‘Lifestyle albums’ classical music trend

“Classics for Relaxation.” “Chopin and Champagne.” “Classical Heat.” “Sensual Moments.” “For a Rainy Day.”

Albums with titles such as these are distasteful to many aficionados of classical music, but they’re growing ever more prevalent on the shelves of big record stores.

Their producers attribute their rise to simple supply and demand. “Lifestyle albums” – the name for recordings designed to evoke a specific mood rather than artistic contemplation – have become industry pillars as listeners turn to classical music as they would a hot bath or a bottle of wine.

” ‘Lifestyle’ is the watchword now,” said Joseph Szurly, vice president of catalog, sales, marketing and development for Universal Classics. “Lifestyle albums have been around a while, but within the last five years or so, they’ve come into the forefront.”

Universal has 28 lifestyle albums in a series called “For Your Life,” including the discs “Dinner for Two” and “For a Sunday Morning.” Since 2001, the line has sold nearly half a million copies, Szurly said, while a new line aimed at men is slated to come out in April. (Female listeners have comprised the majority of the audience for Universal’s lifestyle discs so far.)

The success of a disc called “Bella Tuscany” is prompting the label Telarc International to generate a new line of relaxing guitar, piano and string albums called “Breathe” for release next year, said Lynne Hoffman-Engel, vice president of U.S. sales.

Klaus Heymann, founder of the budget classical label Naxos, said his “Chill With (a composer)” line is not necessarily his personal favorite, but he can’t deny the power of one of his leading products. It’s partly why overall sales at Naxos were up nearly 25 percent in 2004.

“It’s a little embarrassing, but many of those are among our best sellers,” he said. “We’re happy with the ‘Chill’ series.”

Lifestyle CDs do not form the core business of Naxos, Heymann said, but serve to finance more noble projects, such as recordings of lesser-known music by Elliott Carter and Frank Bridge, both recently nominated for Grammy Awards.

“We do our duty,” Heymann said. “We sell a lot of the real stuff. But we absolutely take advantage of the trend toward compilation. It brings in extra money and lets us expand the catalog. It’s up to the independents like us to produce the goods.”

Telarc’s Hoffman-Engel said lifestyle albums tend to be cheaper than traditional classical recordings, thereby offering listeners a quick and inexpensive introduction to the genre.

“I think there are a lot of baby boomers who are ready to embrace classical music but need a little help,” she said. “I don’t think we’re pandering to anybody.”

Universal Classics’ Szurly said the goal is to hook new listeners by avoiding the “academic” look of a typical classical CD.

“My hope is that when people buy these and hear something they like, they’ll go, ‘What was that?’ and look into it further,” he said.

Heymann said his main problem with lifestyle albums is that they relegate serious music to the background.

Still, many such discs could hold up well in the foreground. Executives at all three labels were careful to explain that the music on lifestyle albums is not necessarily inferior to that on traditional classical recordings, since both types of discs often feature the same performances.

The “Bella Tuscany” album, for instance, is drawn from the highly regarded Telarc reserves, while “For a Rainy Day” is a compilation of tracks owned by Decca, a major classical label.

Don’t be surprised if titles such as “Classics for Cleaning” and “For a Thursday Afternoon” materialize as some company’s new product one day soon.

“There’s always room for the same track in different packages,” Heymann said. “It shows you how big the market for classical music really is.”