Brian Culverhouse, who has died aged 93, was a leading and much-admired classical music producer throughout the second half of the 20th century. Having studied conducting, piano and clarinet – and after serving as a weapons instructor in the Brigade of Guards – he joined the International Artists Department of EMI in November 1949, supervising his first sessions in June the following year. He went on to work with artists including George Weldon, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Vivian Dunn, Dame Myra Hess and Nicolai Malko, before becoming the Classical Producer for EMI Records in September 1963. In that post he recorded extensively with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Louis Frémaux, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Constantin Silvestri, the Scottish National Orchestra under Sir Alexander Gibson and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Charles Groves.

One particular passion was capturing the sound and splendour of cathedral organs, and among Culverhouse’s most treasured achievements is the 19-LP Great Cathedral Organ series, a glorious survey of the instruments and soloists as they were heard by congregations of the 1960s, and one lovingly remastered at Abbey Road for CD in 2011.

Other major projects included a highly successful working relationship with Lieutenant-Colonel Vivian Dunn, Director of the Band of the Royal Marines School of Music. When writing Dunn’s obituary for Gramophone in 1995, Culverhouse recollected that by Dunn’s retirement in 1968 the records they’d made together had sold more than a million copies. For his part, Dunn insisted that this success was largely down to Culverhouse.

Culverhouse was to produce many more recordings of British military and brass bands. As noted by our pages in October 1968 by Roger Wimbush: ‘Mr Culverhouse has been active in the world of military and brass band recordings, and is bringing to our attention much splendid music that only needs the care and musicianship bestowed on other music to attract a contemporary public. I must not anticipate, but some of our eminent Victorians are being taken off the shelf and, well, looked at!’

Culverhouse left EMI in December 1971, forming Brian Culverhouse Productions and going on to work for labels across the sector including Chandos, RCA, Classics for Pleasure, EMI Classics, Decca, DG, Contour, Chalfont, Nimbus, Unicorn-Kanchana and ASV. He retired in 2003.

His recordings were invariably recognised for their excellent sound quality. Typing his name into Gramophone’s archive is to immediately call up countless notices of praise, something caught well in this review from Robert Layton in June 1973, describing the sound quality of Gibson’s recording of Sibelius’s Second Symphony for Classics for Pleasure. ‘It has quite outstanding realism and naturalness, a wide range, a boldly defined bass as well as great clarity and transparency of detail. The acoustic is warm and firm (it was recorded in the City Hall, Glasgow) and the disc is unusual in that it bears the name of its producer, Brian Culverhouse, on the label. It certainly deserves to be there for, as I have intimated, the results are quite outstanding.’

In more recent years Culverhouse would contribute from time to time to our letters pages, recalling some of the artists he’d worked with. He died at his home on Sunday evening, shortly before his 94th birthday, having suffered for several years from dementia.

Brian Culverhouse, record producer.
Born October 22, 1927; died August 22, 2021