This week I’ve been trying to find out what happened to the album of Mozart piano and violin sonatas that the wonderful Viennese violinist
Erich Höbarth and I made in 2012. (That’s us in the photo.) It was compiled from live recordings of a concert series we performed in Perth Concert Hall in Scotland. That series got five-star reviews, and we wanted to preserve a souvenir of it.
At the time, we were advised that CDs were fading and the smart choice would be to ‘go straight to download’. This was possible via CD Baby, an American company which offers a platform for musicians to upload their own music or performances.
BBC Radio 3’s respected ‘Record Review’ programme gave our download a very nice mention when it was first available. CD Baby shared it across multiple platforms. But it seemed our classical audience was not keen on ‘download only’. People kept asking us if a physical CD was available (it wasn’t). We struggled to know how to publicise our recording.
Recently I had a revealing conversation with an industry insider about algorithms and how they work to promote new recordings, with older ones being pushed gradually down the list, making them hard to stumble across. I realised what had happened with our Mozart recording from ten years ago. Publicity was clearly needed.
So here I am to give it a boost (or to ‘re-up’ it, as they say). First of all, here’s an excerpt on You Tube.
You can buy a single track, or any number of tracks up to the whole nine. You can get the recording on Amazon here, on Spotify here, on Apple Music here, and so on.
Here’s to a new lease of life for this lovely recording!
I’ve just bought a copy! Bringing back memories of a live concert at Wigmore Hall, I seem to remember.
Thanks Susan! I’m enjoying listening to this right now on Spotify.
Of course, none of your recordings with the Florestan or Domus are available for streaming, as Hyperion doesn’t stream. I listen every month to Hyperion’s samples of new releases on their website – but those are only one-minute excerpts. While I understand the economic arguments against streaming, I wonder if Hyperion are missing a trick by not making at least a sampler of new releases available for streaming, to reach a wider (and more diverse?) audience.
There’s an interesting letters strand in the last few issues of the BBC Music Magazine on CDs vs download and streaming – it’s interesting how many of the letter writers are dead against streaming. Personally, I mix it up – vinyl, CDs and streaming.
I know that lots of people would like Hyperion records to be available on streaming platforms. Recently it was announced that Hyperion had been sold to Universal. Perhaps Universal will take a different line on making the Hyperion catalogue available.
I’m sure Hyperion had good reasons for wanting to stay outside the streaming model, but from the artists’ point of view it is sometimes frustrating that these excellent discs are not more widely available – simply because it would bring them to a wider audience, as you point out.
Yes, the Mozart recording could certainly do with more publicity!
This blog entry sent me back to my e-mail to you of 2 May 2013 about the recording:
…..
“Thanks *so much* for the link to your e-album, have just downloaded it as MP320 and FLAC … I’m really over the moon about having these recordings, as I would have loved to be at the Perth concerts, as a fan of the Quatuor Mosaïques as well (I have all their Haydns) … The quality of the FLAC is beautifully clear and detailed.”
….
all best
Michael
I believe it was with Erich that you also did the Schubert Fantasy in C… I have been dreaming of hearing it and I wish that it had been released on CD.
Ah, yes, unfortunately it wasn’t recorded. And I would dread to record it, because accuracy is important in a recording designed to last, and the Schubert Fantasy is technically very difficult, making it unlikely to be perfect on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th take, etc.