James Lock

James Lock served more than thirty years as chief engineer at Decca Records and occupies a central place in the annals of classical recording. Artists, reviewers, and listeners alike admired his exceptional grasp of acoustical environments and his skill at capturing their sonic character on tape; according to longstanding accounts, his hearing was so refined that he could enter a space, clap once, and determine at once whether its properties suited live or documented performance. Born on June 23, 1939, in Kent, England, he studied at Canterbury Technical College and secured his initial engineering post at the International Broadcasting Corporation in 1955, where he worked with pop performers such as Petula Clark and Shirley Bassey. Between 1959 and 1961 he held the chief-engineer post at Saga Records before entering military service. He resumed civilian work in January 1963 when he joined Decca—the label he had long hoped to serve—and refined his technique under Kenneth Wilkinson, the stereo-recording innovator who placed main microphones in the now-standard “tree” array augmented by a limited number of spot microphones.

Lock advanced rapidly at Decca, eventually assuming the roles of chief engineer, manager, and executive sound consultant. He later observed that equipment itself never interested him; instead he treated every session as a classical-music enthusiast would, depending on the sensation of air and space surrounding the players to realize the sound he sought. Although he received widespread recognition for orchestral projects, his greatest reputation rests on his opera recordings. Colleagues noted his instinctive talent for shaping acoustical conditions that highlighted a given singer’s particular qualities and for establishing a stable, reassuring studio atmosphere that won the confidence even of temperamental and anxious divas. Among the landmark entries in his Decca catalog is a sustained partnership with the Vienna Philharmonic that produced Boris Godunov led by Herbert von Karajan with Nicolai Ghiaurov in the title role, Der Rosenkavalier conducted by Georg Solti with Régine Crespin as the Marschallin, and Kát’a Kabanová under Charles Mackerras featuring Elisabeth Söderström. Perhaps the most celebrated is the Turandot set with Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti under Zubin Mehta, frequently regarded by collectors as the finest achievement in Lock’s discography. He in fact captured the bulk of Pavarotti’s most acclaimed performances, among them the landmark 1972 reading of Puccini’s La Bohème.

Throughout his career Lock worked in many of the world’s most storied opera houses and concert halls and advised on the acoustics of numerous new and refurbished venues, yet he consistently named London’s Kingsway Hall as his preferred recording location. He also stayed current with technical progress, overseeing Decca’s inaugural digital session on January 1, 1979, when he recorded the twenty-fifth annual New Year’s Day concert given by Willi Boskovsky and the Vienna Philharmonic—Boskovsky’s final appearance in that capacity. Another milestone occurred on July 7, 1990, with the first Three Tenors concert uniting Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and José Carreras at Rome’s ancient Baths of Caracalla; the resulting album, The Three Tenors: In Concert, entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling classical release ever, an achievement attributable in part to Lock’s singular command of outdoor recording. As his Decca years neared their end he guided a new generation of artists, beginning with American soprano Renée Fleming’s debut for the label—a recital of Mozart arias—and continuing through well-received accounts of Rusalka and Thaïs. Lock retired from Decca in 1999 after receiving ten Grammy nominations in the Best Engineered Recording—Classical category; he won for Solti’s 1982 Mahler Symphony No. 9 and again in 1992 for the conductor’s Die Frau ohne Schatten. He died on February 10, 2009, at age 69 after suffering a brain hemorrhage.