Editing Walter Legge (section)

==Musical legacy==
Legge's artistic judgment was sometimes questioned. He was aesthetically conservative; he wrote to a friend, "If producers and scenic designers are allowed to continue their writing of graffiti and vulgarity and stupidity on masterpieces … not to mention [[Patrice Chéreau|Chéreau]] at [[Bayreuth Festival|Bayreuth]] – we shall be forced to insist that they write the libretto and music to match the rubbish they put on the stage!"  Legge predicted to John Culshaw and [[Georg Solti]] that their Decca recording of ''[[Das Rheingold]]'' would not sell; it became a classical best-seller.<ref>Culshaw p. 91</ref> He was responsible for three recordings of ''The Magic Flute'', conducted by Beecham, Karajan and Klemperer, each of which has incurred the disapproval of critics for omitting the spoken dialogue.<ref>See, for example, Hope-Wallace, Philip, [http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/November%201964/66/805443 "Die Zauberflöte"], ''Gramophone'', November 1964, p. 66</ref> His recording of ''[[Fidelio]]'' under Klemperer has been compared unfavourably with Klemperer's contemporaneous live recording from Covent Garden, on the grounds that Legge's chosen singers were less effective than their ROH rivals.<ref>Blyth, Alan, [http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/February%202004/81/782871 "Fidelio"], ''Gramophone'', February 2004, p. 81</ref> He was suspicious of stereo recording, and resisted it for as long as he could.<ref>Keener, Andrew, [http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/March%201985/7/847414 "News and Views"], ''Gramophone'', March 1985, p. 7</ref>

Nevertheless Legge's legacy is "a vast number of outstanding recordings that set standards unlikely ever to be surpassed".<ref name=dnb/> His recordings of ''[[The Dream of Gerontius]]'' ([[Malcolm Sargent|Sargent]]), ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' (Furtwängler), ''[[Tosca]]'' ([[Victor de Sabata|De Sabata]]), ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' and ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]'' (Karajan), ''[[Così fan tutte]]'' ([[Karl Böhm|Böhm]]) and the core German symphonic repertory (Klemperer, Furtwängler, Karajan…) have remained in the catalogue for decades, first on LP and then on CD.<ref name=gramobit/>