Good Marketing, Or A Legacy Diminished?

The Montreal Symphony Orchestra is currently marketing the heck out of a new Christmas CD it recorded with Quebec singer Bruno Pelletier. To date, the disc has sold over 100,000 copies, which has Arthur Kaptainis despairing for the orchestra’s reputation. “Pelletier is a voiceless wonder in the Helmut Lotti tradition. Splashy arrangements by Simon Leclerc cannot disguise the ghastly mediocrity of Pelletier’s singing, which is not even reliably in tune… If there is a musical equivalent of blasphemy in Quebec, this is surely it.”