Norman Lebrecht is a name I wasn't familiar with until I ran into this Samizdata article. I didn't know him since I don't give a damn about music or CD reviews. I despise art critique: as someone put it, writing about music is like dancing about literature. Pointless.

However, he is a man of importance to those who enjoy this kind of stuff, and his column Look who's been dumped deals with the latest sign of decline of the classical music which is a troubling issue. I am about to make the rock-solid prediction that the year 2004 will be the last for the classical record industry, he says.

Where labels once fought bidding wars over shimmering talent they now compete in shedding it. The latest on the dump pile is the tenor Roberto Alagna, once trumpeted as the next Placido Domingo, now a victim of poor sales. EMI has declined to renew Alagna's contract which expired earlier this year. His wife, Angela Georghiu, remains under contract but has no further recordings planned.

The classical music market in the CD years was more than big, it was abundant, overgrown, poised for a collapse. You'd enter a record store and find dozens of Beethoven Symphonies collections. Twenty different interpretations of Tchaikowsky's Piano Concerto. And some 'modern' or simply contemporary music, too, although there has never been a big market for that. I kindly recollect the days when I browsed the ECM New Series rack, looking for some interesting new music.

I was alone. Simply put, classical music went AWOL somewhere in the early 20th century, and it lost its chance to speak and touch its consumers. It'd been elitist before, and instead of dropping the feudal heritage and talking to modern, urban audience, it turned away from them and accepted only those who accepted it. In other words, a sinister cabal was founded, entry forbidden to laymen, and Rule #1 was imposed on every composer leaving the Academy: Thou shalt not waste time with listeners. True enough, there've been notable exceptions, Paul Hindemith immediately comes on mind. A prolific German composer who dedicated his life to bringing music to every ear, lay and professional alike. Most of the others ignored the masses - to their doom.

It's no wonder the era of classical CD recordings has come to an end. There is a finite number of Beethoven symphonies and their possible interpretations. One day soon, everyone who cares will have them. And the need to browse the record shop will diminish.

Classical music will alway be here,Ă‚ though. Performed live in concert halls, churches and football stadiums if there's another Domingo, Pavarotti and Careras in sight. It will remain classical, unable to speak in modern tongues, unable to touch hearts with a really new message. Occasionaly a new record will pop out. Maybe, maybe, maybe a new composer will form a new wave bringing it back to ordinary people, when the times comes for a change.Ă‚ There's no one to tell.

Or maybe it is over for good. Theater gave way to cinema. There's no reason why violin shouldn't be replaced by, say, a computer, especially when there will be no one to give a damn. Just consider the average age of those sitting in a concert hall. Most of them draw pensions already.

The clock's ticking.