Philips Classics Records was started in the 1980s as the new classics record label for Philips Records. It was successful with artists including Alfred Brendel, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Neville Marriner and the

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) is an English chamber orchestra, based in London. John Churchill, then Master of Music at the London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Neville Marriner founded the orchestra as "The Academy of ...

, Mitsuko Uchida, Julian Lloyd Webber, Sir Colin Davis and André Rieu. A significant release by the label was the 180-CD '' The Complete Mozart Edition'', which featured all works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, known at the set's publication in 1990–1991 for the bicentenary of the composer's death. It was re-released as the ''Complete Compact Mozart Edition''. Parent Universal Music Group, which was formed in 1999 from the merger of the

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

and

MCA MCA may refer to: Astronomy * Mars-crossing asteroid, an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars Aviation * Minimum crossing altitude, a minimum obstacle crossing altitude for fixes on published airways * Medium Combat Aircraft, a 5th gene ...

families of labels, merged the label into

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

, because the new parent did not have the rights to the Philips name, while PolyGram was a subsidiary of the Philips company. The name Philips Classics still exists but appears on no new recordings and the Philips Classics Internet presence is within Decca's Web site.

External links

Decca & Philips Classics
Classical music record labels Defunct record labels of the United Kingdom Universal Music Group Decca Records {{Record-label-stub

See also

External links