Search - Vienna Philharmonics, Kempe :: Viennese Bonbons

More Classic Kempe, But...,

Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 12/16/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Testament has become one of my favorite classical labels, despite the fact that its CDs sell at full-price. This company prides itself on licensing classic recordings from the vaults of labels like EMI and Decca, performances that the big boys won't reissue not because of their musical quality, but because of their lack of profitability. Recently, though they have also started issuing CDs that were once available on EMI but that have been deleted sometime within in the last ten years. From an idealistic viewpoint, I'm delighted that they are doing this -- I'd like to see everything in print -- but from a financial perspective I just don't get it. I imagine that Testament will have a tough time selling these CD reissues because the serious classical collectors, whom I assume make up the majority of their constituency, undoubtedly bought these titles in their initial offering on disc.



Take this CD's performances of Strauss Waltzes and other Viennese Favorites for example. These brilliant golden-age stereo performances by Rudolf Kempe and Vienna Philharmonic have been available on CD before in the original EMI Seraphim 2CD series. Despite the fact that it is now out of print, used copies of that title are still floating around in the Amazon Marketplace for one-quarter the cost of this disc! In all, Testament is great label and I'd like them to continue making rare recordings available. Yet if they keep reprinting deleted CDs, instead of rescuing obscure gems from the vaults to make available on CD for the first time, then I'm not sure how much longer they will be around for our listening enjoyment."