Sony Classical Sony Classical
Sony Classical
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This article is about the classical music record label. For its parent company, seeSony Masterworks.
Sony Classical Records(also known simply asSony Classical) is an Americanrecord labelfounded in 1924 asColumbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary ofColumbia Records.[1]In 1948, it issued the first commercially successful long-playing 12" record. Over the next decades its artists includedIsaac Stern,Pablo Casals,Glenn Gould,Eugene Ormandy,Vangelis,Elliot Goldenthal,Leonard BernsteinandJohn Williams. Columbia Records used the Masterworks brand name not only for classical and Broadway records, but also for spoken-word albums such asEdward R. MurrowandFred W. Friendly's successfulI Can Hear It Nowseries. ParentCBSalso featured the Masterworks name on its consumer electronics equipment.
In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed asCBS Masterworks Records, but in 1990, after CBS Records was acquired bySony, it was renamed Sony Classical Records; its logo echoes the "Magic Notes" logo that was Columbia's emblem until 1954. During the 1990s, the label attracted controversy under the leadership ofPeter Gelb, as it emphasizedcrossovermusic over mainstream classical releases, failing to make available much of its archive of great recordings. Going "back to the future", the Masterworks name lives on in its series of Broadway cast albums released throughMasterworks Broadway Records, and as the name ofSony Music Entertainment's classical music division,Sony Masterworks. The Sony Classical label is listed today as a sister label of Masterworks.