What eerie news...I had just played my black vinyl LP of his Mendelssohn
Midsummer Night's Dream music (one of Decca/London's first "ffrr" stereo
releases) just this past Sunday afternoon.  Decca has recently issued a
generous 84-minute CD in its Legends series combining his Mozart Serenades
with Symphony 32 and an assortment of German Dances, all from 1959-60
stereo sessions; given the extensive biographical essay and photographs
contained in the album's booklet, my sense is Decca may be setting the
stage for future re-releases.  Like Ramon, I would turn to his "Prague"
symphony in an instant.  My LP of this symphony (paired with No.  32),
never a pacesetter for quiet surfaces, is really showing its age.

And maybe we can hope one of his performances turns up in the upcoming
Boston Symphony boxed set of great broadcasts.  His 1970 pair of concerts,
which included Bach's Magnificat, Mozart choral music and concerti, Debussy
& Schubert, made an impact.  I saw him at the Metropolitan Opera around the
same time, conducting the Chagall staging of Mozart's Magic Flute, and he
struck a great balance between the humor of the opening scenes and the
seriousness of the Masonic episodes.  Andrew Porter wrote in the New Yorker
at the time that Maag's work was a model of Mozart conducting, capturing
all of the colors, tempo shifts, and moods of this score.

All told, Maag had a strange career, bursting on the scene with his
acclaimed Decca early stereo performances, then fading out only to reappear
again a decade later after years of self-imposed exile in a Buddhist
monastery.  Other than two operas for Decca ("Luisa Miller" with Pavarotti,
and the rediscovery of Paer's "Leonora") plus a scattering of recordings
for smaller labels (plus one Mendelssohn-Paganini concerto recording for
RCA, accompanying Erick Friedman), he never seemed to regain top tier
status.  And perhaps that's what he wanted; maybe he was happier teaching
at the Accademia in Siena and conducting opera in Italy than aspiring to
jet set status.  An early hire of the short-lived Goeran Gentele regime at
the Met, he did not return when the Levine/Dexter team assumed management
responsibility.

But I agree with Ramon--at least we can enjoy the vitality, sweep, and
animation of his Mendelssohn and Mozart recordings, and we can hope that
more performances will now come to light.

Dick Claeys