Quintessence Records
Quintessence Records started in 1976. Quintessence was formed by Pickwick International Inc. as a budget label. Pickwick’s trademark for Quintessence was filed on December 10, 1976 with the initial Q made to look like a clef symbol. The label was devoted to the licensed reissue of historic classical recordings. The idea was printed on the record jackets: "Critically acclaimed recordings of the basic repertoire which belong in every library of great music" and also promised these were "Carefully remastered from the original master tapes, recut on the latest Neumann lathes and pressed on virgin vinyl." R. Peter Munves was the executive responsible for the label. Munves had earlier worked for Columbia Records and RCA Records classical music divisions. He said to Time magazine in 1971 “You can call me the P.T. Barnum of the classics”. Many of the Quintessence records were originally included in Reader's Digest boxed sets produced by Decca Records for RCA Victor. The producer of many of these sets was Charles Gerhardt and the engineer Kenneth Wilkinson. Conductors such as John Barbirolli and Jascha Horenstein and pianist Earl Wild were featured in these reissues. Series issued included: “Critics Choice” (beginning with PMC 7001) “Classics for Joy” (beginning