Favourite record label past or present

[Pianoman]

CFP and Marble Arch for me as an impoverished teen - later, the delights of the Wergo catalogue got me hooked in a slightly different direction

[frankwm]

The most important/favorite UK LP label was The HMV Treasury / World Records Retrospect series...

[jayne lee wilson]

NMC FOREVER AND FOREVER! DUTTON too! And as ever, BIS, CPO, Naxos, HM...

[Dave2002]

Tricky this ...

From the LP era I liked the following - both as performances and recordings:

COLUMBIA UK 33CX 1754 Klemperer, Schubert 9

HMV ASD 521 Barbirolli English string music

HMV ASD 2329 Vaughan Williams, Symphony 6, Boult

Angel AN107, Fauré Requiem, Cluytens

CBS – Bruno Walter Dvorak 8 plus Brahms Academic Festival Overture
CBS – Bartok Concerto for orchestra, Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra
CBS - Bruno Walter – Mozart symphonies – 35,36,39

Supraphon – Janacek Sinfonietta, Taras Bulba, Ancerl
Supraphon – Brahms, Double Concerto
Supraphon – Glagolitic Mass

DG Mahler 8, Kubelik

Allegedly Supraphon used the MS method of recording for stereo, and their recordings sounded good. EMI was supposed to use a Blumlein arrangement - which again sounded good on good replay equipment, while others - Philips, Decca used various different techniques for microphone placement - though probably none used anything like the number of microphones which get used sometimes nowadays.

Other people, including critics, claimed to prefer Decca to EMI, which I didn't, but in the LP era I think a lot depended on the equipment used for replay. One day I heard some Decca LPs of Bartók played on some really good equipment, and they sounded really good. Other people said that American recordings weren't that good - but actually I heard quite a few CBS recordings played on good equipment and they also sounded very good. Some CBS recordings (e.g Barenboim's Elgar) were in fact recorded in England and perhaps by British recording teams - and at the time they also sounded very good - by which I mean better than most CDs I hear played on average equipment nowadays - though my ears may be slightly "rose tinted".

There are still people who swear that vinyl sounds better. Personally I don't know, but to get vinyl to sound good one does need a very good system. It is certainly possible that a good vinyl system will sound better than an average CD based system - and I've not got enough experience of high end CD systems to know whether CDs at their best top vinyl. For a long while it was "obvious" to me that CDs were better, though I definitely have heard CDs which sounded worse than the equivalent LPs, probably due to poor transfer techniques.

OTOH, some of the labels I used to buy on LP - Saga, Fidelio, various labels with organ music didn't produce great recordings (distortion, muffled recording, pressing faults etc.), but I enjoyed them anyway, because of the music. I also had some Turnabout and Nonesuch recordings which I enjoyed a lot - the recording of Haydn concertos for organ, etc on Nonesuch (H-1024) was really good - though may have had an artificial sheen to the sound. Heliodor was another label I enjoyed on occasion.

One of my first LPs was Grieg/Bizet on Philips (probably actually a CBS recording) with Ormandy and the Phiadelphia - in mono - but had a wide dynamic range, and another Philips 10 inch was Oistrakh in Mendelssohn VC also with Ormandy and the PO - again mono - but a lovely performance. Later Philps purchases included Mozart piano concerts with Haebler, and some Haydn Sturm und Drang symphonies.

Another interesting LP was Stokowski in Ives - the fourth symphony recording has the most spaced out grooves I've ever seen on an LP - CBS.

In the CD era I have rated BIS and Chandos, and some Naxos issues are very good - though sometimes one simply gets swayed by the cheapness. Now many of the highly priced recordings of yesteryear get transferred to CD, put into box sets and sold at what are now very low prices.

[Sir Velo]

I've always had eclectic tastes in classical music, from all periods and all styles. Hence, no one label predominates in my affections.

Not the sexy choice but from my early days of CD collecting, Philips Duo and Double Decca stand out as excellent products. Duo, in particular, provided copious, quality notes on the music (in at least three languages) as well as some of their most renowned artists and recordings. DD had some of the best artwork on its records; as did the short lived "The Classic Sound".

To be objective, one ought to look at the labels which feature most prominently in one's library: on this basis, DG would come tops, followed by EMI; if for no other reason than the sheer volume of recordings they issued over the years.

[Nick Armstrong]

Tricky this ...

No it isn't! As your other thread reminds me: Westminster Gold, all the way!!

[umslopogaas]

#36 pastoralguy, its a very odd thing about Deutsche Grammophon: despite being very high quality products, full price in their day, and featuring some very fine artists, they are not collectible. The few exceptions are collectible artists, like Anja Thauer, who we mentioned a few months ago, and Mravinsky's last three Tchaikovsky symphonies. But generally, people dont want them and they go very cheaply on ebay, etc. Which is great, because I can pick them up for very little, and when I can, I do.

[Don Petter]

#36 pastoralguy, its a very odd thing about Deutsche Grammophon: despite being very high quality products, full price in their day, and featuring some very fine artists, they are not collectible. The few exceptions are collectible artists, like Anja Thauer, who we mentioned a few months ago, and Mravinsky's last three Tchaikovsky symphonies. But generally, people dont want them and they go very cheaply on ebay, etc. Which is great, because I can pick them up for very little, and when I can, I do.

There's one thing which I think is unique to DG(G). Their standard label design, which started on 78s, incorporated a 'flower' pattern round the edge which was, in fact a 78rpm stroboscope to enable users to check their player speed. This design element was subsequently used on LPs and at least some of their CDs. There can't be many other CDs which would enable you to check out your wind-up gramophone?

[pastoralguy]

#36 pastoralguy, its a very odd thing about Deutsche Grammophon: despite being very high quality products, full price in their day, and featuring some very fine artists, they are not collectible. The few exceptions are collectible artists, like Anja Thauer, who we mentioned a few months ago, and Mravinsky's last three Tchaikovsky symphonies. But generally, people dont want them and they go very cheaply on ebay, etc. Which is great, because I can pick them up for very little, and when I can, I do.

I just loved the whole package. For me, there was an exclusivity about the DG 'product' that I found very appealing and, let's be honest, whether one loves or loaths Karajan, boy, could he sell records?!

I suspect the problems with DG Lps if that there were a lot produced so their resell value is low. (Although my dad had a DG 'promotion' Lp of Herbie and his band doing the Tchaikovsky string serenade and Mozart's 'Eine kleine...' With the labels on the wrong side! It caused a lot of confusion in our household!). I seem to remember it was a promotional vehicle for high end Phillips equipment with a picture of an exclusive young couple in beautiful clothes holding brandy glasses. Heady stuff for a 14 year old.

[pastoralguy]

There's one thing which I think is unique to DG(G). Their standard label design, which started on 78s, incorporated a 'flower' pattern round the edge which was, in fact a 78rpm stroboscope to enable users to check their player speed. This design element was subsequently used on LPs and at least some of their CDs. There can't be many other CDs which would enable you to check out your wind-up gramophone?

[Dave2002]

... and Mravinsky's last three Tchaikovsky symphonies.

I had the 4th on LP, but although I liked the performance quite a lot I was less enthusiastic about the sound. Seemed dull compared to some other labels.

I did forget one other label earlier - which was Telefunken - there was a very good recording of Dvořák's cello concerto back in the dark ages probably TCS18022, Hoelscher with Keilberth and the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra - looks like that was available in stereo as well as mono - remember the days when you could get mono or stereo?

[DublinJimbo]

One label which hasn't been mentioned yet as far as I can see is Argo. I greatly admired their adventurous repertoire choices, their fine recordings and their high production values.

Nowadays, BIS and CPO rank highly for me, as do Channel Classics and Pentatone (both offshoots from the former Philips). Another label which increasingly attracts my attention is Audite, while Supraphon, Wergo, Zig-Zag Territories and Dacapo also regularly generate sparks of excitement with their releases.

[Dave2002]

Agree about Argo, though some earlier recordings were rebranded as Decca. Delos and Telarc have also had some good recordings over the years - though perhaps not consistently so, which applies to many recording companies.

[hmvman]

Count me as another Argo devotee. Great artists in superb recordings and nicely presented (thinking of LPs here). Definitely my favourite.

L'Oiseau Lyre for their interesting repertoire and Decca sound

I also liked HMV Greensleeve LPs for their mid-price re-issues of HMV recordings.

Turnabout LPs for their fun covers - I wish I'd bought more of them.

Lyrita for their championing of British music and, again, superb recordings.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Looking through my most recent spending, my favourite label is BRILLIANT! (Even cheaper than CfP!)