Book description
In 1987, a budget classical record label was started in Hong Kong by
Klaus Heymann, a German businessman who loved classical music.
Swiftly, it gained a world wide reputation for reliable new digital
recordings of the classics at a remarkably low price. Despite
opposition from the classical record establishment, it grew at a
remarkable pace, and soon expanded into opera, early music,
contemporary music and specialist repertoire so that it became
appreciated by specialist collectors as well as the general music
lover. It is now the leading provider of classical music and as an
innovator in digital delivery.
At the heart of Naxos is one man: Klaus Heymann. The combination of
his broad knowledge of classical music and his acute business acumen
has enabled him to build the most varied classical music label in the
world, but also the most effective distribution network to ensure that
his recordings are available everywhere.
This fascinating story explains how it happened, how a one-time
tennis coach in Frankfurt became a classical recording mogul in Hong
Kong and how, at the age of 75, he still holds the reins as firmly as
ever.
Nicolas Soames is a former classical music and judo journalist. For
the past 18 years, he has run Naxos AudioBooks, the award-winning label
with a particular reputation for its spoken word recordings of literary
classics from Homer and Dante to James Joyce and Haruki Murakami.
