Obituary: Decca producer Christopher Raeburn, 80

In Wednesday’s (2/25) Guardian (London), Barry Millington writes, “The record producer Christopher Raeburn, who has died aged 80, was a titan of the industry’s golden age. … One of the supreme record producers of his or any generation, Raeburn brought scholarly credentials and an all-consuming passion to the job, working with such artists as Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti, Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland and Vladimir Ashkenazy. … Raeburn had joined Decca in 1954, the year he left for Vienna, and rejoined it in 1958 as a producer, becoming the manager of opera productions in 1968, and director of opera productions in 1975. He remained with the company until 1991, but continued to work for it as a freelance producer until shortly before his death. … Other musical genres were not neglected, however, and Raeburn also worked closely with Andras Schiff, Zubin Mehta, Ashkenazy (producing for him the complete piano concertos of Beethoven and Mozart), Kyung-Wha Chung and many others. What these artists valued in particular about Raeburn was not only his technical accomplishment but also the profound knowledge and humanity that underpinned it.”