When Sony Classical offers a young artist a record deal these days, it no longer just wants to own what goes on in studio.
Agents have been alarmed to read in the new contracts that, in exchange for the privilege of appearing on its label, Sony expects to receive a share of all the artists’ earnings – in concert, on tour, in media, wherever.
The contract specifies that Sony will own 15 percent of 80 percent of all the artist’s live fees. Some agents are putting up a fight but bright young soloists are so flattered by the approach and so desperate to get their name on a CD sleeve that they will sign anything – and don’t the corporation just know that.
Sony is not alone. Deutsche Grammophon also wants a share of the action. If DG pays 15 percent of an artist’s record earnings, they expect to receive 7.5 percent of his concert fees. I haven’t checked EMI, but if they don’t have a similar set of screws I’m sure they will pop up here quickly to tell us.
The major labels justify this new form of exortion by arguing that their prestige and promotion gives the artist a career boost, and this in return entitles them to a slice of the action. Looked at from an independent perspective, it appears to be a form of creeping slavery by which the corporation owns the musician, body and soul. DG/Universal’s imminent merger with a major artist management agency will certainly accelerate that process.
It is, by any reasonable measure, an unacceptable demand and, if challenged in court, it might well be ruled an unfair restraint of trade. It could not happen in another industry. If a publisher were to say that, by stamping their colophon on my next novel, they want a slice of all my earnings from broadcasting, films, public speaking and Strictly Come Dancing, my US agent would (I imagine) escort him out through her twenty-fifth floor window.
My advice to musicians is: shun Sony and DG until they drop the clause. It is unacceptable, morally, artistically and commercially.
One of the competitors at the Georg Solti Conducting Competition has been in touch to suggest that the results were heavily pressured by a single jury member.
None of the top three finishers expected the Venezuelan José Luis Gomez Rios, 32, to win – and that includes Rios himself. He had booked a flight home after the second round, thinking he had done poorly. He is less experienced than Kevin Griffiths, 32, and Tito Munoz, 27.
Much of the discussion in the jury room centred on the illegitimate rule-bending that allowed Aziz Shokhakimov into the second round without having competed in the first. Other jurors included Sir Roger Norrington, the composer Matthias Pintscher and Lady Solti
No one is willing to point fingers, but there are serious questions to be answered and the man who needs to answer them is Karl Rarichs, the competition’s founder and director (below). Meantime, honest young conductors are flying home claiming they were robbed.
photo: Renate Feyerbacher/Frankfurt-Live
One of the competitors at the Georg Solti Conducting Competition has been in touch to suggest that the results were heavily pressured by a single jury member.
None of the top three finishers expected the Venezuelan José Luis Gomez Rios, 32, to win – and that includes Rios himself. He had booked a flight home after the second round, thinking he had done poorly. He is less experienced than Kevin Griffiths, 32, and Tito Munoz, 27.
Much of the discussion in the jury room centred on the illegitimate rule-bending that allowed Aziz Shokhakimov into the second round without having competed in the first. Other jurors included Sir Roger Norrington, the composer Matthias Pintscher and Lady Solti
No one is willing to point fingers, but there are serious questions to be answered and the man who needs to answer them is Karl Rarichs, the competition’s founder and director (below). Meantime, honest young conductors are flying home claiming they were robbed.
photo: Renate Feyerbacher/Frankfurt-Live
I submit herewith the minutes of a recent staff meeting at one of the world’s leading artist agencies. Item one: pats of butter in the fridge, too many. Item two: new coffee supplier, discuss. Item three: must we still print out every email, incoming and outgoing, in duplicate for archival storage? Item four: need I continue…?
Few will be surprised to discover that music and musicians figure very low on the agenda of an antediluvian industry obsessed with its own comforts and routines. I get about a dozen calls a month from young artists, wondering how to deal with agent attitudes that mock their urgent needs.
…….
To read more, read the October issue of The Strad, out now.
I submit herewith the minutes of a recent staff meeting at one of the world’s leading artist agencies. Item one: pats of butter in the fridge, too many. Item two: new coffee supplier, discuss. Item three: must we still print out every email, incoming and outgoing, in duplicate for archival storage? Item four: need I continue…?
Few will be surprised to discover that music and musicians figure very low on the agenda of an antediluvian industry obsessed with its own comforts and routines. I get about a dozen calls a month from young artists, wondering how to deal with agent attitudes that mock their urgent needs.
…….
To read more, read the October issue of The Strad, out now.
The BBC has added seven more artists to its New Generation scheme, one of the surest routes to classical success – far more assured than most international competitions.
The latest batch are violinists Alexandra Soumm from France and Veronika Eberle from Germany; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt; the innovative Escher String Quartet; and two young British musicians – tenor Ben Johnson and 18-year-old pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. There is also a jazz saxophonist, Shabaka Hutchings, 26.
Past members of the scheme, which runs for two years, include Lisa Batiashvili, the Belcea Quartet, Alice Coote, the Ebene Quartet, Ingrid Fliter, Ilya Gringolts, the Jerusalem Quartet, Paul Lewis, Lisa Milne and Cedric Tiberghien… all now regulars in the hall of fame.
See the press release, and some video, here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/newgenerationartists/
The BBC has added seven more artists to its New Generation scheme, one of the surest routes to classical success – far more assured than most international competitions.
The latest batch are violinists Alexandra Soumm from France and Veronika Eberle from Germany; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt; the innovative Escher String Quartet; and two young British musicians – tenor Ben Johnson and 18-year-old pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. There is also a jazz saxophonist, Shabaka Hutchings, 26.
Past members of the scheme, which runs for two years, include Lisa Batiashvili, the Belcea Quartet, Alice Coote, the Ebene Quartet, Ingrid Fliter, Ilya Gringolts, the Jerusalem Quartet, Paul Lewis, Lisa Milne and Cedric Tiberghien… all now regulars in the hall of fame.
See the press release, and some video, here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/newgenerationartists/
Results just in from a tight finish at the flexi-rules Solti Conducting Competition.
The winner is José Luis Gomez Rios, 32
Second is Kevin Griffiths, 27, a Londoner
Third, and most experienced, is Tito Munoz, 27, US-born and assistant conductor at the Cleveland Orchestra.
A product of the Venezulean Sistema, J-L Gomez Rios studied at the Manhattan School of Music and is now a Spanish citizen. Griffiths put in his apprenticeship with Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, Lothar Zagrosek and David Zinman. Munoz is a Franz-Welser-Möst protege.
No women made it to the finals. Nor did the disputed free-pass second-round candidate.
Here’s the Frankfurt-live report (in German):
http://cms.frankfurt-live.com/front_content.php?idcat=5&idart=45416
Results just in from a tight finish at the flexi-rules Solti Conducting Competition.
The winner is José Luis Gomez Rios, 32
Second is Kevin Griffiths, 27, a Londoner
Third, and most experienced, is Tito Munoz, 27, US-born and assistant conductor at the Cleveland Orchestra.
A product of the Venezulean Sistema, J-L Gomez Rios studied at the Manhattan School of Music and is now a Spanish citizen. Griffiths put in his apprenticeship with Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, Lothar Zagrosek and David Zinman. Munoz is a Franz-Welser-Möst protege.
No women made it to the finals. Nor did the disputed free-pass second-round candidate.
Here’s the Frankfurt-live report (in German):
http://cms.frankfurt-live.com/front_content.php?idcat=5&idart=45416
An informant has mailed me some odd bits of rigging from Frankfurt, where the fifth Georg Solti Conducting Competition is taking place. Apparently, one candidate Aziz Shokhakimov got a free pass into the second round after not competing in the first.
Why and how, read below. But I know what the Old Man would have bellowed if this sort of thing had happened on his watch. And it would not have printable.
On the other hand, young Mr Shokhakimov may be the next Solti.
Here’s the panel of judges:
Michael Dellith
Editor and Critic, Frankfurter Neue Presse
Jörg Färber
Founder and long-time Artistic Director, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
Ingo de Haas
Concertmaster, Frankfurter Museumsorchester
Othmar Mága
Long-time Music Director, Bochumer Symphoniker
Karl Rarichs
Vice chairman,
Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft; Artistic Director, Weilburger Schlosskonzerte
Andrea Zietzschmann
Head of the Music and Orchestras division at Hessischer Rundfunk; General Manager, The Frankfurt Radio Symphony
And here’s the email:
An unprecedented chain of events has occurred at the 5th Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt this week.
Out of 20 candidates in the first round, 10 candidates went through to the second round. A fairly standard scenario, EXCEPT that the last of the 10 candidates of the second round, Aziz Shokhakimov did NOT participate in the first round!
When a member of the jury was asked about this curiosity, this is what he said:
“During the last Solti competition in 2008, we did not admit Mr Shokhakimov into the final. It was very close call, but we felt that he was too young, at the age of 20. He was very very angry with the result, and there was a bit of a scandal. In order to calm the situation, we told him that he could come back to the next competition directly to the second round”
This raises several questions.
First of all, this kind of wild card scenario is not in the competitions rules. Naturally, all sorts of wheeling and dealing goes on at competitions. Yet this is more than a jury liking one candidate over the other for whatever reason. In this situation, the people in the first round did not get a chance to compete with Mr. Shokhakimov. Someone, who has spent time and money to come to this competition, had his/her spot in the second round taken away.
This event casts a shadow on a competition with such a respected name. To see something of this sort in Germany?! That is a bit of culture shock.
The jury also backed itself into a corner. If they do not give Mr. Shokhakimov the first prize now, at the 2010 competition, they can expect a signature scandal, which, as they have demonstrated, will work. This must affect their judgment.
If the jury of the 2008 competition (the same jury, except for one member) felt that he deserved the prize they should have had the guts to give it to Mr Shakhakimov. As it is now, they are covering their mistake at the expense of 2010 competitors who paid their good money and spent time to come to the 2010 competition (not a “replay” of a 2008 competition)
No competition can be 100 percent objective, but the organization has to at least on the exterior show respect of rules and regulations.
An informant has mailed me some odd bits of rigging from Frankfurt, where the fifth Georg Solti Conducting Competition is taking place. Apparently, one candidate Aziz Shokhakimov got a free pass into the second round after not competing in the first.
Why and how, read below. But I know what the Old Man would have bellowed if this sort of thing had happened on his watch. And it would not have printable.
On the other hand, young Mr Shokhakimov may be the next Solti.
Here’s the panel of judges:
Michael Dellith
Editor and Critic, Frankfurter Neue Presse
Jörg Färber
Founder and long-time Artistic Director, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
Ingo de Haas
Concertmaster, Frankfurter Museumsorchester
Othmar Mága
Long-time Music Director, Bochumer Symphoniker
Karl Rarichs
Vice chairman,
Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft; Artistic Director, Weilburger Schlosskonzerte
Andrea Zietzschmann
Head of the Music and Orchestras division at Hessischer Rundfunk; General Manager, The Frankfurt Radio Symphony
And here’s the email:
An unprecedented chain of events has occurred at the 5th Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt this week.
Out of 20 candidates in the first round, 10 candidates went through to the second round. A fairly standard scenario, EXCEPT that the last of the 10 candidates of the second round, Aziz Shokhakimov did NOT participate in the first round!
When a member of the jury was asked about this curiosity, this is what he said:
“During the last Solti competition in 2008, we did not admit Mr Shokhakimov into the final. It was very close call, but we felt that he was too young, at the age of 20. He was very very angry with the result, and there was a bit of a scandal. In order to calm the situation, we told him that he could come back to the next competition directly to the second round”
This raises several questions.
First of all, this kind of wild card scenario is not in the competitions rules. Naturally, all sorts of wheeling and dealing goes on at competitions. Yet this is more than a jury liking one candidate over the other for whatever reason. In this situation, the people in the first round did not get a chance to compete with Mr. Shokhakimov. Someone, who has spent time and money to come to this competition, had his/her spot in the second round taken away.
This event casts a shadow on a competition with such a respected name. To see something of this sort in Germany?! That is a bit of culture shock.
The jury also backed itself into a corner. If they do not give Mr. Shokhakimov the first prize now, at the 2010 competition, they can expect a signature scandal, which, as they have demonstrated, will work. This must affect their judgment.
If the jury of the 2008 competition (the same jury, except for one member) felt that he deserved the prize they should have had the guts to give it to Mr Shakhakimov. As it is now, they are covering their mistake at the expense of 2010 competitors who paid their good money and spent time to come to the 2010 competition (not a “replay” of a 2008 competition)
No competition can be 100 percent objective, but the organization has to at least on the exterior show respect of rules and regulations.
I have just heard that Aharon Appelfeld’s marvellous, muted novel of a spa town that becomes a Holocaust camp is to be staged later this year in London by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
The adaptation is by Sir Arnold Wesker, for 25 actors and nine musicians. The director is Christian Burgess and the music is by Julian Phillips. There will be seven performances at the Barbican between 26 November and 1 December.
Tickets from Barbican Box Office 020 7638 8891 or www.barbican.org; usually available one month before the opening performance. From September, the School will charge £8 (£4 concessions).
Here’s the playwright’s synopsis:
Synopsis
Badenheim is a spa to which middle-class, bohemian Jews have been coming year after year. At its centre is an arts festival. In 1939 strange happenings occur. Sanitary inspectors gradually take over the spa and inform its Jewish residents that soon they’ll be going to Poland.
Barbed wire springs up around the small spa, guard dogs proliferate, other Jews appear, herded into the area, and the Spa’s facilities gradually cease to function.
On the last day all the Jews are marched to the station for transport to Poland. Some are quite looking forward to the journey; in Poland, they think, there will be evening classes to continue their education; an opportunity to learn Yiddish, perhaps. They naturally expect a train will be laid on to take them to their destination.
When cattle trucks draw up, the festival organiser, ever optimistic, observes:
“Well! If the coaches are so dirty it must mean that we have not far to go.”
