Classical producer Glotz dies at 79

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The French classical music producer Michel Glotz, a pillar of the golden age of recordings at labels such as EMI and Deutsche Grammophon, died of a heart attack aged 79, colleagues said Tuesday.

As producer and artistic agent, Glotz worked with some of the biggest names in classical music including the soprano Maria Callas and conductor Herbert von Karajan.

A 1978 recording of Karajan conducting Beethoven's symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic won Glotz one of several Grammy awards.

"His friendly artistic complicity with the musicians was an inexhaustible source of success," French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said in a statement after news of Glotz's death was announced by his agency Musicaglotz.