Brilliant Classics
Posted by: throbnorth on 21 December 2002
Recordings released under this label have popped in and out on the forum - astonishing value, often difficult to find etc.
On a visit to a friend in Groningen, earlier this year, a knowledgeable friend filled me in a little on their background [this is his version, - I wouldn't claim it's necessarily accurate, & Dutch memebers may enlighten me further]. It seems the whole enterprise is the philanthropic work of the owner of a chain of discount chemists in the Netherlands [it says Kruidvat on some of my price stickers, but maybe that's not the chain merely the Dutch for 'price' - who knows], with a desire to make available excellent recordings at minimal cost to his customers, thus increasing the sum of human happiness etc] . To this end, he either commissions original recordings, or licences others from small, often British, independent labels and whacks them out at extraordinarily low prices. As a CD costs 10p to press, you can see that even at Brilliant's prices there is space for a profit, even given the philanthropy. The way it operates is that a certain number of each recording are pressed up and distributed to stores. When these are gone, then that's it. No reissues, nothing.
In the Netherlands, it seems the music press & critics were initially sceptical, but after a quick listen they very soon came round and began to haunt their local branch with the fervour of a pensioner on the tack of Saturday afternoon supermarket markdowns. And who can blame them?
On My trip to Groningen, I picked up a 10-CD set of 'Famous Dutch Organs' for about £8, which is beautifully recorded and has excellent performances from Ton Koopman downwards [doesn't maybe sound that exciting, but there is a particularly fascinating group of organs in the north of the Netherlands all built around the same period, which if you are an organ fan are hot stuff] - so you can see we're not talking just mainstream classical pops here.
On the same trip I got Vol 2 of a COMPLETE Scarlatti set for £2 [double CD, which although arranged chronologically rather than as a programme, which is a shame] by someone called Pieter-Jan Belder. It's excellent. These are examples of the specially commissioned stuff, but Nimbus, Hyperion et al. loom large in their releases as well.
Imagine my delight on finding out that this same Dutch chemist is the parent company of UK's Superdrug, and that some stuff finds its way to UK outlets at the same ludicrous prices. Not the range available over there [no complete Mozart edition, for example], but last week on a Christmas shopping binge I chanced into Superdrug and got a double Purcell [Sacred Music, Music for the funeral of Queen Mary, Songs, Music from Diocletian, Music from Timon of Athens - featuring Michael Chance, Maggie Cole, Crispian Steele-Perkins, Miscellany, Baroque Brass of London etc etc ] for ..... wait for it... £2.50. Also a beautiful double of Chopin & Field Nocturnes, on fortepiano & early pianoforte by [unknown to me] Bart van Oort. The Field is beautiful, the Chopin OK, but fortepiano isn't really me [and I've tried].
Also spotted - an eight disc set of Vivaldi [not Four Seasons] by Iona Brown / Academy of St Martins In the Fields, which must be orginally Argo, I imagine] for £6, and a few others which I can't remember.
The point of this thread is to ask for any interesting sightings to be reported. I don't visit Superdrug that regularly, but would get in the car and zoom to Putney immediately if I knew that real bargains were to be had.
And BTW, can anybody give me a source for the Shostakovitch?
throb
On a visit to a friend in Groningen, earlier this year, a knowledgeable friend filled me in a little on their background [this is his version, - I wouldn't claim it's necessarily accurate, & Dutch memebers may enlighten me further]. It seems the whole enterprise is the philanthropic work of the owner of a chain of discount chemists in the Netherlands [it says Kruidvat on some of my price stickers, but maybe that's not the chain merely the Dutch for 'price' - who knows], with a desire to make available excellent recordings at minimal cost to his customers, thus increasing the sum of human happiness etc] . To this end, he either commissions original recordings, or licences others from small, often British, independent labels and whacks them out at extraordinarily low prices. As a CD costs 10p to press, you can see that even at Brilliant's prices there is space for a profit, even given the philanthropy. The way it operates is that a certain number of each recording are pressed up and distributed to stores. When these are gone, then that's it. No reissues, nothing.
In the Netherlands, it seems the music press & critics were initially sceptical, but after a quick listen they very soon came round and began to haunt their local branch with the fervour of a pensioner on the tack of Saturday afternoon supermarket markdowns. And who can blame them?
On My trip to Groningen, I picked up a 10-CD set of 'Famous Dutch Organs' for about £8, which is beautifully recorded and has excellent performances from Ton Koopman downwards [doesn't maybe sound that exciting, but there is a particularly fascinating group of organs in the north of the Netherlands all built around the same period, which if you are an organ fan are hot stuff] - so you can see we're not talking just mainstream classical pops here.
On the same trip I got Vol 2 of a COMPLETE Scarlatti set for £2 [double CD, which although arranged chronologically rather than as a programme, which is a shame] by someone called Pieter-Jan Belder. It's excellent. These are examples of the specially commissioned stuff, but Nimbus, Hyperion et al. loom large in their releases as well.
Imagine my delight on finding out that this same Dutch chemist is the parent company of UK's Superdrug, and that some stuff finds its way to UK outlets at the same ludicrous prices. Not the range available over there [no complete Mozart edition, for example], but last week on a Christmas shopping binge I chanced into Superdrug and got a double Purcell [Sacred Music, Music for the funeral of Queen Mary, Songs, Music from Diocletian, Music from Timon of Athens - featuring Michael Chance, Maggie Cole, Crispian Steele-Perkins, Miscellany, Baroque Brass of London etc etc ] for ..... wait for it... £2.50. Also a beautiful double of Chopin & Field Nocturnes, on fortepiano & early pianoforte by [unknown to me] Bart van Oort. The Field is beautiful, the Chopin OK, but fortepiano isn't really me [and I've tried].
Also spotted - an eight disc set of Vivaldi [not Four Seasons] by Iona Brown / Academy of St Martins In the Fields, which must be orginally Argo, I imagine] for £6, and a few others which I can't remember.
The point of this thread is to ask for any interesting sightings to be reported. I don't visit Superdrug that regularly, but would get in the car and zoom to Putney immediately if I knew that real bargains were to be had.
And BTW, can anybody give me a source for the Shostakovitch?
throb