Gramophone signs a death certificate

Slipped Disc editorial:

The award of Recording of the Year to Claudio Abbado, who died before the year began in January 2014, exposes much that has gone madly wrong with the classical music industry.

Abbado, 80 when he died, was much loved and admired. But to acclaim his valedictory concert as superior to the work of every surviving artist and orchestra is to imply that classical recording itself has died, with the death certificate signed by its tunnel-visioned parish magazine.

To living artists, this award by Gramophone and its regular critics is an insult. To the dead, an unearned tribute.

The classical music industry, like a wacky religious cult, worships the dead. No wonder it’s in a hole.

Time to stop digging.