Norman Lebrecht is an entertaining writer who has never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Come to think of it, he may have been the world’s first blogger–he adopted the sloppy research habit before blogs were even invented. For years, he’s been planting verbal IEDs along the classical music highway, wiping out entire convoys of evildoers and occasionally fragging some innocent bystanders in the process. So, it is with some smugness that one is able to report this morning, or the New York Times is able to report, that Stormin’ Norman has had a bit of a comeuppance. The Brtisih publisher of his latest missle–Maestros, Masterpieces & Madness: The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry–has agreed to recall and destroy the book and apologize to Naxos Records Founder Klaus Heymann.
Heymann had filed suit against Lebrecht for “accusing him of serious business malpractices” and for at least 15 errors of fact. Penguin agreed to settle rather than go to court.
For a much more reliable portrait of Heymann and his role as an internet music pioneer, see Alex Ross in this week’s New Yorker.