- RCA Red Seal Records
infobox record label
image_bg = black
parent =Sony Music Entertainment
founded = 1902
founder =Eldridge R. Johnson
distributor =Sony BMG Masterworks (In the US)
genre = Classical Music
country = US
url = http://www.sonybmgmasterworks.com/about/rca.htmlRCA Red Seal Records is a prestigious classical music label and is now part of
Sony BMG Masterworks .The Red Seal label was begun in 1902 by the
Gramophone Company in theUnited Kingdom and was quickly picked up by itsUnited States affiliate theVictor Talking Machine Company by its presidentEldridge R. Johnson . The distinctive red label inspired the name. Led by the great tenorEnrico Caruso , Victor's Red Seal Records changed the perception of recorded music. The first Caruso 10 inch 78 rpm records were issued in 1903 and became wildly successful, attracting other legendaryopera stars to Victor and consolidating Victor's place as the market leader in recordings.The early acoustic recordings were excellent for voices, but not for musical instruments. The introduction of "Orthophonic" electrical recording in 1925 allowed for better reproduction of music. In 1929, Victor was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (
RCA ) and the company becameRCA Victor Records .RCA Victor's Red Seal series continued its preeminence from the 1930s through the 1950s thanks partly to one of the greatest conductors of the time,
Arturo Toscanini . Nearly all his recordings were issued on Red Seal, most of them with theNBC Symphony Orchestra (NBC was a subsidiary of RCA at the time). ConductorEugene Ormandy made his first recordings with thePhiladelphia Orchestra for Red Seal, and returned to the label in 1968, after spending many years withColumbia Masterworks Records .Leonard Bernstein also made his first recordings forRCA , and another best-selling RCA Red Seal conductor wasArthur Fiedler , who made many recordings with theBoston Pops for the label.In 1950 RCA finally began releasing long-playing
gramophone records , or LPs (originally introduced byColumbia Records in 1948), because they were losing artists and sales due to the company's resistance to adopting the new format.In 1954 RCA began experiments with
stereophonic recording. Their first "Stereo Orthophonic" reel to reel tapes were issued in 1955. When stereo long-playing records first appeared in 1958, RCA introduced their highly regarded "Living Stereo" albums, many of which are available on CDs. During this period RCA was consistently seen as producing some of the finest-sounding recordings available.It wasn't until 1968 when RCA changed logos, deemphasizing the Victor name, that the label came to be known as "RCA Red Seal Records" After
General Electric bought RCA in 1986 and sold its interest in the record company toBertelsmann , the RCA Victor name was revived so the label became "RCA Victor Red Seal Records" before eventually dropping the Victor name again and reverting to "RCA Red Seal" due to the fact thatVictor Entertainment now owns the trademark rights to the Victor record label inJapan .Some RCA Red Seal recording artists
The following artists, conductors, and orchestras have all made RCA Red Seal recordings. Some have also recorded or may be currently recording for other labels.
*Licia Albanese , soprano
*Marian Anderson , contralto
*Rose Bampton , soprano
*Leonard Bernstein , conductor
*Jussi Björling , tenor
*Boston Pops Orchestra
*Boston Symphony Orchestra
*Julian Bream , guitarist and lutenist
*Guido Cantelli , conductor
*Enrico Caruso , tenor
*Richard Crooks , tenor
*Chicago Symphony Orchestra
*Van Cliburn , pianist
*Giuseppe Di Stefano , tenor
*Placido Domingo , tenor
*Arthur Fiedler , conductor
*James Galway , flautist
*Morton Gould , pianist and conductor
*Kathryn Grayson , soprano
*Jascha Heifetz , violinist
*David Helfgott , pianist
*Ben Heppner , tenor
*Vladimir Horowitz , pianist
*José Iturbi , pianist and conductor
*Florence Foster Jenkins , soprano
*Edward Johnson, tenor
*Serge Koussevitzky , double-bassist and conductor
*Mario Lanza , tenor
*Lorin Maazel , violinist and conductor
*Ernest MacMillan , conductor
*John McCormack , tenor
*James Melton , tenor
*Robert Merrill , baritone
*Anna Moffo , soprano
*Grace Moore , soprano
*Pierre Monteux , conductor
*Charles Münch , conductor
*NBC Symphony Orchestra
*Eugene Ormandy , violinist and conductor
*Jan Peerce , tenor
*Wilfrid Pelletier , conductor
*Roberta Peters , soprano
*Philadelphia Orchestra
*Ezio Pinza , bass-baritone
*Leontyne Price , soprano
*Rosa Ponselle , soprano
*Jean-Pierre Rampal , flautist
*Fritz Reiner , conductor
*Arthur Rubinstein , pianist
*Robert Shaw, conductor
*Robert Shaw Chorale
*Leonard Slatkin , conductor
*Risë Stevens , mezzo-soprano
*Leopold Stokowski , conductor
*Gladys Swarthout , contralto
*Toronto Symphony Orchestra
*Michael Tilson Thomas , conductor
*Arturo Toscanini , conductor
*Lawrence Tibbett , baritone
*Richard Tucker , tenorSee also
*
List of record labels
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