1st January 1953

Jaroslav Šeda

In 1953, the 28-year-old Jaroslav Šeda, who until 1949 worked at the Gramofonové závody, was appointed Supraphon’s di­rector. He would hold the post for 25 years! In those turbulent times, Šeda was able to steer a course amidst the political pressures, while managing to maintain a high quality of Supraphon production. Even though, naturally, ideologically “suitable” works had to be recorded, during his tenure virtually every good composer was afforded some scope too. At the time, Supraphon’s dis­cography also included sacred pieces and historical music, as well as opuses in line with the modern compositional trends. What is more, Supraphon under Šeda went on to establish licence trading with foreign labels, among them such large multinationals as EMI, Polygram, Sony and others. In 1974, for political reasons, Šeda had to leave Supraphon, yet the edition plans he had set years in advance continued to be adhered to afterwards.