Maestro is risen in US classical charts
mainA month before Christmas, what’s peaking on the Nielsen Soundscan graphs?
At number 1, the complete Andrea Bocelli.
At 2, 10 years of Andre Rieu.
At 3, Christmas at Harvard.
At 4, Britain’s Got Talent singer Jonathan Antoine.
The first two albums sold over 2,500 copies last week. The next two fewer than 500.
A DG Christmas album of maestro highlights is abbreviated on the Nielsen charts as: ‘Karajan – The Christ’.
Total sales: 293.
I have mixed feelings about Karajan. He was, after all, a Nazi collaborator…..
For a more reasonable take on this aspect of HvK read John Culshaw’s brilliantly written but sadly incomplete “Putting the Record Straight” Culshaw was a fighter pilot in WW2 and in many ways shaped by his wartime experiences and certainly not afflicted with armchair cozyness of criticism in hindsight etc.
Rattle is also spot -on when it comes to discussing this area.
And they say opera is dead. All the MET has to do to fill the house is to book Bocelli, conducted by Rieu, singing nothing but Christmas songs, in front of a panel of 3 judges who will start crying as soon as Boccelli hits a high note (any high note, it doesn’t matter which).
Ha! Norman can close this thread now. Herrera wins.
Not true. Just an old myth, refuted already decennia ago.
My comment was upon the one by Boring Fileclerk.
Bocelli, Rieu and non-talented soap opera. Give people shit and they’ll think they’re eating chocolate. And Karajan is a Nazi or the Christ?… Have you ever cared to realize that they don’t create quality anymore? So, great, Karajan was 25 when Hitler came to power. I’d love to see what any hypocritical ass-kisser and career sodomist today would have done in his place in his time!!!