Best Vintage Vinyl Classical Labels...

Popular wisdom seems to go for Red Seal, Decca/London and Columbia Masterworks. But I've also enjoyed a lot of Angel/Seraphim, and early DG (if the mono CD box is anything to go by).

Any other suggestions? And comments on the above, too!

 

If you really love an album on Angel or Seraphim, it may be worthwhile to look for the British or German equivalent. (Although the old mono Angels were UK pressings, and some late LPs were imported from Germany.)

Nonesuch often has great stuff. Pressings can be iffy though.

I always recommend UK-pressed London Stereo Treasury and Philips Festivo pressed in Holland. Hard to go wrong with those.

 

London's Richmond subsidiary impresses, too, although I only have Sargent's "The Planets"...

 

2 lesser-known UK labels that made some fantastic recordings are Argo (one in particular is Rossini String Sonatas (blue cover)) and L'oiseau-Lyre. Great performances and sound. Also Phillips in the US is greatly undervalued. And EMI UK is well-known for their fine recordings.

 

Don't forget Mercury Living Presence.

 

US Decca had their own classical line - Gold Label Series, I.I.N.M. Once had a Vronsky & Babin album of classical piano music on that label. As well, Capitol had a few classical offerings in the '50's (one of them under the "Full Dimensional Sound" banner, prior to the accompanying logo being redefined into "Full Dimensional Stereo"), before shifting such towards Angel and Seraphim. (The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the father of "The Captain" of " . . . and Tennille" fame, was one mainstay of Capitol's classical line.) And then Command, of all labels (William Steinberg conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony was a fixture on that label).

As for the UK Argo, I think it was because of them that a US label with that same name had to change theirs to Cadet.

 

Boston Records and Erato are good ones to look for, Deutsche Grammophon has a very wide selection to choose from

 

Arguably not the best, but I find The Famous Charisma Label imaginative, enchanting and vinyl enducing.

 

I have a ton of Philips, DGG, London, Decca vintage EU pressings. Uniformly excellent.

Also have many Erato, Pathe, etc that are also quite good.

 

The EMI (RIP) group of labels: Columbia, His Master's Voice, Pathe, Testament, Angel (red or blue labels only).
Telefunken
Philips
UK Decca: Argo, STS.
DG, Archiv, Heliodor, Collection.
Vox (anything mastered by Dr. Rudolph Van Gelder)
Any LP from the RCA (Record Corporation of America) group of labels: Gramophone, Halo, Allegro, Varsity.

https://www.abruckner.com/Data/documents/JB_Rubahn_Bruckner_Third_Symphony.pdf

PSEUDONYMOUS PERFORMERS - Research, Method, Labels - INTRODUCTION -Allegro Royale Elite » 1

ALLEGRO VARSITY Gramophone REIMS Lympany CAMPHAUSEN Elite HALO Concertone INTRODUCTION »

 

EMI ASD

 

I read the thread title incorrectly, as record label (as on LP), not a record company...
Though I like more than the JUST the labels, one of the first classical LPs I got was the Nutcracker by the Boston Pops...though I find it a bit weird that you can find that album with the same picture but with different colors (one is black and white ish)..

I voted for the RCA shaded dog !!!

 

My list of great classical labels:

Vox
Turnabout
UK Decca/London
Argo
L"Oiseau-Lyre
Erato
Telefunken
RCA Living Stereo
Mercury Living Presence
Pye
Vanguard
Nixa
Westminster
Concert Hall Society
Esoteric/Period
Hungaroton
Supraphon
Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft
CRD
Ducretet-Thomson
Boston
Epic
Philips
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
French Harmonia Mundi
Capitol Classics
Angel (Mono UK pressings), US Red Label decent. Last era German pressings and Digital good
UK Saga
UK, French, German and Italian EMI.
Richmond (UK pressings best)
Decca/London Phase 4
Telarc
Desmar
Archiv

This should get you started, but not a complete list.

 

From 1954 to 1958, the background on such Red Seals was a dark maroon, thus you had to have strong light to see the shading in the "shaded dog." And the gramophone (and light reflected from the horn) was much darker in its tint. I think the printing of these 4-color label blanks in those days was done by letterpress - and then, the CMYK color levels and tinting were not as consistent as is the case today. It was about mid-1958 - coincidentally, the year stereo discs were introduced - that the method of printing Red Seal labels changed, and the red brightened considerably (ditto for the phonograph), likely by use of a magenta that was more in line with modern CMYK methods.

The "shading" itself may've dated to the short-lived early 1950's HMV label imprint in the US, back when RCA Victor had a reciprocal agreement with EMI dating way back when. That expired in 1957, after which RCA's product was distributed in the UK for the next 10+ years by that country's Decca.