EMI & Virgin Classics Videos score 1 Million Plays on You Tube
Video viewings on the official EMI & Virgin
Classics YouTube channel have now exceeded the one million mark – just one year
after the classical music labels began featuring their promotional video
content on the site. The branded channel – www.youtube.com/emiclassics
– was launched nearly a year ago and aims to bring EMI and Virgin Classics
artists and their music to ever-wider global audiences. The offering of
fascinating short documentaries, music videos and performance footage has
steadily grown to more than 200 films and represents a library of content
unrivalled by any other classical music label.
Alison Balsom’s Haydn & Hummel
album promo video is the most popular video on the channel, followed closely by
David Fray whose immense popularity in France and Germany enabled his Bach
Concertos to become a best-selling album and a YouTube
favourite. French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky also features prominently in
the top titles list with his appearance on the Christina Pluhar,/L’Arpeggiata
album Monteverdi – Teatro d’amore, as well as
with his album Opium: a collection of melodies
françaises from the Belle Époque.
Recently posted videos include Sir Simon Rattle and
the Berlin Philharmonic and their recording of the Brahms Symphonies; Rolando
Villazón leading an all-star line-up in Verdi’s mighty Messa da Requiem,
conducted by Antonio Pappano; Leif Ove Andsnes and Robin Rhode in a unique
multimedia project based on and inspired by Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an
Exhibition; and Diana Damrau with her new recital disc of
coloratura arias.
EMI and Virgin Classics have ambitious plans to see
the channel grow further by adding new videos on a regular basis and also
mining the archives for rarely seen promotional films. New content to be
uploaded over the coming weeks includes short documentaries about David Fray’s
forthcoming Schubert recital disc for Virgin Classics; Sarah Chang performing
concertos by Bruch and Brahms with Kurt Masur; Ingrid Fliter playing Chopin
Waltzes; and Philippe Jaroussky’s new album of forgotten castrato arias.
# # #
©
21C Media Group, August 2009