Walter Legge was born on 1st June 1906, and worked for EMI from 1927 to 1964. He was a legendary record producer, talent spotter, and entrepreneur. The great artists he worked with included Wilhelm Furtwängler , Arturo Toscanini , Herbert von Karajan , Maria Callas , Thomas Beecham , Otto Klemperer , and Dinu Lipatti . Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was both one of his artistes and his wife. The photograph above shows me discussing Legge's legacy with Schwarzkopf a month after his death in 1979, the occasion was an exhibition I created in his honour at the Royal Festival Hall in conjunction with the Philharmonia Orchestra . Legge founded the orchestra as a vehicle for his recordings, and later capriciously abandoned it. Today there are many record company executives that can rival him for ruthlessness, but none that come within a million miles of his artistic vision. Image credit and copyright - On An Overgrown Path . Any copyrighted material on these pages is includedin "fair use...
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Have been enjoying your Aldeburgh coverage tremendously, and hope to make it there some year before I shake this mortal coil.