Euryanthe and Guillaume Tell

 

I was once responsible for something to do with Klemperer about which I am not very proud. In my early days as an agent I sponsored some recordings with EMI in order to try and launch some promising artists. One of these was 'Euryanthe' and my conductor was Marek Janowski. Maybe you know the recording (with Jessye Norman, Rita Hunter, Nikolai Gedda and Tom Krause)? I later learned that Klemperer had wanted to record that opera so my project frustrated his plan to do so.

Janowski took that chance I had offered him - and then left me! As a direct result of having recorded Euryanthe in Dresden with the Staatskapelle there he was invited to record the Ring with them. At least my sponsorship was financially successful; I am still receiving royalties 50 years later. Another - bigger - project was 'Guillaume Tell' with Caballe, Gedda and Bacquier, conducted by Gardelli. Gardelli had the good grace to stick with me until the end of his career.

However, for me, even more interesting was your mention of your evening with Walter Legge. Legge is my hero and the perfect example of why one should never allow the fact that the person you are dealing with may be a **** to interfere with your artistic judgement.

As much as I admire Legge, I loathed his successor at EMI, Peter Andry. Andry was the person who replaced Klemperer with....Andre Previn. In my opinion that was the beginning of the end not only for EMI but for the entire classical record industry. They followed the (quick) money from thereon in.