Gramophone (magazine)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gramophone
Sep 2006 cover of Gramophone: "British Music Revolution"
Editor-in-chief	James Jolly
Categories	classical music
Frequency	monthly
Publisher	Haymarket
First Issue	1923
Country	England United Kingdom
Language	English
Website	www.gramophone.co.uk
ISSN	unknown

Gramophone is a glossy publication published by Haymarket devoted to classical music and particularly recordings of classical music. It is based in London. Founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie, it is one of the widest circulation periodicals devoted to this genre of music, and considered one of the most prestigious outlets. It gives out "Gramophone Awards" each year to the classical recordings which it considers the finest in a variety of categories.

In the title bar of its website, as of January 2007, Gramophone claims to be: "The world's best classical music magazine". This boast used to appear on the front cover of every issue, although recent editions have changed the wording to "The world's unrivalled authority on classical music since 1923". Its worldwide readership figures appear to have been severely challenged by BBC Music Magazine^[1].

1 Criticism
2 Parody
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Criticism

Perhaps because of its prestige and influence in the classical music world, Gramophone is often attacked, particularly by commentators in the United States.^{[citation needed]} The most common grounds for criticism are a perceived bias towards British composers and performers, an alleged preference for bland, middle-of-the-road performances, and its close commercial relationship with big recording companies such as EMI^[1]. Similar criticisms are also directed at the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs, which is written by a trio of longtime reviewers for Gramophone.

[edit] Parody

Glenn Gould wrote a parody review in the style of Gramophone for the liner notes to his 1968 recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony transcribed for solo piano by Liszt. The review, which purports to be from "the English magazine The Phonograph" includes this passage:

"Unusual recordings of the Beethoven Fifth are, of course, no novelty to the British collector. One calls to mine that elegiac statement Sir Joshua committed to the gramophone in his last years as well as that splendidly spirited rendition transcribed under actual concert conditions by the Newcastle-on-Tyne Light Orchestra upon the occasion of the inadvertent air-alarm of 27 August 1939 [...] The entire undertaking smacks of that incorrigible American pre-occupation with exuberant gesture and is quite lacking in those qualities of autumnal repose which a carefully judged interpretation of this work should offer."^[2]