Label news: Chandos is sold
NewsOne of the last independent classical labels, the sturdy Essex marque Chandos, has followed Hyperion and BIS into the hands of strangers.
Chandos was sold today to the Naxos founder Klaus Heymann.
Over 44 years, Chandos has amassed a catalogue of 3,000 recordings, serving as a launchpad for such epochal artists as Mariss Jansons, Neeme Jarvi, Edward Gardner and the late Richard Hickox.
Here is what Chandos owner Ralph Couzens (pictured), son of the founder Brian Couzens,, is telling his industry colleagues:
I wanted to be the first to tell you some important news at Chandos.
As I’m sure you have noticed that the music industry is changing not only with the listening habits of consumers i.e. income from digital not making up the difference in the demise of CD sales, but also with cultural funding cuts happening all over the place.
You will also have noticed that two very important independent classical labels were sold in the last year or so, Hyperion to Universal and BIS to Apple. It’s getting harder for record labels too.
Chandos being the only large Indie left has made me think about my own future. I’m getting on in years and have to think about my eventual retirement. Unfortunately, I don’t have the next generation of Couzens interested in continuing the running of the business so I have been looking elsewhere for someone that believes in us.
However, I do not want to see Chandos disappear into a large corporate institution losing its identity for ever. The most important thing for me was the continuation of the brand and all it stood for, supporting our artists with freedom of programming in the highest quality product.
So, it’s with enormous relief and pleasure that I have found a home for Chandos with someone that shares the same values as me. I can announce that as of today we are now owned by Klaus Heymann, the founder of the Naxos group.
He is so passionate about classical music and recorded media that he personally invested his own money in the purchase, i.e. it was not purchased by the Naxos group.
He wants the brand to continue with the same attention to quality and detail that made Chandos what it is today and in so doing has insisted that I stay on as Managing Director continuing the work that my father started 44 years ago. I have of course accepted and will stay for as long as I am able to, keeping all artists and my creative team that you know and work with.
I suppose if it the Chandos label had to be sold to someone, better Naxos than, for instance, Sony.
I misread the article and have been corrected by Thula Mhlope, below. “Chandos was purchased by Klaus Heymann himself, not by the Naxos Group.”
There’s always a bigger fish.
Chandos was purchased by Klaus Heymann himself, not by the Naxos Group.
Wonderful that someone so passionate about classical music has done this, rather than having the label ‘absorbed’ by a large group.
Sounds like it will be in good hands.
Chances might not have launched Rohzdestvensky, but it certainly brought us some of his finest recordings.
Sold to a man who seems to have passed the age of 85! Can we call this a perennial solution? And not necessarily the kind of guy who would have built a label of the quality of Chandos…
Another feather in Klaus Heymannn’s cap. Over the last nearly 4 decades he has almost single handedly revolutionized recorded music, not merely through the Naxos label but the vast number of others his company distributes, his commitment to making Naxos recordings available for educational purposes and being one of the first to realise the value of streaming.
Nearly 15 years ago I visited the Iguazu Falls and stayed at a lovely guesthouse whose owner loved classical music. He said he did not know where he would be without his Naxos subscription. I wrote to Klaus Heymann merely to tell him he had reached into the depths of the South American jungle. He then generously gave the man a year’s free subscription.
The breadth of Naxos’ catalogue is testament to Heymann’s love of and commitment to all forms of classical music. Chandos will be in good hands.
Chandos was already a shadow of its former self, IMO. There was a drastic change in the early millennium when they suddenly gave up on composers like Schnittke (leaving an acclaimed symphony cycle incomplete), Gubaidulina, etc. In spite of looking at their new releases each month for twenty years, I have almost never seen anything I wanted to buy.
It sound like you have less interest in exploring the more tonal 20th C avenues. This was one of their original priorities (Couzens himself said of the 20th C: “We are more on the romantic side”) and for me still continues to be one of their great strengths.
The mature Schnittke and Gubaidulina repertoire Chandos recorded was on the tonal side, though. We’re not talking Boulez or Stockhausen here. Another composer they recorded often but suddenly gave up on around 2004 (change of ownership then?) was Per Nørgård, who has consistently defended tonality even when it was most unfashionable in European modernist circles.
From the picture above, Mr. Couzens looks a fair bit younger than Mr. Heymann who is 87 years of age. Hopefully the future of the brand will be in younger hands at some point.
As a one-time toiler in the Classical indie world, I always respected Chandos and their personal and artistic integrity. This sounds like the best of the possible outcomes.
Having known Klaus personally and his passion for classical music, Chandos will be in good hands.
I don’t think Naxos has ever committed any of the gross musical indecencies only too typical of Universal. Or Sony.
Date: 6th March 2024.
I’ll take this opportunity in wishing Chandos well under its new owner. Klaus Haymann has facilitated some truly wonderful and intriguing recordings of repertoire which, otherwise, would never have seen the light of day.
Now, on a personal note, I’ll issue a plea to the Chandos team. Isn’t it more than high time Nicholas Maw’s mighty “Odyssey” was recorded anew? Although Sir Simon Rattle’s CBSO version (for EMI: 1991) is excellent, there is a disfiguring cut to the Introduction which, in my view, damages Odyssey’s structure. Although the work is long, every note matters, believe me.
Chandos: please give this matter very serious consideration. I’m sure orchestras would welcome the challenge.
Odyssey was the slowwest selling recording in the history of EMI. Why try again?
I made a huge effort and listened to it once. Never again.
From: Richard Stanbrook.
6th March 2024.
In response to Norman Lebrecht’s comment, I find it sad to read such negativity. Yes – Maw’s “Odyssey” is long and, thus, demands a great amount of concentration to stay the course. Yes – to rehearse and record this masterpiece is a daunting prospect, including assembly of the vast orchestra. Perhaps UK classical music buffs feel that large-scale works are unfashionable in these austere times.
There are some European and USA record companies which would relish the challenge. (It’s worth pointing out that Nicholas Maw spent his last year’s in America where he was regarded very highly). Maybe there is some demand to record his major orchestral oeuvre. I, for one, would be among the first to purchase such a set. But, of course, I am out of touch with contemporary fads and fashions …
Not negative, just cold reality. If I remember rightly, Maw’s Oydssey sold 90 CDs in its first year.
Chandos = Reggie’s Ring! And that wonderful Mastersingers from Sadler’s Wells…
Naxos now rules the roost in independent label classical music. Heyman has mastered the buyout contract and has employed thousands of former Soviet bloc orchestra members for his recordings. Most of the performances are quite good and or passable; for the money, why not. It would be interesting to see the language in the contract of the continuation of the Chandos label, artists and orchestras before we make further comment. I suggest he may use this label for his upmarket products; if so all is not lost.
Couzen’s ‘enormous relief’ that his label is in safe hands for years to come should be tempered by the reality that buyer Klaus Heymann is 87 years old.