Label of the Legends: Artists and Repertoire

Vital to the success of any record label is Artists and Repertoire (“A&R”). Simply put, who is going to record and what are they going to play? The decision-making process for A&R varies across genres and labels. This general overview of classical and jazz A&R is followed by portraits of some of Telarc’s artists and projects.

C In classical music, the A&R process can be pretty straightforward. There are many classical works that can fill a recording all on their own. A label might choose to record a familiar standard, minor works by a familiar composer, recent compositions, or a lesser-known piece from the past. Or they might be focused on working with a particular artist and let them pick the repertoire.¹  In any case, once this is decided the recording session will rarely stray from its course. 

Classical artists sometimes specialize in certain composers or eras of music. In discussions with pianist John O’Conor, Telarc asked if he would record the Chopin concertos. He declined, saying that they should get an artist better suited to that repertoire and have him continue to record the music of Beethoven, Schubert, and a composer he had championed, fellow Irishman John Field.² 

Telarc held regular lengthy meetings to discuss A&R, locations, and scheduling for upcoming projects. Producer Bob Woods’ notes from a two-day meeting in 1989 cover thirty-one pages and include a range of topics:³

– For conductors, what piece to record and with which orchestra? (One such page has a note in all caps: “REPERTOIRE PROBLEM.”

– Projects that are all set to go but await an appropriate soloist (A note reads “Need an Elijah!“).

– Proposals to and from artists about desired repertoire or album themes.

– Notes about artists Telarc is considering for new projects (some of which eventually happened and some that did not).

Clearly the process involves a great deal of planning!

CC In the November 18, 1989 issue of Billboard Magazine, Telarc co-founder Jack Renner defines Classical Crossover as “a generally classically oriented artist or group playing things that are accessible (there’s that word again) to a lot wider marketplace.” Nevertheless, even Renner admits there are times he cannot decide “when crossover is crossover and when it’s just light classical.”⁴ In the same article, Sony Classical VP Harold Fein once referred to Classical Crossover listeners as those who were “burnt out on Led Zeppelin but not yet ready for Mahler.” In that same issue, Telarc holds six of the top fifteen slots in the Crossover Albums category, which indicates that they had the formula figured out. 

In Telarc’s files, the recordings with the most extensive A&R notes are those of Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.⁵ There is no pre-determined repertoire for a disc like Hollywood’s Greatest Hits or The Great Fantasy Adventure Album. Pops albums include complete Broadway shows, movie music grouped around a film genre or a more general concept, classical music around a concept, or arrangements of tunes by a popular group.

As an example, in a memo from January 5, 1997 Kunzel suggests to Woods that they release an album featuring music from the movies of Steven Spielberg.⁶ He proposes a September 1997 release to commemorate Spielberg’s 50^th birthday in December of that year. Some of the selections were recorded previously and others would be recorded specifically for the project.  The new recordings took place between February 1997 and September 1998. It was not until the project was completed that the artists approached Mr. Spielberg to ask permission to use his name on the finished product. This allowed them to present Spielberg’s management with a virtually completed project to consider, along with a discography and some sample CDs.⁷ Spielberg’s response is not recorded here, but the appeal was successful, and The Great Movie Scores from the Films of Steven Spielberg was released. Click here to see which tunes were included on this album. 

How can a company like Telarc record all those movie themes? Aren’t they under copyright? Yes indeed, but an interesting quirk in copyright law dictates that once a piece of music has been recorded initially, anyone can re-record it by paying a fee to the publisher. These fees are set by law, permission to re-record cannot be denied by the publisher, and this only applies to sound recordings of musical works. And to make it just a little more interesting, this all stems back to a law enacted in 1909 to regulate player piano rolls. Since the player piano is a mechanical musical instrument, these royalties are still known as mechanical royalties. As Telarc did, record labels often have at least one person on staff whose main job is just to keep this sorted out and make sure that composers, artists, and publishers receive the royalties they are due.

JJazz is wildly different from classical when it comes to Artists and Repertoire. Regarding Artists, there are jazz combos that remain the same for many years, and combos that form for a single project and never record together in that exact configuration again. The spontaneity of the art form lends itself to as much creativity in planning a session or performance as there is while the performance is underway. Oscar Peterson’s work with Telarc is a good example. Peterson recorded as a trio with guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown beginning as early as 1955, and the same three musicians played for Telarc’s first jazz club recording sessions in 1990. But on his other Telarc recordings, Peterson played with numerous different artists in variously-sized ensembles. Some of these he had performed with previously and some were brought together just for the recording.

Jazz repertoire is just as flexible. The songs that are recorded are often not determined until the session begins. And a given song may come out radically different from any previous version of it. If the artists get part way through a song and it just isn’t working well for them, they might call a halt, chat a bit, and relaunch it at a different tempo, in a different key, or even in another style. In a way, that makes the planning process easier since the producer just needs to get the right people together and set them loose to get a great record.

tThere have always been independent record labels in all genres, but independent classical labels generally have to work with lesser-known artists or repertoire. However, Telarc recorded major artists right away and then used the market strength this generated to elevate the work of lesser-known artists.⁸ This business trajectory would simply not be possible in the present day. Independent labels have proliferated, and some major artists (particularly symphony orchestras) release their own material. The ease and economy of self-distributing have upended the record business.⁹ While this gives opportunities for many artists to be heard who might have been lost in earlier times, it makes it very unlikely that any single company will be able to have the sort of out-sized impact that Telarc did.

1. For instance, click here to listen to John O’Conor’s story about the Nocturnes of John Field. ↩︎
2. John O’ Conor, Interview with the author, August 8, 2022, Aspen, CO.  ↩︎
3. “Telarc International Corporation, A&R Meeting, September 29 & 30, 1989,” Woods/Martone private collection, Shaker Heights, OH. ↩︎
4. Devra Hall, “Expanding Crossover Boundaries,” Billboard, November 18, 1989 ↩︎
5. The team in the Pops recording booth would sometimes joke during breaks about “silly” album concepts. Every once in a while, though, someone would say, “hey, that one might actually work!” ↩︎
6. “Re: Telarc Recording Project,” Erich Kunzel to Bob Woods, January 5, 1997, Woods/Martone private collection, Shaker Heights, OH. ↩︎
7. Bob Woods to Kris Kelly, September 30, 1998, Woods/Martone private collection, Shaker Heights, OH. ↩︎
8. For more on Telarc’s ambitious starting lineup, see our timeline of the First Twenty Records. ↩︎
9. Jeff Price, “The Democratization of the Music Industry,” HuffPost, March 24, 2008 is one of many articles discussing this change. ↩︎