Virgin Classics
Virgin Classics was launched in April 1988 by Richard Branson, the founder and director of Virgin Classics. Its aim, from the beginning, was to record a repertoire underrepresented by the established classical companies and to bring to recorded classical music the freshness of approach that had made the Virgin brand a byword for excellence and innovation world-wide. The first ten titles were a typically eclectic mix of Tippett, Berio, Liszt, French pops and English viol music of the seventeenth century, together with the first performance, on period instruments, of Schubert’s 9th Symphony.
Virgin Classics quickly made its mark with a Gramophone award for Best Opera (the first recording of Britten’s Paul Bunyan) and went on winning innumerable awards world-wide. The early music catalogue combined wide ranging recordings of chamber, vocal and (to a lesser extent) orchestral repertoire with a special emphasis on British and twentieth century music. Outstanding artists on these recordings include Mikhail Pletnev, Steven Isserlis, Steven Hough, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Leif Ove Andsnes and Kent Nagano. The main catalogue was complemented by a collection of period performance recordings which now represents one third of Virgin Classics’ output and features music ranging from eleventh century polyphony to Mendelssohn.
In 1992 Virgin Classics moved to EMI and began to profit from EMI’s world-wide marketing and distribution network. New artists were signed to the label, including the Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk and, later, the outstanding Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi. Recordings from EMI’s early music label Reflexe became available to the label, which, along with Deutsche Grammophon’s Archiv label and L’Oiseau-lyre, now represents one of the largest collections of period performance recordings currently available. Artists such as Gustav Leonhardt, Roger Norrington, Jordi Savall, Emma Kirkby and Monica Hugget are all well represented in the catalogue.
In 1997, Virgin Classics became Paris based and has since then been closely linked to EMI France’s activities. This has since given the label yet a new turn: indeed Virgin Classics has pushed even further its original ambition of releasing innovative recordings – its philosophy lies in offering musical investigations into the ever-growing Baroque repertoire, on the one-hand, and on the other, in expanding its artist roster with the young and promising artists of the day, especially in the vocal repertoire. Thus the label’s roster boasts violinist Fabio Biondi and his ensemble Europa Galante, Emmanuelle Haïm and the Concert d’Astrée, William Christie and the Arts Florissants, conductors Daniel Harding and Paavo Järvi, the two brothers Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, sopranos Natalie Dessay, Véronique Gens, Patrizia Ciofi, mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux, tenor Rolando Villazon and countertenors Philippe Jaroussky and David Daniels, pianist Piotr Anderszewski, and the Artemis Quartet. Recent signings further the label’s artistic development with, namely, pianists Nicholas Angelich and David Fray, and Ukrainian violinist Valeriy Sokolov. These artists all mark the label’s artistic unity and bring to Virgin Classics’ catalogue world-wide repute and originality. The firm policy of artistic development has resulted in many award-winning recordings and most recently, Virgin Classics has just been singled out as “Label of the Year 2006” by Gramophone and Classic FM.
In addition to its classical and baroque repertoire Virgin Classics has also developed cross-over projects, and found from the start general recognition with Mozart in Egypt, of which both volumes 1 & 2 have sold over 400 000 copies sold world-wide.
