Supraphon Music Publishing is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * 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 ''Opus'' (pl. ''opera'') is a Latin word meaning "work". Italian equivalents are ''opera'' (singular) and ''opere'' (pl.). Opus or OPUS may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Opus number, (abbr. Op.) specifying order of (usually) publicatio ...

. 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 Bedřich Smetana ( , ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival." He has been regarded i ...

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 Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...

, Bohuslav Martinů and

Jan Dismas Zelenka Jan Dismas Zelenka (16 October 1679 – 23 December 1745), baptised Jan Lukáš Zelenka was a Czech composer and musician of the Baroque period. His music is admired for its harmonic inventiveness and mastery of counterpoint. Zelenka was rais ...

, 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 ...

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 Václav Neumann (29 October 1920 – 2 September 1995) was a Czech conductor, violinist, violist, and opera director. Life and career Neumann was born in Prague, where he studied at the Prague Conservatory with Josef Micka (violin), and ...

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 Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter, group= ( – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet classical pianist. He is frequently regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time, Great Pianists of the 20th Century and has been praised for the "depth of his int ...

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 educati ...

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 Ida Haendel, (15 December 19281 July 2020) was a Polish-British-Canadian violinist. Haendel was a child prodigy, her career spanning over seven decades. She also became an influential teacher. Early career Born in 1928 to a Polish Jewish fami ...

Henryk Szeryng Henryk Szeryng (usually pronounced ''HEN-r-ik SHEH-r-in-g'') (22 September 19183 March 1988) was a Polish violinist. Early years He was born in Warsaw, Poland on 22 September 1918 into a wealthy Jewish family. The surname "Szeryng" is a Poli ...

Hélène Boschi Hélène Boschi ( ; 11 August 19179 July 1990) was a Franco-Swiss pianist, born in Lausanne. She studied with Yvonne Lefébure and Alfred Cortot at the Ecole normale de musique in Paris. Throughout her life she led a dual career as a teacher and as ...

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 Republic, Czech string quartet which was founded in 2002. Their first album with the second quartets of Pavel Haas, Haas and Leoš Janáček, Janáček won the 2007 Gramophone Award, ''Gramophone'' Award for Chamb ...

awarded ''BBC Music Magazine''s "Chamber Choice". Among other artists working with Supraphon were

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 Mackerras in 2005 Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; 1925 2010) was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the Eng ...

. 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

: 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 Lamon Records is an indie record label that was established in North Carolina before moving to Nashville, Tennessee. Lamon Records concentrates its efforts in country, bluegrass, alternative and Americana music, as well as all forms of Christi ...

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 ori ...

.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 un ...

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