John Royds Culshaw (May 28, 1924 - April 27, 1980) was a pioneering English classical record producer for Decca Records. Events 585 BC - A Solar eclipse occurs as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland. 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and Secular music In the Music industry, a record producer or music producer has many roles among them controlling the recording sessions coaching and guiding the musicians organizing Decca Records is a British Record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis.

Along with Fred Gaisberg and Walter Legge, he was one of the most influential producers of classical recordings. Frederick William Gaisberg (born Washington DC, USA, 1 January 1873; died Hampstead, London, England Walter Legge (born 1 June 1906, London; died 22 March 1979, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France) was an influential The Times said of him that ‘he stood in that great tradition of propagandists from Henry Wood to Leonard Bernstein, who seek to bring their love and knowledge of music to the widest audience. The Times is a daily national Newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register. ’ ^[1]

Early years

John Culshaw was born in Southport. Southport is a seaside town on the Irish Sea coast situated within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in England, UK. He underwent no formal musical education beyond childhood piano lessons, and began his working life not with Decca but in the Midland Bank in Liverpool. Midland Bank was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century Liverpool ( is a City and Metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary After wartime service as a navigator with the Royal Naval Air Service (the Fleet Air Arm) he joined Decca in a junior capacity in the company’s London office in November 1946, initially writing promotional material. The Fleet Air Arm is the branch of the Royal Navy responsible for the operation of the aircraft on board their ships His first book, a short biography of Rachmaninoff, was followed by a popular introduction to the concerto and a guide to modern music. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (Сергей Васильевич Рахманинов ^[2]

By 1947 he had been given the chance to produce classical sessions for Decca’s rapidly expanding catalogue. At Decca, the musicians whom he recorded included Ida Haendel, Eileen Joyce, Kathleen Ferrier and Clifford Curzon. Ida Haendel, CBE (born December 15, 1928) is a British Violinist of Polish descent Eileen Alannah Joyce CMG ( 1 January 1908 - 25 March 1991) was an Australian Pianist. Kathleen Mary Ferrier CBE ( 22 April 1912 &ndash 8 October 1953) was an English Contralto Sir Clifford Michael Curzon ( 18 May 1907 &ndash 1 September 1982) was an English Pianist. In 1948 he first worked with Georg Solti. WikipediaWikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes --> Sir Georg Solti, KBE ( 21 October 1912 From 1953 to 1955 he headed the European programme for Capitol Records, before returning to Decca, where he concentrated on the emerging stereophonic recording technology including the famous Decca tree. Capitol Records is a major United States -based Record label owned by EMI and located in Hollywood California and New York City as Stereophonic sound, commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of Sound, using two or more independent audio channels through a Symmetrical The Decca Tree is a spaced Microphone array most commonly used for orchestral recording

Culshaw wrote a general book on music, A Century of Music, which was published in 1953. ^[3] He was Manager of the Classical Recording Division of Decca from 1967-1975. ^[4]

The Decca Ring

By 1958 Decca, with its pre-eminent technical team, was in a position to embark on a complete studio recording of Wagner’s Ring cycle. Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung) is a cycle of four epic Music dramas by the German composer Culshaw engaged Solti, the Vienna Philharmonic and a cast of the best known Wagner singers of the day, and the engineers were generally acknowledged to have surpassed themselves. The Vienna Philharmonic (in German: die Wiener Philharmoniker) is an Orchestra in Austria, regularly considered one of the finest in the ^[5] The set was received with rapturous acclaim; to the astonishment and envy of Decca’s rivals Das Rheingold and the subsequent instalments of the cycle were best-sellers, outselling popular music releases such as those of Elvis Presley and Pat Boone. Das Rheingold ("The Rhine Gold" is the first of the four operas that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung) by Richard Wagner Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone (born June 1 1934) is an American Singer whose smooth style made him a popular performer of the 1950s ^[6] The cast included the veteran Kirsten Flagstad in one of her last recorded performances, Birgit Nilsson, Hans Hotter, Gottlob Frick, Wolfgang Windgassen and Régine Crespin, with even minor roles sung by such stars as Joan Sutherland. Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad ( 12 July 1895 &ndash 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian Opera singer one of the greatest Birgit Nilsson ( May 17, 1918 &ndash December 25, 2005) was a Swedish Dramatic soprano who specialized in operatic Hans Hotter ( 19 January 1909 &ndash 6 December 2003) was a German Operatic Bass-baritone, admired internationally WikipediaWikiProject_Opera#Infoboxes --> Gottlob Frick (born Ölbronn, Germany, 28 July, 1906 Régine Crespin ( 23 February 1927 – 5 July 2007) was a French operatic dramatic Soprano, later a Mezzo-soprano WikipediaWikiProject Opera#Infoboxes --> Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE (born 7 November 1926

In these productions – as in his only slightly less famous Decca releases of Richard Strauss's operas Salome and Elektra, also with Solti and Nilsson – Culshaw put into practice his strong belief that a properly made sound recording should create what he called ‘a theatre of the mind’. Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 &ndash 8 September 1949 was a German Composer of the late Romantic era and early modern era particularly noted Salome is an Opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German Libretto by the composer based on Hedwig Lachmann ’s German See Mourning Becomes Electra for a reference to the 1967 opera based on the 1931 Eugene O'Neill play ^[7] He disliked live recordings (such as those attempted at Bayreuth) because to him they were technically flawed and – crucially – were merely sound recordings of a theatrical performance. Bayreuthfestjpg|thumb|350px|right|Bayreuth Festspielhaus as seen in 1882 He sought to make recordings that compensated for the lack of the visual element by subtle production techniques, impossible in live recordings, that conjured up the action in the listener’s head. ^[8]

He also went to unprecedented pains to ensure that Wagner’s musical requirements were met. Thus where in Das Rheingold the score calls for eighteen anvils to be hammered during two brief orchestral interludes, Culshaw eschewed the usual electronic fabrication and arranged for eighteen anvils to be hired and hammered. Similarly, where Wagner called for steerhorns, Culshaw arranged for them to be used, instead of the more usual sound of the trombones used at Bayreuth and elsewhere. ^[9]

Culshaw wrote a memoir of the making of this recording of the Ring cycle, Ring Resounding. ^[10] In his later years, he published another book on the Ring cycle, Reflections on Wagner's Ring. ^[11]

Other recordings

As well as his success with Solti in Wagner, Culshaw produced recordings of Britten’s music conducted by the composer, with whom he maintained an excellent relationship despite the latter’s notorious oversensitivity. Edward Benjamin Britten Baron Britten, OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976 was an English Composer, conductor, The Times described these recordings as ‘a priceless heritage for posterity. ’^[12] With Herbert von Karajan he produced many of the conductor’s best-known opera sets, which still sell steadily forty years later. WikipediaWikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes --> Herbert von Karajan ( April 5

Later years

By 1967 Culshaw wished for a change, and moved from the record industry to television, becoming BBC Television’s Head of Music Programmes. He produced several series of André Previn’s Music Night, and commissioned Britten’s opera Owen Wingrave, written expressly for television. WikipediaWikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes --> André Previn ( Andreas Ludwig Priwin) KBE (b Owen Wingrave is an Opera for television in two acts with music by Benjamin Britten, his Opus 85 and a libretto by Myfanwy Piper, after a short ^[13]

He left the BBC in 1975 and worked freelance as a record and stage producer, writer and broadcaster. He died in London in 1980 from a rare form of hepatitis. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Hepatitis (plural hepatitides) implies injury to the Liver characterized by the presence of Inflammatory cells in the tissue of His very funny, if sometimes waspish, unfinished autobiography, Putting the Record Straight, was published after his death.

Among the honours given to John Culshaw, The Times listed ‘eight Grands Prix des Disques, numerous Grammys and in 1966 an OBE’, and the Vienna Philharmonic’s Nicolai Medal in 1959 and its Schalk Medal in 1967. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. ^[14]

References

Citations

• Culshaw, John Ring Resounding Secker & Warburg, 1968 - Culshaw's account of the recording of Wagner's Ring cycle. ISBN 0-436-11800-9
• Culshaw, John Putting the Record Straight Secker & Warburg, 1981 - Memoirs posthumously published. ISBN 0-436-11802-5
• The Times obituary notice, 29 April 1980, page 16.

External links

• Link to talk by Culshaw on Die Walküre An audio file from a Metropolitan Opera broadcast intermission feature (scroll to "From The Archives - March 1, 1975 - John Culshaw discusses Die Walküre; you will need Real Player to hear this)