Orchestra's record label marks first anniversary

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's own record label, CSO Resound, marks its first anniversary this month. And so far, all signs are positive.

The fifth CSO Resound project, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6, under the baton of principal conductor Bernard Haitink, was released last month, joining Mahler's Symphony No. 3, Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. Released earlier this year was a recording titled "Traditions and Transformations," a reflection of the season-long Silk Road Chicaco Festival two years ago, featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma, his Silk Road Ensemble and the CSO.

Also, a digital download-only recording of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 with the CSO conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, was released on iTunes in early January before "moving wider" to other digital retailers such as Amazon, eMusic and Rhapsody.

"Our Mahler Third Symphony debut CD was released in May 2007, and there was a terrific response," said Donald Chae, the Chicago Symphony's vice president for strategic planning, "I believe to date it's sold more units than the other releases to come after it. Part of that is a function of time, of course. We've been really pleased with the sales all-around for our first five recordings."

The recordings are carefully selected from the CSO's live concert performances at Symphony Center/Orchestra Hall.

Is a typical season, such as the recently announced 2008-09 schedule, planned with an eye toward CSO Resound recordings?

"I wouldn't say that presence of a record label here within the CSO necessarily drives programming or relationship choices," Chae said. "But I would say there are some things that come to mind when you look at the 2008-09 season that for a variety of reasons could make for potentially very special releases on CSO Resound."

Chae said that the CSO thinks of CSO Resound as complementary to - and a larger part of - an overall media strategy.

"So while the objective of the radio series is to be comprehensive over time in what we perform from the season, for CSO Resound we don't want to do 30-odd CDs per year, so we carefully select some of the things we think can have the strongest impact, both from an artistic perspective and from a perspective resonating from our consumers around the world."

Starting with the second recording (the Bruckner Seventh), they are available in both regular CD and high-resolution Super Audio CD formats. The agreement with the musicians allows for up to five releases per year, though there's some flexibility.

The Shostakovich Fifth Symphony was released only as a download to allow the orchestra to test that market. Other orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic have been successful with sales of digital downloads.

"The media landscape, and the way audiences interact with recorded orchestral music is obviously in a pretty significant state of flux right now," Chae said. "I don't think anyone claims to understand perfectly, or certainly can predict where it's going. So, our idea to release a download-only recording was about learning some things in the market, trying to understand the different types of consumers better - all with an objective of trying to figure out the best ways of reaching different types of audiences."