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Naxos started out as a classical music budget label with lesser known orchestras and conductors.
At a time when new CDs cost about 15-20$, their CDs cost about 6-8$. I still remember when I first encountered Naxos recordings.
And Naxos was quite successful doing it, and their recordings became better. Then the major labels started to do their own budget releases, they took their back catalog and released some of it in various budget series, like "eloquence", which featured recordings from Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Philips priced competitively to Naxos. Naxos recordings started to to get to the point where they were often favorably compared to other recordings by "the majors". It was a time when some budget labels (not just Naxos) had some real "surprise" commercial and critical hits, like Arte Nova's much lauded recordings of Beethoven's 9 Symphonies with David Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra.
Nowadays, Naxos is the classical recording label with the most in print recordings and many of them are very, very good. They have some first rate conductors (Antoni Wit, Leonard Slatkin, etc.), with many award winning (and very good) recordings. So while they used to have an "ok for the price" reputation (that was often justified), nowadays, they have competitive recordings and many of their recordings can compete in quality with the ones from any other label. Their Penderecki recording cycle with Antoni Wit for example is excellent.
Their "no frills" uniform cover design has obviously by now become part of the "Naxos" brand, so they are not going to change that.
Elfman's Violin Concerto on Sony currently (I just checked) costs €8.99 on Amazon (here in Germany), so I don't think the new Naxos recording will be cheaper.
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I have the (digital) Sony Classical release of this (performed by the Royal Scottish Orchestra with John Mauceri conducting) and the artwork for it is fairly measly as well. Does anyone have both and could compare quality between either?
I had a number of Naxos recordings on CD and never much thought twice about their artwork decision. It is quite clearly a "house style."
The Naxos recording is supposed to be released in March, I might get it then. I have the CD of the Sony Classical release as well.
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I nearly bought this one. Then I realised I had the previous. Crisis averted.
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