The Story of Naxos: The Extraordinary Story of the Independent Record Label That Changed Classical Recording Forever

Insider (he has run Naxos AudioBooks for 18 years) and music critic Soames offers what amounts to an exhaustive set of admiring liner notes that offer the details of Naxos' calculated rise to the top of the classical recording world. Drawing on interviews and conversations with Naxos founder Heymann, Soames pedantically chronicles the growth and development of the company from its earliest days in 1987 to its flourishing business in the early 21st century when other record labels have faced tremendous challenges. Heymann started Naxos as a budget line of classical recordings that could be sold outside of chain and independent record stores, thereby offering an entirely new audience a chance to buy and hear classical music. As Soames points out, Naxos CDs presented new digital recordings of reliable performances of various classical pieces, introducing listeners to artists, musicians, and composers from outside of Europe and thus expanding the world of classical music. Soames's definitive history of Naxos is flatly written and often repetitious but worthwhile if only for the tale of a canny entrepreneur dedicated to bringing the beauty of classical music into lives around the world. (Nov.)