Ray Minshull, long associated with Decca Records, joined the company in October 1957, initially as a musical assistant; he spent his entire career there, retiring after 37 years. Minshull worked for the celebrated John Culshaw, whom he succeeded when Culshaw moved to the BBC in 1967.

Minshull recalled that even when very young he enjoyed listening to 78rpm records. In 1943 he went to Tettenham College, near Birmingham, where he learnt the piano, organ and flute. He went on to Sheffield University, where he studied languages and music.

After National Service he joined Decca. His first recording was of Joan Sutherland in two arias from Alcina. Alcina was also his first complete opera recording in 1962, again with Sutherland.

Although he was never keen to play himself when he was Culshaw’s assistant, he once found himself unwittingly, albeit anonymously, having to be the impromptu organist in Karajan’s famous recording of Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra with the Vienna Philharmonic.

When Culshaw left Decca in 1967, Minshull succeeded him as manager of Decca’s Classical Division. He was just 33.

Among his numerous achievements was Antal Dorati’s complete recording of the Haydn symphonies, real ground-breaking stuff, and, just as important, Charles Mackerras’s award-winning cycle of Janácek’s operas.

In 1972 Minshull won a Grand Prix du Disque Mondiale for Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov with Nicolai Ghiaurov, conducted by Karajan.

Minshull fully espoused Decca’s belief in exclusive artists. Among the pianists he championed were Vladimir Ashkenazy, Radu Lupu, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Pascal Rogé, all of whom admired his inestimable support when recording. In 1970 he discovered the Korean violinist Kyung Wha Chung, then unknown, after hearing her in a charity concert conducted by André Previn. Her first Decca disc followed in weeks.

Minshull was instrumental in developing Luciano Pavarotti’s recording career. When Decca was recording Turandot in 1972 he postponed asking Pavarotti to sing Nessun dorma until the end of a session, and then succeeded in recording what became a world-famous track.

In an industry replete with extrovert characters, Minshull was the exception. His reticence combined with his assured style marked him out as one of the old school.

Culshaw remarked that “Ray was incapable of working himself into a flap.” That calmness stood him in good stead with temperamental artists and in negotiations with the unions. Above all he was a discerning musician with a keen ear that came in useful in many a studio crisis.

The collapse of the old Decca and its purchase by PolyGram in February 1980 found Minshull playing a significant role in the negotiations. He became its executive vice-president, a role in which he continued for 14 years. In 1980 his focus switched to Montreal and Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony, a relationship that became one of Decca’s most successful, with many awards to mark its progress. These included Dutoit’s celebrated 1993 set of Berlioz’s Les Troyens. He was awarded an honorary DMus by McGill University in the same year.

Minshull retired in 1994 and wrote his autobiography.

Ray Minshull, record producer, was born on March 27, 1934. He died of cancer on February 16, 2007, aged 72