Walter Legge

Walter Legge (born June 1, 1906 in London , † March 22, 1979 in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat ) was a British producer of classical music and founder of the Philharmonia Orchestra .

Life

In 1927, at the age of 21, Legge found a job at His Master's Voice (HMV), where he initially only took on editorial responsibility for the in-house magazine. It was here that the record producer Fred Gaisberg discovered him, with whom he produced records for the first time. In 1931 the company was taken over by EMI . “Legge was a sharp-eyed critic and had a keen ear”: Between 1933 and 1938, in addition to his work as a producer, he also worked as a music critic for the Manchester Guardian newspaper.

In 1947 he engaged Herbert von Karajan and Wilhelm Furtwängler , both of whom owed their record careers to him after the war and denazification proceedings . Legge also became a sponsor, then in 1953 Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's husband . However, he also helped Paul Hindemith and, above all, Otto Klemperer to regain their pre-war prestige. In addition, he engaged Maria Callas , Victor de Sabata , Géza Anda and promoted the young Wolfgang Sawallisch , to whom he ascribed " a beat as clear and uncomplicated as Knappertsbusch's ". In 1945 he founded the London Philharmonia Orchestra . From 1946 Legge was one of the directors of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, and from May 1958 to November 1963 director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. In 1964 he retired from EMI entirely.

Legge's activities were widely recognized.

After Legge's death, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf wrote his biography. In her estate, which is kept in Gerd Nachbauer's archive of the Schubertiade Hohenems , there are also numerous documents on Legge and Maria Callas, among others .

Grave in Zumikon

After Elisabeth Schwarzkopf died in 2006, her urn was buried together with Walter Legges in a family grave next to her parents in Zumikon near Zurich , where she lived from 1982 to 2003.

Works

• Heard - unheard - memoirs . Munich 1982. ISBN 3-88453-018-6

literature

• Jonathan Carr: The Wagner clan. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-455-50079-0 .
• Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: On and off the Record: A Memoir of Walter Legge . London 1982. ISBN 0-571-11928-X et al.
• Alan Sanders: Walter Legge: A Discography . Westport CT 1984. ISBN 0-313-24441-3
• Alan Sanders, Ed .: Walter Legge: Words and Music . New York 1998. ISBN 0-415-92108-2

Web links

• Literature by and about Walter Legge in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jonathan Carr, p. 232.