The money behind Vienna’s New Year’s Day concert
mainSources in the Vienna Philharmonic tell us that Sony Classical paid them a record amount for world rights in yesterday’s event.
This is surely nothing to do with imminent arrival of the head of Sony Classical, Bodgan Roscic, as director of the Vienna State Opera, where maintaining a good working relationship with the orchestra will be one of his priorities.
This year’s conductor, Andris Nelsons, is under contract to Deutsche Grammophon and has recently recorded the Beethoven symphonies for DG with the Vienna Phil. That, too, may have been a factor in Sony’s eagerness to win the bidding war over the only classical release which can nowadays be guaranteed instant sales – in Asia, at least.
Sony has no conductors of its own.
And the maestro name plays a big part in guaranteeing Asian sales. That’s why the VPO have announced Riccardo Muti for 2021. He’s a known commodity in Japan, unlike some younger contenders such as Kirill Petrenko, Currentzis and Mirga. Any of those three would have set the heart pounding.
But that’s not what New Year’s about.
It’s just business.
photo: Vienna Phil/Linke
Comments