Decca's last valse?

[Mischa]

I'm not into Lebrecht at all, this little piece is a typical Lebrecht: lots of gossip, hardly any information, odd verdicts, mistakes. On the other hand he'd hardly publish news like an upcoming end of DECCA without insider knowledge:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...nce/article.do

If it's true, it's really a sad day seeing such a tradition going down!

[Herzeleide]

The man's an idiot and no one should ever, ever buy any of his books about music (and judging from his books on music, anything at all).

[micrologus]

Sony Classical appoints a new President January 27 2009

Bogdan Roscic, most recently managing director of the Decca Music Group, has been named as the new president of Sony Classical. The appointment will commence on April 6.

The full story:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/newsMain...ewssectionID=1

[haydnguy]

Hey this is old new to Brightceciians!!!!!!!

http://brightcecilia.com/forum/showp...95&postcount=1

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by SchubertGuy

Hey this is old new to Brightceciians!!!!!!!

http://brightcecilia.com/forum/showp...95&postcount=1

Yeah, get with the action Mischa!

[haydnguy]

[otterhouse]

I have called different sources about this. No, Decca will continue, as it seems. But the CLASSICAL branch? (quote:


There will be a tiny office maintained in London for appearance sake
(s poweless manager and his secretary?), but the entire direction of
the classical company - I am not talking about the crossover, which
has been given to the Decca UK operating company - will reside in
Hamburg with DG. This is part of the reason the previous manager
jumped ship to Sony last week; the writing was on the wall, as they
say. The Decca Record Company Limited, as we have known it for
decades, based in Chiswick, producing an endless stream of with a
staff of 40 talented and knowledgeable people, is history.

Philips will dissapear completely. They were on a low level anyway, but universal lost the right to use the name. By july 2009, al stocks MUST have been sold. I'm curious were they will dump it....

Rolf

[Chi_town/Philly]

Originally Posted by otterhouse

Philips will disappear completely. They were on a low level anyway, but universal lost the right to use the name.

Y'mean they haven't, yet?!

Honestly, though, how much Philips stuff has been rebranded either as 'Budget Universal' or under a sibling label (e.g.: the Decca-labelled, buzzworthy 'Wagner Cube,' containing the Böhm Ring & the Sawallisch 'hybrid' Tannhäuser, among other former Philips performances).

Who's to say that some Decca stuff won't eventually be rebranded under DG (or Universal)? It does seem like one less distributional conduit for that material, though.

[Philidor]

More Lebrecht on the death of Decca. I think he's right to castigate them about this.

The sad news has just reached me of the deaths, within days of each other, of the last two stalwarts of the Decca golden age - Jimmy Lock, the chief sound engineer, and Christopher Raeburn, the label's driving-force producer....

Why are you reading of their deaths here? Because no-one at Decca has put out a press release on the passing of these company lions. Decca, as I've reported, has been eviscerated by corporate paper-shifters at its Universal owners and no longer functions coherently.

Decca, sad to say, is deader than Jimmy and Chris, whose work will live on. The label has lost its classical core, its educational drive, most of its staff and the last relics of its soul. Hard-copy evidence of the Decca Sound and the Decca style will outlast the label's bonus-seeking executioners.

Source