“Nothing changes, but everything is different. It was not easy to transfer virtuosity to streaming. “We solve the challenge by being faithful to our founding philosophy: combining musical talent and the best technology,” said the president of Deutsche Grammophon (DG), Clemens Trautmann, at the reception for the 125th anniversary of his label. “It’s about offering musical exquisiteness with maximum technological innovation,” according to Frank Briegmann, director of Universal Music Group in Europe, the giant to which the historic German label belongs.
Both Trautmann and Briegmann served as hosts at the reception prior to the anniversary concert on December 6, the official birthday of Deutsche Grammophon. It was at the Konzerthaus in the German capital, headquarters of the German label, under the direction of Joana Mallwitz, 36 years old and main director of the house. In accordance with DG’s renewed philosophy, the gala was globalized through its most pampered instrument, the Stage+ application. It will be reproduced in that same way on successive days. Other anniversary concerts scheduled on different continents will follow. Next Saturday, in Philadelphia, with the Spanish violinist María Dueñas, and on the 15th in Seoul, conducted by the Icelandic Víkingur Ólafsson.
In 1913 the label released its first unabridged concert recording, Beehoven’s Fifth Symphony.
“Our headquarters are in the German capital, but the market is global. And in the classical field we are clear that streaming is essential,” Trautmann continued. Deutsche Grammophon and its yellow seal For decades they were an inexcusable presence on the shelves of any home more or less addicted to music, in disc or later CD format. It premiered on Spotify and other platforms a few years ago. But with the 125th anniversary, it has extended that dominance as a formula for the future for a brand that boasts of being “the Rolls Royce of record labels.” -in the words of Briegmann- and open to “musicians who go beyond the classic” in a market in which “the borders of genres are diluted.”
Joana Mallwitz, the first woman to become chief conductor of the historic Berlin Konzerthaus orchestra, is insistently compared to the tyrannical conductor played by Cate Blanchett in “Tár”
Mallwitz and the inevitable parallelism with Blanchett
Joana Mallwitz (Hildesheim, 1986) was presented last June as the first woman to become chief conductor of the historic Berlin Konzerthaus orchestra. Since then she has been insistently compared to the tyrannical fictional director played by Cate Blanchett in “Tár.” It has been of little use that she has explained that she has not seen that film: on stage, her physical complexion and gestures condemn her to the inevitable parallelism with that Blanchett character. Tall, slender and blonde, she becomes a kind of hypnotic goddess before the orchestra, who pampers each of her musicians with maternal instinct.
Their anniversary concert was classical in nature, from Brahms to Beethoven and Mahler. He counted on the Korean violinist Bomsori Kim, the Austrian cellist Kian Soltani, the pianists Rafal Blechacz and Bruce Liuin addition to the baritone André Schuen. All of them, like Mallwitz herself, representatives of the generation of young and impeccably attractive musicians, also physically. Very much in line with what names like Anne Sophie-Mutter, still today a standard bearer of sexy combined with virtuosity, as were Herbert von Karajan or Leonard Bernstein.
It all started with the gramophone
The birth certificate of Deutsche Grammophon dates from Saint Nicholas Day, December 6, 1898. That day, Emil Berliner and his brother Josef registered in Hannover the record label that revolutionized classical musical culture in Germany. Emil Berliner, born in Hannover in 1851 and of Jewish origin, is considered the inventor of the perfected gramophone technique.. His first “album” It developed between his workshop at the family factory and a stay in the United States, where he emigrated to avoid Prussian military conscription. There he perfected Thomas Alva Edison’s sonograph by modifying the angle of the needle and He patented it again in Germany in 1887 as a gramophone. Two years later he began producing his first albums.
His lever to success was provided by a first contract: with the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, in 1902. Four years later he had 200 presses in his Hannover factory for the production of records; In 1913 he released his first unabridged concert recording, Beehoven’s Fifth Symphony, with Arthur Nikisch conducting the Berlin Philharmonic.
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It was a multiple ownership company between Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom, which after the First World War cost it the seizure of assets. But The real blow of history was precipitated by the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, in 1933, and his subsequent “arization” campaign. of the German cultural fabric. Musicians, composers and creators of Jewish origin were banned. Deutsche Grammophon’s production collapsed. After the Nazi Capitulation it passed into Allied guardianship, it met successive owners and investors, until in the 1950s the German Ernst von Siemens redirected it towards success.
It established itself as a label that brings together the greats of the classical circuit with the most advanced sound engineering techniques and the publication of iconic albums under its emblematic yellow seal. About a year ago it launched the Stage+ platform, it offers almost infinite playlists, documentation and archives, it has its channel on Amazon Music and its Google Arts & Culture gallery. As far as Germany is concerned, 80% of its turnover still comes from the recording segment, compared to 20% from the digital offering. In the United States the percentage tends to be reversed: 60% now belongs to the digital territory. That is the trend on a global scale. But the old gramophone from Berliner’s workshop remains as a sign of unquestionable identity.