Philips owned DGG, for which Karajan recorded. Philips built their first CD plant in Hanover
Germany, and as I understand it Karajan profitted either from the land sale or as a "consultant" to
the project. Digital recording had been widely accepted and liked by active classical musicians by
the time CDs came out. Just because Karajan had a financial stake in the success of the CD means
that the Red Book standard was per his request!
And by the way, the urban myth is that Karajan "convinced" his buddy, the head of SONY to make CDs
long enough to hold a Beethoven 9th recording.
If they were designing CDs for time-length, it would make a lot more sense to look at the most
popular rock double-albums (which sold oodles more copies than any classical albums) and plan to fit
them on one CD. The companies clearly did not do this. The first CD of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" was 2
discs, as was Led Zeppelin's "Physical Graffiti" (the last CD reissue was fit on one disc).
By the way, as time has shown, the 74- or 80-minute time limit was a very bad idea for rock music.
Don Was, now head of Blue Note Records, told one of his early 90s producing clients (I think Bob
Dylan), don't be tempted by the CD time length and keep a rock album to 45 minutes or less. Those
who didn't listen, mainly the "grunge" artist who produced ponderous 60+ minute opuses that could
have been great albums if trimmed down to 40 minutes.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Urbahns" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2014 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] CD time limit - Beethoven
> http://images.cdn.whathifi.com/sites/whathifi.com/files/styles/big-image/public/karajan-sinjou-morita.jpg?itok=ZB2tJN5Z
>
> We we do know Karajan was center stage at the launch of the CD...here's the
> news photo.
>
> http://www.whathifi.com/news/cd-30-years-old-today
>
>
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