Gramophone

Gramophone has been published in England and elsewhere going back to the days of 78s and the gramophone, and it is still one of the leading classical music and equipment publications in the world. I'd say it is pretty easily the most expensive, too.

You get a lot for your money -about 200 pages in each issue with over 120 CD review plus up to a half-dozen extra pages of "replay" reviews, or reviews of CDs that have either recently been reissued (this is about 60 percent of all classical CDs) or CDs the writer thought were so special (s)he had to talk about them again.

In addition, there are more pages of advertising from CD companies in this magazine than in any other magazine, plus listings of all CDs issued that month in both the UK and USA. On this count it is the most complete review of new recordings available in the classical music industry.

I have subscribed for about a half-dozen years and still enjoy the magazine, although I am beginning to feel some oversaturation. I do not, however, enjoy the look of the magazine after its redesign of 18-24 months ago. It is far more "white" that I recall and not as easily readable. I also do not care for their three column production model, but that's just me.

A lot of Americans are put off by the way this magazine seems to be in bed with the music industry, also. Its editor, James Jolly, is pretty much a shill for the British music industry. I suppose this comes in part from survival instinct and in part because of the gentlemanly ways of Englishmen, who don't seem to value the independence Americans love. Most American publications do everything possible to distance themselves from the business side of the industry they cover.

On balance, this is a worthy magazine and one that probably is without peer in the classical music industry. There are plenty of other publications that reguarly review classcial CDs including a number of Internet sources, but do it as completely as Gramophone.

If you think the $77 subscription cost is pricey, pick one up in a store and see if you like it first. Be prepared, however, to pay up to $9 for that single issue, for this is a very pricey magazine.

GRAMOPHONE has been around as long as recordings have been available, informing the public about the new releases, providing cogent, intelligent reviews, giving the UK/European outlook on things musical, and in general being the bible for music review magazines. In recent years it has added interviews with living composers and artists and others involved in music and in doing so it has been able to secure its position on the newsstands and in subscriptions when everyone seems to be ignoring the printed word and opting for ezines. Yes the price of the magazine is high, but the quality of writing is also high. And may it never come to a point when all of our information about the arts is relegated to the computer. It is nice to have journals of this quality to read, re-read, and to at times save for personal libraries when such articles as those about John Adams come 'round. This is a journal worth the price!

Buy Gramophone Now

Conventional wisdom and damned statistics conspire to persuade that the population of classical music listeners is declining measurably year upon year. You'd never know it from reading GRAMOPHONE. Readers are typically devotees of the musical form and not about to let the rest of the world persuade them that their devotion is misplaced or--horrors--out of date. GRAMOPHONE obliges them with passionate coverage of the artists, the music, and the industry.

A case can be made that the monthly cds alone are worth the formidable price of a subscription. For those who are open to the argument, the interview of an eminent Beethoven critic on the September disk is likely to be seen as irrefutable evidence, such is the passion and understanding on display there.

The features make for fine reading and occasional riveting insight into the lives of composers and artists. The reviews are the spine of the publication.

That the population of not-what-it-used-to-be critics of this publication is so large is perhaps as much evidence of the traditionalist preferences that season our aesthetics as of any actual decline in the magazine.

For this reviewer--like many GRAMOPHONE readers a passionate amateur who can scarcely imagine life without this living legacy of music--the magazine remains a fascinating distraction and welcome visitor to my mailbox.

Read Best Reviews of Gramophone Here

The legend goes that there was a time a few decades ago when "The Gramophone" was the unquestioned authority for reviews of recordings of classical music.

Whether or not that legend is true (I'm too young to know), Gramophone's time has definitely passed. Today there is a multitude of sources of free information on classical music on the internet, from newsgroups to websites. Some of it is less well-informed than Gramophone's criticism, but some of it is more well-informed. What is undeniable is that, for the price of a few mouse-clicks, it is possible to find a far greater range of reviews of recordings on the Internet than Gramophone (with its British-based critics) can offer.

What is more, Gramophone is tied to a business-model for the classical music industry that is fast becoming obsolete. Historically, the most important classical recordings were issued by a few so-called "major" companies such as EMI, Deutsche Grammophon and CBS (later Sony). These "majors" would buy lavish advertising spreads in Gramophone and so finance the magazine. In return, Gramophone would devote lengthy reviews to the majors' new releases and would produce pages of fluffy interviews with musicians under contract to the majors.

Today the situation is different. The most interesting new release is more likely to appear as a MP3 on an obscure Russian website than on a new CD from Sony. Small companies, dedicated solely to classical music recordings, produce great results on shoestring budgets while the "major" corporations have virtually abandoned new classical recordings.

This development causes problems for Gramophone's business model. The new players in the classical music industry don't have the publicity budgets to fund a glossy magazine like Gramophone through advertising. With Gramophone's implicit bargain: "advertise with us or we won't review your recordings", the magazine seems to be becoming more and more irrelevant.

If you want to subscribe to a classical music periodical, I recommend "International Record Review" or "Fanfare". Both offer substantially more reviews per month than Gramophone. But most of all, I suggest checking out the huge range of classical music information available for free on the web and usenet.

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