character, was very different from the one to which we have become accustomed in the twenty-first century. It was, back then, a very paternalistic affair. It was ruled by a handful of self-proclaimed glorious (at least that was the way they saw themselves) companies – called informally by the industry ‘the majors’ – with a select roster of star artists who were largely exclusive, fêted (even pampered) and promoted as the master musical artists of the world. The leading conductors, soloists and singers of these ‘majors’ were regarded by the companies, the retailers and the classical buyers themselves as an aristocratic breed that would deliver definitive interpretations of the great composers – definitive, that is, until the next generation came a
long to be marketed and promoted in their place.
There were four European companies: Deutsche Grammophon (DG), Philips, Decca and EMI. Deutsche Grammophon (popularly called the ‘Yellow Label’ because of its distinctive yellow cartouche) was based in Hamburg and probably carried the greatest cachet: its full name was Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, shortened to ‘DGG’ but later abridged even further to ‘DG’. Philips was originally a Dutch company allied to the electronics giant. For many years Decca was a UK company with a curiously divided business activity of classical recording and military electronics. EMI was also based in the UK and carried its long heritage with pride: its roots lay in the earliest days of the classical recording industry and its recordings carried the famous dog-and-trumpet logo of His Master’s Voice, until some clever marketing initiative wiped it from the sleeves.