John Culshaw - Recording Producer

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm really looking forward to reading "Putting the Record Straight" (courtesy of Rowan Tree) but the Royal Mail Sorting Office always seems to be locked in our town. :(

[Ferretfancy]

amateur51

I never met John Culshaw, although he was at the BBC for a time, but I did meet some of his colleagues who had worked with him at the Sofiensaal in Vienna, where there was a staff flat, and I know that other gay people worked there in a mutually supportive and creative atmosphere. It is so difficult to get into people's heads how enclosed the gay world was back in the 1960's, not to say dangerous. I'm only surprised that so many of us managed to help and support each other in the face of so much hostility and ignorance.
In 2011 my partner and I will be celebrating fifty years together, and you must know well how many changes for the better there have been in that time, even though there's still a way to go. I still have friends of my generation who are living in that unreal closet, feeling that it's too late to change. It's hard not to feel angry at the waste isn't it?
Warm Wishes for the New Year
Ferret

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Congratulations, Ferretfancy.
I was unaware of John Culshaw's sexual orientation until I learnt of it on this thread, thought I did wonder, when I read "Ring Resounding".

[amateur51]

amateur51

I never met John Culshaw, although he was at the BBC for a time, but I did meet some of his colleagues who had worked with him at the Sofiensaal in Vienna, where there was a staff flat, and I know that other gay people worked there in a mutually supportive and creative atmosphere. It is so difficult to get into people's heads how enclosed the gay world was back in the 1960's, not to say dangerous. I'm only surprised that so many of us managed to help and support each other in the face of so much hostility and ignorance.
In 2011 my partner and I will be celebrating fifty years together, and you must know well how many changes for the better there have been in that time, even though there's still a way to go. I still have friends of my generation who are living in that unreal closet, feeling that it's too late to change. It's hard not to feel angry at the waste isn't it?
Warm Wishes for the New Year
Ferret

Indeed it is Ferret - wise words.

Many congratulations on your forthcoming major anniversary - I have two friends who've been together for 45 years and they made a civil partnership almost as soon as it became possible. They're still very sweet to be around, a lovely couple and two sparkling individuals.

There was a weekend of documentaries & dramas a couple of years ago on BBCTV looking at some of these issues and one male couple impressed me enormously. They said that as soon as the law changed in 1967 they went out and bought a double bed because up until that time they'd always maintained the pretence of single beds, just in case they'd received 'the knock at the door'

[Mandryka]

I suppose there might be cause for anger, when you think about the years spent 'in the trenches' - but, then again, without that period of adversity, would the homosexual community enjoy the solidarity it has today?

In the US, it is still very difficult for homosexual musicians to be open about their sexuality - particularly conductors. James Levine still feels the need to keep a 'beard' on his payroll to shore up his position with the rich, reactionary ladies on the Met's board of governors (after nearly forty years in the job!)

[Mary Chambers]

In 2011 my partner and I will be celebrating fifty years together, and you must know well how many changes for the better there have been in that time, even though there's still a way to go. I still have friends of my generation who are living in that unreal closet, feeling that it's too late to change. It's hard not to feel angry at the waste isn't it?

Congratulations on your fifty years. Because of my interest in Benjamin Britten, I have often thought about the past situation of gay men. It seems so extraordinary now to remember what things used to be like - I have difficulty explaining to my adult children the attitudes towards sex of any sort. Gay sex was of course unmentionable. There were so many writers and creative people who had to produce their works of art in a sort of code - it seems so absurd, though some great works were produced that way. What makes me most angry is the fact that gay people were made to feel that their instincts were in some way wrong or abnormal, and many suffered greatly because of it. As you imply, there are still some people with those attitudes.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Think how Tchaikovsky must haved suffered because of it.
Britten and Pears got off very lightly.
But I've never been fully convinced that Oscar Wilde was gay. He may well have been, but he was the sort of person who would have "come out" even in those darker days. I've always thought, from the evidence of his trial, that he was set up.

[Roehre]

In 2011 my partner and I will be celebrating fifty years together, and you must know well how many changes for the better there have been in that time, even though there's still a way to go. I still have friends of my generation who are living in that unreal closet, feeling that it's too late to change. It's hard not to feel angry at the waste isn't it?
Warm Wishes for the New Year
Ferret

Mrs R's and my warmest congratulations FF
My father's brother (now 85) and his partner were together from the end of the war until his partner's passing away in 2007 (at the age of 93), nearly 62 years. In my family it never was a point, his partner was simply an uncle of mine.
But their experiences outside our family and their and our circle of friends were much less positive, to use an understatement. Much has changed, but IMO much has to be changed still.
Happy New Year to you both

[Ferretfancy]

Thanks for the nice messages, I would like to apologise if I hijacked the Culshaw theme, it wasn't intentional, bu Mary makes the good point that so many creative people had to operate by living coded lives back then. Incidentally, I see that Matt Smith is due to play Christopher Isherwood in a film of Christopher and his Friends, the book in which he was at last able to reveal the truth behind the heavy disguises in his Berlin stories.
Roehre, your uncle and his partner had a good innings!

[Pianorak]

On Wikipedia I came across this recording of John Culshaw giving an interval talk about Act 2 of Die Walkure. If you haven't heard it and have the slightest interest in Wagner, do listen , it is simply magnificent.
http://www.operainfo.org/intermissio...132&mediaID=16

There is also the 1965 BBC TV programme "The Golden Ring", The making of Solit's Ring, directed by Humphrey Burton, available on Decca VHS (1992). Possibly on DVD as well by now?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Returning to Culshaw, I'm very pleased to say that "Putting the Record Straight" has arrived and I'll ditch my other reading for a few days to digest what I'm sure will be an interesting read.
And many thanks to Rowan Tree for sending the book. :)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Looking back through some of my CD and LP collection, those Decca engineers did much more than issue their own recordings. They also did the British RCA recordings, Lyrita and even the odd EMI one (certainly Karajan's "Salome"). And then CBS did Bernstein's "Der Rosenkavalier".

[Chris Newman]

Another wonderful record producer in the Decca stable was the late Peter Wadland. I got to know him at the Proms in the late sixties. He was three days older than I was so we sometimes met with friends for a joint birthday meal. When I first met him he worked at Schotts, the music publisher but soon moved to Decca Records, eventually becoming the Head Producer of the L'Oiseau-Lyre label. He also worked on the Vox label. He drew upon the greatest period artists of the time, including John Mark Ainsley, Malcolm Binns, Catherine Bott, James Bowman, Christophe Coin, The Fitzwilliam Quartet's complete Shostakovich cycle, Emma Kirkby, Philip Pickett and the New London Consort, Joshua Rifkin, Anthony Rooley, Christophe Rousset, Simon Standage, David Thomas, James Tyler and unusually Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland and Stomu Yamash'ta.

He began an illustrious offshoot of the L'Oiseau-Lyre label, Florilegium, where he produced many recordings with Christopher Hogwood, helping him to found The Academy of Ancient Music. This resulted in the complete Mozart and Beethoven Symphonies. Sadly Peter was unable to complete the Hogwood Haydn series as he died in 1992.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've been re-reading John Culshaw's autobiography, "Putting the Record Straight", and it's very interesting to compare some of his comments on Decca management, with the views he expressed in "Ring Resounding". In the book about The Ring, he was on his best behaviour, praising Sir Edward Lewis and Mr Rosengarten to the hilt, whereas in the later autobiography, he regarded them as dinosaurs. Loyalty to one's employer is not always sincere.

[Conchis]

I've been re-reading John Culshaw's autobiography, "Putting the Record Straight", and it's very interesting to compare some of his comments on Decca management, with the views he expressed in "Ring Resounding". In the book about The Ring, he was on his best behaviour, praising Sir Edward Lewis and Mr Rosengarten to the hilt, whereas in the later autobiography, he regarded them as dinosaurs. Loyalty to one's employer is not always sincere.

When RR was first published (in 1967) Culshaw was still - just about - a Decca employee, so probably rightly wary of what he said about his soon-to-be-former employers.

It's regrettable that he died before completing the sections on the Solti Elektra and the Britten Billy Budd (his final Decca session, I believe) as well as what underpinned his decision to leave the label for the BBC (where he was conspicuously successful and made Andre Previn a household name).