Columbia Masterworks Records
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Columbia Masterworks | |
---|---|
Parent company | Columbia Records |
Founded | 1924 |
Defunct | 1980 |
Genre | Classical |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Location | New York City |
Columbia Masterworks was a
History
When Columbia Records undertook the project of releasing great classical music for domestic sale in America, the label was still a year away from an "electrical" recording process. In November 1924, the first eight releases had been recorded acoustically. These first eight sets included five symphonic recordings—Beethoven's Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, Dvorak's "From the New World", Mozart's E-Flat Major (No. 39), and Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique". Three recordings by quartets were also part of that initial offering.[1] More releases followed in March 1925, and a staggering 18 sets were added that fall. The prices of these sets varied with the number of included discs, from $4.50 to $10.50.
Under the leadership of Columbia's president Goddard Lieberson, who later added the rest of the Columbia label to his portfolio, a great many notable classical artists made contributions to the Columbia Masterworks library, such as the conductors Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy and George Szell; pianists Walter Gieseking, Oscar Levant and Glenn Gould; and the organist E. Power Biggs. Composers Aaron Copland and Igor Stravinsky also appeared conducting their own works.
Broadway albums
In addition to classical music, Columbia also issued
The first wildly successful
Columbia Masterworks' most successful Broadway album was the original cast recording of
Columbia Masterworks was also responsible for the original cast albums of
Electronic music
Another genre that Columbia Masterworks released some seminal albums in was electronic music. Early 1964 saw the release of
1980 and later
Columbia Masterworks was renamed
The Masterworks name lives on in the label's Broadway album label, Masterworks Broadway as well as the name of the label's parent Sony Masterworks.
See also
- List of record labels
References
- ^ Jell, George Clarence "Clare" (1881–1955) (October 1926). "The Columbia Library of Masterworks". Phonograph Monthly Review. Vol. 1, no. 1. pp. 11–12.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Retrieved February 10, 2018.- Via Internet Archive. (National Recording Preservation Board). October 1926.
- Via Google Books. (Stanford University Libraries). October 1926.
- ^ ISBN 0-312-31280-6.
- ISBN 0-06-016616-9.
- ^ riaa.org searchable database