The veteran producer Richard Bradburn, a master-restorer of old EMI tapes for such series as Great Recordings of the Century, has died of a heart attack at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, compounded by Coronavirus.
Richard allied profound knowledge of music to passion, energy and unfailing friendliness.
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very sad, but no Delius please. In this difficult times, one needs a composer of substance to provide solace, not some paper thin idiotic note-doodler
What an insensitive comment. Maybe focus on the fact that a beloved and important colleague has died?
Congratulations! Stay away from Delius if you don’t understand him. Those of us who love his music will find as much solace in it as we please, no thanks to you.
Where does that come from? Possibly someone has been deeply, gravely offended by some paper thin idiotic note-doodling. Maybe it was not so paper thin after all.
Poor comment in the circumstance. I knew Richard for 28 years. He was a fine and outstanding man, and contributed greatly to the restoration and reissuing of the magnificent EMI Classics catalogue, from A-Z, including Delius. Sounds like you would have learned a lot from him, if you had known him.
I just noticed the news. He helped me when I did my master’s degree here in Finland. Very sad news.
What a dumb thing to say. If Delius was good enough for Sir Thomas Beecham it’s good enough for me. And with what’s going on, Life’s Dance seems really appropriate.
“Paper thin idiotic note-doodler”??? Wow, Dee, you really MUST need a bit of solace if you can refer to Delius in those terms.
And how about a bit of respect for Richard Bradburn? After all, this post is announcing his death.
(SMH)
How very snotty and inappropriate
Rest in peace, dear Bradders. A true enthusiast, a man of real knowledge and love for his subject. A great loss for the historical record industry. Very sad.
(This is not in any way to speak ill of the dead.) Very sad news. I knew Richard well for 20 years or so; and we had been on terms before that, since around 1980. He would *never* have described himself as a ‘producer’ or as a ‘master-restorer of old EMI tapes’: he did no studio work of any kind.
He *was* the label manager of EMI Reflexe in Germany for many years. More recently, he compiled in particular hundreds of reissues for EMI’s twofer series Gemini as well as such large-scale compendium editions as the 18CD Delius box shown above. I entirely support Norman’s characterisation of RJB’s knowledge, passion etc.
Well said, Armchair.
A sad loss.
Ned Keane
This is indeed a sad loss.
Labels, large international ones in particular, need folk who know the archives and can produce meaningful and exciting re-issues of back-catalogue.
Ongoing, re-investigation of popular repertoire is all well and good. Equally, there are some performance practices of the past that may now be considered simply to be too outdated.
Nevertheless, all of us must miss certain recordings and TV broadcasts of great significance that are still locked away in a vault somewhere.
We need people that don’t worry if a name in print doesn’t sound sexy, or if the only picture of the artist makes them look like a wombat in pain. The work of Richard Bradburn and his like can only improve the lot of the ravenous music-lover.
A very sad loss. Richard Bradburn was one of the most decent and kindest of colleagues. I worked with him at EMI and hugely admired his knowledge and enthusiasm.
I first met Richard when I worked briefly at EMI in the early 1980s. One of my tasks was typing long columns of sales figures where I made many typing errors which he patiently & kindly corrected. We stayed in touch over the years. He was a kind friend who had a great sense of humour and a truly extensive knowledge and love of music, often moved to tears when telling me about a particular piece. He was a wonderful host at Glyndebourne Opera where he invited me most summers. I will miss our annual catching up at his rickety picnic table. Rest in peace Richard, I’m glad to have known you.
I knew Richard when we taught together at Kenyatta High School in Othaya, Kenya in 1970. He was a thoroughly decent young man and innately kind, with an optimistic and enthusiastic outlook on life. Oddly (this was well before the iPod) we never discussed music, although now, it seems, we shared a similar passion. Obviously a life well-lived.