The question on the book cover reproduced on the left pops up one place or another just about every day. It's usually a rhetorical question implying that classical music is irrelevant, unnecessary, elitist and so on. That is not the author's point of view, of course, but it is very common indeed in contemporary society.

The book examines the issue thoroughly, and I'll not restate any of its arguments here. Instead, I'd like to share a few observations about the major labels and their marginalization of classical music.

The best-known classical labels over the last few decades have been Decca, CBS/Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips and perhaps one or two others. These were originally the distinct labels of various mid-size corporations. Each had a philosophy that determined what kind of repertoire and artists the presented to the public. Their executives frequently let it be known that they lost money on their classical operations, but that out of social responsibility would continue to subsidize the classics with the profits from pop.

It turned out that this claim was not always truthful, but there is no doubt that producing popular recordings is far more profitable than producing classics. It may be that the management of the major labels persisted in recording classical out of conviction at one time, but as more and more of them merged with or were taken over by larger corporate entities, conviction became less and less a factor.

Publicly traded corporations, if I understand correctly, have just one fundamental imperative, to return the maximum possible return on the investment of their shareholders. Putting resources into a good classical program earss smaller dividends than putting the same resources into pop. And yes, big business does need to maintain some degree of social responsibility, or the appearance thereof, for reasons of public relations, so classical music won't disappear entirely from the majors' catalogues any time soon. But expect more Charlotte Church and Three Tenors and less Strauss and Stravinsky.

But there are many independent labels these days, and some of them are clearly operating with the good of music in mind. Hyperion, Chandos, BIS, and Harmonia Mundi are among those that spring immediately to mind, and the budget label Naxos has been a major force in maintaining a healthy heartbeat in the classical industry.

One development is alarming at first glance: The major labels are turning away from video opera in a big way. Only a fraction of what was once available on VHS is being re-issuied in the DVD format, and there have been precious few new initiatives from the majors. Happily, newer, smaller labels have been licensing a lot of the repertoire the majors are abandoning. Arthaus, for example, has just rereleased the magnificent Kirov production of Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel, once a plushly marketed Philips release. Arthaus and Kultur are also rereleasing some big-studio items as well as repertoire that would never have interested the majors in the first place.

What this boils down to, I believe, is that the classical recording industry is in a period of change, as it has always been, really. Change will continue but, with due diligence on the part of music lovers and musicians, the music will be recorded and available one way or another for a long time to come.