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Title
BIS Records
Description
A Musical Chameleon
Most record labels begin with a need to fill a niche. When Robert von Bahr founded BIS in 1973, he seems to have found any number of musical niches to fill. The first year's releases included music from the renaissance, Telemann on period instruments, Birgit Nilsson singing Sibelius and works by 29 living composers – Ligeti and Britten as well as Rautavaara and Sallinen – next to Purcell, Mussorgsky and Richard Strauss. A musical chameleon was born, a label that meant different things to different – and usually passionate – devotees.
Instead of recording (over and over again) an established body of familiar music, BIS has chosen to explore the unjustly neglected domains of music. Initially this seemed a risky undertaking. Would people really dare to join us? Fortunately, many of you had the courage to do so. Now, thanks to BIS and a few other adventurous labels, the classical record industry has undergone a revolution. Today it is the inquisitive labels that dominate the new-release lists.
There are few geographical limitations to music and BIS now travels all over the world to make recordings. Thirty years ago, Robert von Bahr would take the ferry to Finland or Denmark with the recording equipment in the boot of his car. Nowadays we fly half a ton of machinery to concert halls in Singapore or São Paulo, to a church in the English countryside, a student chapel in Kobe or to Lahti's superb all-wood Sibelius Hall.
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