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Label news: DG signs Norwegian

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norman lebrecht

January 11, 2019

From the violinist Mari Samuelsen:

‘I’ve signed an exclusive artist agreement with Deutsche Grammophon and my new single is out TODAY!’

Comments

anon says:

January 11, 2019 at 3:12 pm

I am most intrigued by the background of the photo, which reveals a lot about DG and the classical music ecosystem today.

So they have Karajan and Mutter’s names front and center in huge print, and in tiny print Hillary Hahn below that, next to what I assume is Rolando Villazon in bigger font, and below them are what appears to be Claudio Abbado in smaller font, next to Netrebko in bigger font, two lines below Karajan.

The hierarchy and font size reveals what about DG today?

That the dead Karajan is still one of DG’s biggest money maker in 2019? How sad is that?

That Mutter makes more money for DG than Karajan today?

That Rolando Villazon sells more for DG than Netrebko and Abbado who are listed below him?

Or maybe that is DG’s ranking of artistic merit of its clients, lol.

Mick the Knife says:

January 12, 2019 at 12:06 am

It’s a German company.

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Richard Craig says:

January 12, 2019 at 3:35 pm

Well anon that’s shows just what a potent figure Karajan was and the fact that his recordings are still in demand today 30 years after his demise clearly shows you what a great conductor he was

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Caravaggio says:

January 11, 2019 at 10:28 pm

I feel sorry for DG, now a shadow of its former self. They are doing well with pianists, violinists and a host of other instrumentalists. So in the instrumental realm they are on solid ground. In the conductor, orchestral rep and vocal realm, however, the train has left the station, empty.