Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla Signs with DG

[Modernistfan]

The rising young conductor ​Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, now music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (the post from which Simon Rattle rose to stardom) has signed a contract with Deutsche Grammophon, supposedly the first woman conductor to sign with that label. Her first recording is to be the Weinberg Symphony No. 21 ("Kaddish") and Weinberg's Symphony No. 2. She will also record music by the Lithuanian composer ​Raminta Šerkšnytė (at least I can copy those names and don't have to type them out with those diacritical marks) with a Lithuanian orchestra and British composers with the CBSO (can we possibly hope for Peter Racine Fricker?).
This was announced on Norman Lebrecht's blog, and the optimism that this gives me was, unfortunately, dissipated by Lebrecht's own tone that the classical recording business is dead (if it is, someone forgot to inform my bank), sneering at the repertoire by posters, and the usual rumblings from the "women can't conduct" crowd. I, for one, am looking to buy these recordings.

[Modernistfan]

More nasty comments sneering about the quality of the CBSO and suggesting that Deutsche Grammophon would be slumming to have them on their label. Seemingly, according to such comments, the only worthwhile orchestras for DG would be the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic (maybe the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra). The reality is that the quality of orchestral execution is higher than ever and there is no reason why the CBSO should not be on the label. It's undoubtedly at least as good as Gothenburg, who recorded a lot for DG under ​​Neeme Järvi.

[maestrob]

More nasty comments sneering about the quality of the CBSO and suggesting that Deutsche Grammophon would be slumming to have them on their label. Seemingly, according to such comments, the only worthwhile orchestras for DG would be the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic (maybe the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra). The reality is that the quality of orchestral execution is higher than ever and there is no reason why the CBSO should not be on the label. It's undoubtedly at least as good as Gothenburg, who recorded a lot for DG under ​​Neeme Järvi.

You won't get such nasty comments from me about the CBSO, that's for sure. Rattle made many fine recordings of XXth Century music with them for EMI (now Warner), including a disc of music by John Adams and the Szymanowski Violin Concerti.

[Modernistfan]

Definitely agreed about the quality of the CBSO under Rattie. I have that Adams disc and virtually all of their Szymanowski, including King Roger. His Benjamin Britten was also very good. I would like to see less negativity around classical music.

[Lance]

Perhaps the term "classical music" is thought of as being the more "traditional" classical music from the Baroque through the Romantic periods and a bit beyond into the 20th century for most of the die-hards. Maybe the words "contemporary classical" music would place a better handle on what to expect, though that is not all-embracing either. The word "classical" is a bit of a misnomer in many ways to take in such a long period of hundreds of years in one full swoop. Just saying …

Definitely agreed about the quality of the CBSO under Rattie. I have that Adams disc and virtually all of their Szymanowski, including King Roger. His Benjamin Britten was also very good. I would like to see less negativity around classical music.