Vox Records is a budget classical

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 ...

. The name is Latin for "voice." Some Vox releases such as

Peter Frankl Peter Frankl (born 2 October 1935) is a Hungary, Hungarian-born United Kingdom, British pianist. He mainly performs music from the Classical period (music), Classical period (particularly Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart), the Romantic music, Rom ...

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

Piano Works and

György Sándor György Sándor (; 21 September 1912 – 9 December 2005) was a Hungarian pianist and writer. Early years Sándor was born in Budapest. He studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest under Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and debuted as ...

's Complete

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...

Sonatas were reissued in premium vinyl boxsets by the audiophile German FSM Records Hamburg. The Brendel Complete

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

Sonatas has been remastered from the original tapes to

SACD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple aud ...

and for HD downloads.

History

Vox was founded in 1945 in New York by George Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant. Starting out with 78-rpm discs, it specialized in licensed pressings of European classical recordings. It was one of the last major recording companies to adopt stereo recording, about 1957. The company's output featured the "Vox Box", compilations of music by specific composers, such as piano music of Chopin,

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

, and

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

; the complete symphonies and orchestral music of

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

; rarely heard orchestral music by Tchaikovsky,

Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther'' ...

, and

Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...

; the complete orchestral music of the French composer

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

; and one of the most complete collections of the music of the early American composer

Louis Moreau Gottschalk Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and car ...

. Vox maintains several subsidiary labels including Turnabout and Candide. Both labels generally focus on contemporary music. In recent years, select Vox recordings were rereleased on the Excelsior label. Although Vox specializes in imported recordings, it has also recorded the

Utah Symphony Orchestra The Utah Symphony is an American orchestra based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The orchestra's principal venue is Abravanel Hall. In addition to its Salt Lake City subscription concerts, the orchestra travels around the Intermountain West serving c ...

under

Maurice Abravanel Maurice Abravanel (January 6, 1903 – September 22, 1993) was an American classical music conductor. He is remembered as the conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years. Life Abravanel was born in Salonika, Rumelia Eyalet, Ottom ...

, the

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1880 by Joseph Otten as the St. Louis Choral Society, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is the second-oldest professional symphony orc ...

under

Leonard Slatkin Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer. Early life and education Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His fat ...

and

Walter Susskind Jan Walter Susskind (1 May 1913 – 25 March 1980) was a Czech-born British conductor, teacher and pianist. He began his career in his native Prague, and fled to Britain when Germany invaded the city in 1939. He worked for substantial periods in ...

, the

Minnesota Orchestra The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded originally as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, the Minnesota Orchestra plays most of its concerts at Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall. History Em ...

under

Stanisław Skrowaczewski Stanislaw Pawel Stefan Jan Sebastian Skrowaczewski (; October 3, 1923 – February 21, 2017) was a Polish-American classical conductor and composer. Biography Skrowaczewski was born in Lwów, Second Polish Republic (now Lviv, Ukraine). His pa ...

, and the

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its primary concert venue is Music Hall. In addition to its symphony concerts, the orchestra gives pops concerts as the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. The Cincin ...

under

Thomas Schippers Thomas Schippers (9 March 1930 – 16 December 1977) was an American conductor. He was highly regarded for his work in opera. Biography Of Dutch ancestry and son of the owner of a large appliance store, Schippers was born in Portage, Michigan ...

, Walter Susskind and

Michael Gielen Michael Andreas Gielen (20 July 19278 March 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer known for promoting contemporary music in opera and concert. Principally active in Europe, his performances are characterized by precision and vivacity, aid ...

. In the early 1970s, Vox and its subsidiaries issued a number of compatible

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

stereophonic Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

recordings using the Sansui QS quadraphonic matrix system; some of the ambience can still be heard when the CD versions are played with an amplifier with

Dolby Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (often shortened to Dolby Labs and known simply as Dolby) is an American company specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and HDR imaging. Dolby licenses its technologies to ...

decoding and four speakers. One of these was the first album made by the

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The ASO's main concert venue is Atlanta Symphony Hall in the Woodruff Arts Center. History Though earlier organizations bearing the same name date b ...

and Chorus, led by Robert Shaw, a 2-LP set entitled ''Nativity''. Many of its recordings were later issued on CD and saw great success with its series of budget-price Vox Boxes. The company has continued a program of new releases, too, by such orchestras as the

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Wellington, New Zealand. The national orchestra of New Zealand, the NZSO is an autonomous Crown entity owned by the Government of New Zealand, per the New Zealand Sympho ...

. In 1978, the label was acquired by Moss Music Group and later managed for years by Mark Jenkins of Countdown Media. In 2018, the Vox label group was acquired by the Naxos Music Group.

Notable releases

In the course of its existence, Vox has displayed a willingness to explore unusual literature and a penchant for covering broad swaths of repertory in comprehensive releases. Among its numerous noteworthy issues were the following: *During the 1950s, Vox released the first nominally complete cycle of

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

's piano sonatas on records, performed by the Austrian pianist

Friedrich Wührer Friedrich Wührer (29 June 1900 – 27 December 1975) was an Austrian-German pianist and piano pedagogue. He was a close associate and advocate of composer Franz Schmidt, whose music he edited and, in the case of the works for left hand alone, revi ...

; it omitted a few fragmentary works but did include

Ernst Krenek Ernst Heinrich Krenek (, 23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including ''Music Here and Now'' (1939), a study ...

's rarely recorded completion of the Sonata in C Major, D. 840 (''Reliquie''). At first issued as single records with uniform jacket art, the series later appeared in two different sets of three Vox Boxes—one, with gold covers and red labels, monaural as originally recorded and the other, with white covers and purple labels, rechanneled for ersatz stereo. Vox subsequently replaced Wührer's cycle with one in true stereo recorded by

Walter Klien Walter Klien (27 November 1928 – 9 February 1991) was an Austrian pianist. ] Career Klien was born in Graz in 1928. His mother was the artist Erika Giovanna Klien (1900-1957). She emigrated to the United States in 1929, and their only furth ...

; unlike its predecessor, the latter set has appeared in CD reissues as noted below. *Vox released one of the few complete recordings of Tchaikovsky's rarely heard Piano Concerto No. 3 (Tchaikovsky), third piano concerto, as reconstructed by Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (1856–1915), with pianist

Michael Ponti Michael Ponti (29 October 1937 – 17 October 2022) was a German-American classical pianist. He was the first to record the complete piano works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. He made more than 80 recordings, around 50 of rarely play ...

. This performance has been included in a Vox Box (released in 1991) featuring Tchaikovsky's three piano concertos and the seldom-performed ''Concert Fantasy'', Op. 56, all performed by Ponti, with the

Prague Symphony Orchestra The Prague Symphony Orchestra (Prague, Czech Republic, cs, Symfonický orchestr hlavního města Prahy ''FOK'') is a Czech orchestra based in Prague. The orchestra has traditionally been known by the acronym 'FOK', standing for 'Film-Opera-Koncert' ...

conducted by

Richard Kapp Richard Kapp (October 9, 1936 – June 4, 2006) was an American conductor. Richard Kapp was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was a child piano prodigy. He studied German political history at Johns Hopkins University and received his BA in 1957. He ...

(in the first and second concertos and the fantasy) and the Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg conducted by

Louis de Froment Louis de Froment (; 5 December 192119 August 1994) was a French conductor. Froment was born into a French noble family in Toulouse, and started his musical studies at the city conservatory. He later attended the ''Conservatoire national supérieu ...

. *Vox issued recordings of the French composer

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

directing the Luxembourg Philharmonic in his complete symphonies. * In the 1960s pianist

Frank Glazer Frank Glazer (February 19, 1915 – January 13, 2015) was an American pianist, composer, and teacher of music. Career details Glazer was born in Chester, Wisconsin on February 19, 1915, the sixth child of Benjamin and Clara Glazer, Jewish emig ...

recorded for Vox the complete piano music of

. This recording was declared "the finest interpretation of the piano music of Eric Satie".

Catalogue

A partial listing of Vox recordings available on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in the ...

, CD,

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

, and all digital platforms includes the following:cduniverse.com *25 Classics Series **25 Baby Favorites **25 Bach Favorites **25 Ballet Favorites **25 Baroque Favorites **25 Beethoven Favorites **25 Best Selling Favorites of All Time **25 Candlelight Favorites **25 Children's Favorites **25 Classical Christian Favorites **25 Classical Dance Favorites **25 Classical Favorites **25 Classical Heartbreakers **25 Classical One Hit Wonders **25 Concerto Favorites **25 Guitar Favorites **25 Handel Favorites **25 Instrumental Favorites **25 Intimate Chamber Favorites **25 Light Opera Favorites **25 Marching Favorites **25 Mellow Piano Favorites **25 More Beethoven Favorites **25 More Mozart Favorites **25 Movie Favorites **25 Mozart Favorites **25 Mystical Chant Favorites **25 Opera Favorites **25 Organ Favorites **25 Piano Favorites **25 Relaxing Classics **25 Romantic Classics **25 Romantic Moods **25 Romantic Strings (25 Romantic String Favorites) **25 Sacred Choral Favorites **25 Sensual Flute Favorites **25 Sentimental Favorites **25 Spanish Guitar Favorites **25 Strauss Favorites **25 Symphony Favorites **25 Tchaikovsky Favorites **25 Thunderous Classics **25 Tranquil Classics **25 Ultimate Classics **25 Violin Favorites **25 Vivaldi Favorites **25 Wedding Favorites *75 Greatest Classics, Volume 1 *75 Greatest Classics, Volume 2 *75 Greatest Classics, Volume 3 *75 Greatest Classics, Volume 4 *Early Romantic Piano Concertos - Clementi, Hummel, et al. *

Alfred Brendel Alfred Brendel KBE (born 5 January 1931) is an Austrian classical pianist, poet, author, composer, and lecturer who is known particularly for his performances of Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg, and Beethoven.Stephen Plaistow"Brendel, Alfred" ''G ...

Plays Mozart with

*Ionisation - Music of Varèse, Penderecki and Ligeti *Milhaud: 6 Little Symphonies, etc. / Milhaud, Luxembourg RSO *Beethoven: Variations & Vignettes for Piano / Alfred Brendel *Americana - Siegmeister, Ines, Copland, Gould, Sousa *Debussy: Solo Piano Music Vol 1 / Peter Frankl *Romantic Piano Concerto Vol 1 / Michael Ponti *Manuel Barrueco - 300 Years of Guitar Masterpieces *Gottschalk Festival / Eugene List, Igor Buketoff *Saint-Saëns: Complete String Concertos *Mozart: The Complete Masonic Music / Maag, Equiluz, Rapf *Alfred Brendel plays Schubert *L'Esprit de France - The Music of Satie *Schubert: Complete Piano Sonatas Vol 1 / Walter Klien *Schubert: Complete Piano Sonatas Vol 2 / Walter Klien *Schubert: Complete Piano Sonatas Vol 3 / Walter Klien *Mozart: Piano Sonatas Vol 1 / Walter Klien *Mozart: Piano Sonatas Vol 2 / Walter Klien *Mozart: Twelve Great Piano Concertos / Klien, Brendel, et al. *Complete Gershwin- Works for Piano & Orchestra / Siegel *Saint-Saëns: Complete Works for Piano / Dosse, Petit *Young lfredBrendel - The Vox Years *American as Apple Pie / Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops *American String Quartets 1950-1970 /

Concord String Quartet The Concord String Quartet was an American string quartet established in 1971. The members of the quartet were Mark Sokol and Andrew Jennings, violins; John Kochánowski, viola; Norman Fischer, cello. They gave their last regular concert on May 1 ...

*20th Century Voices in America - Rochberg, Cage, Carter, etc. *Aaron Rosand plays Ernst, Godard, Lehár, Hubay, Ysaÿe, et al. *Abbey Simon plays Chopin: Etudes and Waltzes Complete *Alfred Brendel Plays Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Vol I *Alfred Brendel Plays Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Vol II *Alfred Brendel Plays Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Vol III *American Composers Series - American Orchestral Music *American Composers Series - Homespun America *American Composers Series - Music of Samuel Barber *American Composers Series - The Incredible Flutist *Art of Ruggiero Ricci *Bach: 24 Preludes and Fugues, Vol 2 / Anthony Newman *Bach: Orchestral Suites, etc. / Kehr, Faerber, et al. Box Set *Bartók: Complete Solo Piano Music / György Sándor *Beethoven: Complete Chamber Music for Flute / JP Rampal *Beethoven: Diabelli Variations, Bagatelles, etc. / Brendel *Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 4 / Alfred Brendel *Biber: Rosary Sonatas / Lautenbacher, Ewerhart, Koch *Brahms, Mendelssohn et al. / Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio *Brahms: Complete String Quartets, etc. / Tokyo String Quartet *Brendel plays Mozart and Haydn - Piano Concertos *Chavez: The Complete Symphonies / Mata, London SO *Chopin: Complete Works for Piano / Abbey Simon *Chopin: Sonatas, Ballades, Scherzos, etc. / Abbey Simon *Concord String Quartet - Haydn, Dvořák, et al. *Spotlight Series :*Spotlight on Brass :*Spotlight on Keyboard :*Spotlight on Percussion :*Spotlight on Strings :*Spotlight on Winds

History

Notable releases

Catalogue

References

See also