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Sexual Harassment in Classical Music

I thought he left an orchestra somewhere else (Montreal?) a few years ago, on account of allegations of wandering hands.
 
This sort of thing regrettably is nothing new - After a 1945 incident in the back of a cab with Walter Legge, Kathleen Ferrier refused to go into the studio with him alone, she only completed her EMI contract singing duets with Isobel Baillie and then went to Decca.
 
Before I saw your post Barry, I was reflecting just minutes beforehand on something I read about Legge- that he was able to explain the unique sound of Calas's voice due to the high 'gothic' arching of her soft palate. He discovered this by having his fingers in her mouth! (something I thought quite strange reading it) and was happy to relate the story to his wife and others over lunch in one of the cafes in The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, next to La Scala.
 
Walter Legge was quite a character in his time. One or two bested him though. Not the least was the great English composer Malcom Arnold, who, tiring of Legge’s incessant advice on how to improve the composer’s conducting, told the record producer with out ceremony, “Get back into your little box, and stay there till I have finished.” Arnold was not only conducting the LPO for EMI, but was still first trumpet in the orchestra. It was not long after that that the LPO moved to Decca as in an exclusive contract. Legge was a genuinely nasty piece of work. As young man he even peeved the very old Elgar in 1933 with an interview for HMV house magazine, the “Voice,” when the rather stuffy almost Victorian Elgar found Legge's style pushy to say the least.
 
George J said:
Walter Legge was quite a character in his time. One or two bested him though. Not the least was the great English composer Malcom Arnold, who, tiring of Legge’s incessant advice on how to improve the composer’s conducting, told the record producer with out ceremony, “Get back into your little box, and stay there till I have finished.” Arnold was not only conducting the LPO for EMI, but was still first trumpet in the orchestra. It was not long after that that the LPO moved to Decca as in an exclusive contract. Legge was a genuinely nasty piece of work. As young man he even peeved the very old Elgar in 1933 with an interview for HMV house magazine, the “Voice,” when the rather stuffy almost Victorian Elgar found Legge's style pushy to say the least.
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Legge disapproved of Otto Klemperer's slowish tempi. When Legge complained, Klemperer said, "You'll get used to it." To add insult to injury, he'd ring Legge in the recording booth from the phone on the conductor's podium every few minutes and ask, "Are you used to it yet, Walter?"
 
It might be added that Legge’s most enduring contribution as a record producer to the current issues of historic recorded music making is the immense series recorded with Klemperer, and Klemperer had no doubt that it was the Philharmonia Orchestra, rather than he himself, or Legge who was instrumental in this remarkable success.

When Legge disbanded the Philharmonia, it was Klemperer, Boult and an other [whose named escapes my memory] who sub-ventioned the newly formed “New Philharmonia.”

Legge was essentially a small and nasty man, who failed to impress most musicians except Schwartozkpf. Klemperer once referred to her as Ilse Koch in a rehearsal but she took the insult.

ATB from George
 
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