Günther Breest

Classical music production leader & recording supervisor working for Deutsche Grammophon from 1971 until 1988. In 1988 he went from Deutsche Grammophon to become president of CBS Masterworks, which he renamed to Sony Classical in 1990. He resigned from this position early in January 1995. After Günther Breest moved to CBS Masterworks, he became very competitive towards his former employer, Deutsche Grammophon. He moved the repertory headquarters from New York to Hamburg, where DG was also based. He succeeded to secure the rights for the video archive of Herbert von Karajan, which were long expected to go to Deutsche Grammophon. Breest persuaded several artists to move from DG to CBS Masterworks, for instance Vladimir Horowitz and Claudio Abado.