Appreciation: Leo Kirch

Obituaries of Leo Kirch (16 July) have compared him with the international media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi. However, in one respect his career was sharply different, since he had an enlightened involvement with classical music.In 1964, he formed a partnership with Herbert von Karajan, in the form of a company called Cosmotel, to make music films, among them Puccini's La Bohème and Verdi's Requiem, both directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. After the conductor and the entrepreneu...

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