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Posted by Rob Barnett This delight in reading literate, detailed and well-informed reviews and being intrigued by exotica advertised by the likes of Harold Moores, EMG, Direction Dean Street, Gramex etc continued into the late 1980s. The pleasure in reading somehow entwined itself with the pleasure of listening to music. Then, gradually, two things happened to Gramophone: reviews, features and information shrank and it dawned on me that the world of recordings was a much richer place than Gramophone would have had us believe. Where were the reviews of the French, American and Scandinavian LPs? I found a copy of the Schwann catalog in a jazz shop and discovered there were many other realms of music. Why were so many smaller labels' LPs relegated to collective ghettos at the back or listed as received but not reviewed, film music was sniffily treated as were many bargain price issues. Of course there is never enough space to review everything but Gramophone could selectively have spread its wings in the main review section. This coincided with friends in the USA and Scandinavia sending me cassettes of broadcasts and copies of LPs and 78s. Horizons were expanding - Gramophone was not. There were exceptions to the sliding decline, of course, including David Fanning's Gramophone feature on the rarer Soviet symphonies but the decline overall seemed terminal. The glossier Gramophone became, the less the substance; the less the interest in engaging me with provocative and new information - with Reithian education and stimulation. Fanfare, which I discovered by accident, was far more adventurous and satisfying - although I eventually gave up on that as well. Had Records and Recordings not died the death in the early 1980s I would have stuck with that in preference to Gramophone - who else would have carried Richard D C Noble's superb review of American classical LPs issued by SPAMH? IRR has too few reviews and too few pages for my liking but it has a good sense of editorial direction - long may it continue. My last subscription to Gramophone expired in the mid-1990s and when I have glanced at copies since I have had little cause to regret the decision and, by contrast, every reason to take some pleasure in the achievement of MusicWeb since 1998. Of course we are fallible but we remain detailed in our provision of discographical information (trainspotting anorak that I am), open to correction and to differing opinions on the worth of music and its performances, not backward-looking, communicative of the multifold pleasures of music, for the most part not parochial and certainly not in an exclusive way, accommodating of new music and 'old' new music and ambitious in our attitude to discovery. As for Gramophone, its approval or otherwise of recordings needs to be taken with the same oxygen-rich scepticism as that of any 'authority' ... including MusicWeb. Ultimately you make up your own mind but in the case of MusicWeb we have the space to be expansive and informative, the confidence to voice a dissenting opinion, the collective knowledge to be authoritative (we ride on the shoulders of the many giants among the volunteer reviewers), a receptive and uncondescending attitude and above all an adventurous spirit. Long may Len Mullenger's achievement continue. Rob Barnett
on December 17, 2006, 8:02 pm, in reply to "The Decline of Gramophone"
Message modified by board administrator December 17, 2006, 8:29 pm
Like John and Patrick, I too used to be a subscriber to Gramophone. It was my guide and a large part of my musical education (such as it is) from the early 1970s onwards. As a student from 1969 through to 1978 I eagerly snapped up and read Gramophone from cover to cover - every issue. I even succumbed to buying collections of mouldering 1950s and 1960s issues secondhand and poring over these. I bought special Gramophone binders although never the indices.
Classical Editor, MusicWeb International
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