Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

, oriented mainly towards publishing classical music and popular music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers.

History

The Supraphon name was first registered as a trademark in 1932. The name was used for the label of domestic albums produced for export by Ultraphon company. Post World War II Ultraphon was nationalized and changed its name to Gramofonové závody. In 1961 the name was changed to Gramofonové závody – Supraphon and later just to Supraphon in 1969. In Czechoslovakia, it was one of the three major state-owned labels, the other two being Panton and Opus. Panton is currently a division of Supraphon; Opus (operating in Slovakia) became independent after break-up of Czechoslovakia and was acquired by

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

in 2019.

Catalogues

The artistic direction of the firm gave rise to a broad catalogue of titles which systematically mapped out the works of Bedřich Smetana,

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...

, Leoš Janáček,

Bohuslav Martinů Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He bec ...

and Jan Dismas Zelenka, as well as other representatives of both the Czech and the international music worlds. Significant domestic and foreign soloists, chamber ensembles, orchestras and conductors all contributed to its collection of recordings. Supraphon archives contain the recordings of Czech Philharmonic under the baton of

Václav Talich Václav Talich (; 28 May 1883, Kroměříž – 16 March 1961, Beroun) was a Czech violinist and later a musical pedagogue. He is remembered today as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, the object of countless reissues of his man ...

Karel Ančerl Karel Ančerl (11 April 1908 – 3 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak conductor and composer, renowned especially for his performances of contemporary music and for his interpretations of music by Czech composers. Ančerl was born into a prosper ...

Karel Šejna Karel Šejna (1 November 1896, Zálezly – 17 December 1982, Prague) was a Czech double bassist and conductor, the principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1950. Life and career Šejna's musical studies were at the Prague C ...

, Václav Neumann and others, as well as recordings of

Saša Večtomov Saša Večtomov (12 December 1930 – 29 December 1989) was a Czechoslovak cellist and music pedagogue. Biography Večtomov first studied piano and cello with his father, cellist/composer Ivan Večtomov (1902–81), a soloist in the Czech Phil ...

and such non-Czechoslovak artists as Sviatoslav Richter,

Emil Gilels Emil Grigoryevich Gilels (Russian: Эми́ль Григо́рьевич Ги́лельс; 19 October 1916 – 14 October 1985) was a Russian pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. Early life and educatio ...

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was wel ...

, Ida Haendel, Henryk Szeryng, Hélène Boschi or

André Gertler André Gertler (26 July 1907 – 23 July 1998) was a Hungarian classical violinist and teacher. Professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (1940–1977), Professor at the Cologne Academy of Music (1954–1957), Professor at the College of Musi ...

. Many recordings have been reissued in editions ''Archive'', ''Ančerl Gold Edition'', ''Talich Special Edition''. The label also focused on collaboration with the present classical music interpreters, with recordings by the

Pavel Haas Quartet The Pavel Haas Quartet is a Czech string quartet which was founded in 2002. Their first album with the second quartets of Haas and Janáček won the 2007 ''Gramophone'' Award for Chamber music.Jiří Bělohlávek Jiří Bělohlávek, (; 24 February 1946 – 31 May 2017) was a Czech conductor. He was a leading interpreter of Czech classical music, and became chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990, a role he would serve on two occasio ...

and Sir Charles Mackerras. The company's first stereo records were issued in 1961, although recordings were in the format from 1958. The label's earliest stereophonic pop music was recorded in 1964. In the 1970s, Supraphon made some records in four channel stereo using the SQ system. For example: Two-LP-set Bedřich Smetana: Má Vlast. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor: Václav Neumann. Supraphon Stereo/Quad 1410 2021/2 P 1976. Since 1981, Supraphon was recording in digital and first CDs were produced in Japan in 1984. Supraphon started releasing popular music on CDs from 1987. In 1988, Grammy nominated artists The Moody Brothers recorded an album in Prague with Jiří Brabec and Country Beat. The album ''Friends'' was the first such country music cooperative production between an American company, Lamon Records and Supraphon. The recording earned critical acclaim and won the Moodys and Brabec, along with the producers, engineers and studios involved in the project the

Ampex Golden Reel Award The Ampex Golden Reel Award was an international music award for studio albums and singles that were recorded and mixed entirely on Ampex audio tape, and which subsequently sold enough units to achieve gold record status in its country of origi ...

.Morris, Edward "Moodys Play With Czech Mates" ''Billboard Magazine''. September 1988 As of January 2013, Supraphon is the official Czech distributor of

. However, the Czech branch of Warner Music revived after the company acquired

EMI Czech Republic Warner Music Czech Republic (formerly EMI Czech Republic and Parlophone Czech Republic) is a record label based in the Czech Republic. The company was founded under the name Monitor in 1990. EMI purchased the label in 1994 and maintained it und ...

References

External links

Supraphon
– Official site
Supraphonline
– Online music store
Supraphon Label
- history and list of series {{Authority control Czech record labels Record labels established in 1932 Classical music record labels Pop record labels IFPI members Czech brands Companies of Czechoslovakia State-owned record labels

History

Catalogues

See also

References

External links