Georg Solti
Encyclopedia
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, (icon;
21 October 19125 September 1997) was a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
-British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
orchestral and operatic conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
. In addition to his recordings he is probably best known for leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
from 1969-91. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the second half of the 20th century.
Early career
Solti was born György Stern in BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
to a Jewish family; his parents were Móric(z) Stern and Teréz Rosenbaum. His cousin was László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts.-Early life:...
, the Jewish-Hungarian painter and photographer, who taught at the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Dessau and co-founded the New Bauhaus in Chicago. His father Germanized the name György to Georg and changed his family name
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
to Solti, to shield them from antisemitism.
He learned the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
but at age 14 heard Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber was an Austrian conductor.- Biography :Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague...
conduct Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Symphony No. 5
Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1804–08. This symphony is one of the most popular and best-known compositions in all of classical music, and one of the most often played symphonies. It comprises four movements: an opening sonata, an andante, and a fast...
and he decided immediately he wanted to be a conductor. He studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music
Franz Liszt Academy of Music
The Franz Liszt Academy of Music is a concert hall and music conservatory in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875...
, under Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
, Leo Weiner
Leo Weiner
Leo Weiner , was one of the leading Hungarian music educators of the first half of the twentieth century and a composer.- Education :Weiner was born in Budapest. He had his first music and piano lessons from his brother, and later studied at the Academy of Music in Budapest, studying with János ...
and Ernst von Dohnanyi
Erno Dohnányi
Ernő Dohnányi was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist. He used the German form of his name Ernst von Dohnányi for most of his published compositions....
. In 1937, he played the glockenspiel in the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
production of The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, under the conductorship of the legendary Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
. By 1935 he was gaining recognition as a conductor, and made his debut at the Budapest Opera on 11 March 1938 with The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, the first time an unconverted Jew had ever conducted there. It was also Solti's last performance there. On that very day, Hitler annexed Austria, and anti-semitism became rife in Hungary under Admiral Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
's regime. In 1939, with German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
invasion imminent, he fled Hungary because of his Jewish ancestry, and moved to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, where he continued a career as a pianist and won the Geneva International Piano Competition, but he had limited opportunities to develop his conducting. Unfortunately, he never saw his father again.
After the Second World War, during which his father died of natural causes, Solti was music director
Music director
A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the co-ordinator of the musical ensembles in a university or college , the head bandmaster of a military band, the head...
of the Bavarian State Orchestra
Bavarian State Orchestra
The Bayerisches Staatsorchester is the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera.- History :Founded in the times of Ludwig Senfl the orchestra, specializing in musica sacra, belonged to the finest ones in Europe already under Orlando di Lasso . In 1651 the Italian opera was introduced in Munich...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
(where he gave the German premiere of Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
's opera Mathis der Maler, which had been banned under the Nazi regime) and the Frankfurt Opera (where he gave the German premiere of Alban Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
's Lulu
Lulu (opera)
Lulu is an opera by the composer Alban Berg. The libretto was adapted by Berg himself from Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora .-Composition history:...
). In 1951 he conducted Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Idomeneo
Idomeneo
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712...
at the Salzburg Festival for the first time.
In 1960 Solti signed a three-year contract (effective in 1962) to be music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
, having guest conducted the orchestra in winter concerts in downtown Los Angeles, during the summer at the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
, and in other Southern California concerts. The orchestra had hoped that Solti would lead the orchestra when it moved into its new home at the still-to-be-completed Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is one of the halls in the Los Angeles Music Center . The Music Center's other halls include the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.The Pavilion has 3,197 seats spread over four tiers, with chandeliers, wide curving stairways and rich décor...
, and he even began to appoint musicians to the orchestra. However, Solti abruptly resigned the position in 1961 without officially taking the post after learning that the Philharmonic board of directors failed to consult him before naming then 26-year-old Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
to be assistant conductor of the orchestra. Mehta was subsequently named as music director in Solti's place.
In 1961 Solti became music director at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, serving in that capacity until 1971. There, Solti's bald head and demanding rehearsal style earned him the nickname, "The Screaming Skull" (after the film of the same name
The Screaming Skull
The Screaming Skull is a 1958 American horror film, inspired by the short story of the same name written by Francis Marion Crawford. The film stars John Hudson, Peggy Webber, Russ Conway, and Alex Nicol, the film's director...
). He thereafter spent much of his time in Britain and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
His first marriage to Hedi Oechsli, in 1946, ended in divorce. His second marriage was to Valerie Pitts
Valerie Pitts
Valerie Pitts, Lady Solti, is the widow of Sir Georg Solti. She was one of the BBC's original team of television presenters during the 1950s. She left the programme in 1960 to marry James Sargent who was stage manager of the Sadler's Wells Opera Company. She also worked at Granada Television.She...
, a British television presenter whom he met when she was sent to interview him. They had two daughters, Gabrielle and Claudia. In 1972 he was naturalized as a British citizen
British nationality law
British nationality law is the law of the United Kingdom that concerns citizenship and other categories of British nationality. The law is complex because of the United Kingdom's former status as an imperial power.-History:...
. He had been awarded an honorary knighthood in the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(KBE) in 1971, and was known as Sir Georg Solti after his naturalization.
Solti was a great supporter and mentor to many young musicians, including the Hungarian soprano Sylvia Sass
Sylvia Sass
Sylvia Sass is a Hungarian operatic soprano who has sung leading roles both in her native country and internationally.-Life and career:...
, with whom he recorded Mozart's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle
Bluebeard's Castle
Duke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer. It is in Hungarian, based on the French fairy tale "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault...
. In addition, in 1994, Solti directed the "Solti Orchestral Project" at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, a training workshop for young American musicians.
Chicago Symphony
Solti was music director of the Chicago Symphony OrchestraChicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
(CSO) from 1969 until 1991, when he was made the only Music Director Laureate in that orchestra's history. Before Solti took over as the CSO's music director, CSO violinist Victor Aitay described Solti's work style as follows:
Usually conductors are relaxed at rehearsals and tense at the concerts. Solti is the reverse. He is very tense at rehearsals, which makes us concentrate, but relaxed during the performance, which is a great asset to the orchestra.
In total, Solti conducted 999 performances with the CSO. His 1,000th performance was scheduled to be in October 1997, around the time of his 85th birthday. The City of Chicago renamed the block of East Adams Street adjacent to Symphony Center as "Sir Georg Solti Place" in his memory.
Solti consolidated the reputation of the CSO as one of the great orchestras of the world, while reiteratively reminding everyone how much he owed to the pioneering work of Fritz Reiner
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin “Fritz” Reiner was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century.-Biography:...
, who never toured the orchestra abroad. Solti took the CSO on its first tour to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in 1971.
Solti's recordings with the CSO included the complete symphonies of Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
, and Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
. Solti recorded complete operas with the CSO as well, including:
- Moses und AronMoses und AronMoses und Aron is a three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg with the third act unfinished. The German libretto was by the composer after the Book of Exodus.-Compositional history:...
by Arnold SchoenbergArnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School... - OtelloOtelloOtello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
by Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
(also performed live at Carnegie HallCarnegie HallCarnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
) - Die Meistersinger von NürnbergDie Meistersinger von NürnbergDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
by Richard WagnerRichard WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
Later career
In addition to his tenure in Chicago, Solti was music director of the Orchestre de ParisOrchestre de Paris
The Orchestre de Paris is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra performs most of its concerts at the Salle Pleyel.-History:In 1967, following the dissolution of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, conductor Charles Munch was called on by the Minister of Culture,...
from 1972 until 1975. From 1979 until 1983 he was principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
. During this time with the London Philharmonic he performed and recorded many works by Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
including the two symphonies, the Violin Concerto
Violin Concerto (Elgar)
Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, is one of his longest orchestral compositions, and the last of his works to gain immediate popular success....
with Kyung Wha Chung and the Cello Concerto
Cello Concerto (Elgar)
Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, by which time his music had gone out of fashion with the concert-going public...
with Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...
. In 1983 he conducted Wagner's Ring Cycle at Bayreuth
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...
for the only time. For the 50th anniversary of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, Solti formed the World Orchestra for Peace, which consisted of musicians from 47 orchestras around the world.
Solti continued to add new works to his repertoire in the latter days of his career, voicing particular enthusiasm for the music of Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
, whom he admitted he failed to appreciate fully during the composer's lifetime. His commercial recordings of Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
symphonies included Nos. 1 (Concertgebouw Orchestra), 5 (VPO), 8, 9 (twice : VPO & Carnegie Hall Project),10, 13 and 15 (all CSO).
Solti never truly retired, and his sudden death of a heart attack on 5 September 1997 in Antibes
Antibes
Antibes is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.It lies on the Mediterranean in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is within the commune of Antibes...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, meant that several years of planned performances and recording projects would never be realized. According to his last wish, Solti rests in Hungarian soil. After a state funeral, he was placed beside the remains of Bartók: his one-time tutor and mentor. After Solti's death, his widow and daughters began the Solti Foundation to assist young musicians. In 2002 a website dedicated to Solti was launched, under the instigation of Lady Solti.
Solti co-wrote his memoirs with Harvey Sachs
Harvey Sachs
Harvey Sachs, is an American-Canadian-Swiss writer who has written many books on musical subjects.His books include the standard biography of and a book of essays on the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, plus an edited collection of Toscanini's letters.* Toscanini, Philadelphia & New York: J. B...
, published in the UK under the title Solti on Solti, Memoirs in the USA, and Emlékeim in Hungary, and the book appeared in the month after his death. His life has also been documented in a film by Peter Maniura entitled Sir Georg Solti: The Making of a Maestro.
In September 2007, as a tribute on the 10th anniversary of Solti's death, a recording of his last concert was released on Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, a performance with the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich
Tonhalle Orchester Zurich
Tonhalle Orchester Zürich is a symphony orchestra founded in 1868 in Zürich Switzerland, where it established its residence in the neue Tonhalle in 1895....
of Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Symphony No. 5
Symphony No. 5 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor by Gustav Mahler was composed in 1901 and 1902, mostly during the summer months at Mahler's cottage at Maiernigg. Among its most distinctive features are the funereal trumpet solo that opens the work and the frequently performed Adagietto.The musical canvas and...
.
Recordings
Solti was as enthusiastic making music in the recording studio as in the opera house or concert hall. He developed a long and productive partnership with the legendary producer John CulshawJohn Culshaw
John Royds Culshaw OBE was a pioneering English classical record producer for Decca Records. He recorded a wide range of music, but is best known for masterminding the first studio recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, begun in 1958.Largely self-educated musically, Culshaw worked for...
at Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. Products of this partnership included the first ever complete studio recording of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
with the Vienna Philharmonic (VPO). No less distinguished and equally groundbreaking were his studio recordings of the operas of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, which, like his Wagner recordings, have been remastered and released on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
where they are still praised for their musicianship and expert production values. His performances and recordings of works by Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
, Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
and Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
were also widely admired. In addition to his recordings with the CSO, Solti recorded other repertoire with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
and the Vienna Philharmonic, such as the two symphonies of Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
, selected symphonies of Tchaikovsky, William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
's Belshazzar's Feast, Michael Tippett
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
's Symphony No. 4 and Byzantium, and the Da Ponte/Mozart operas.
In addition, Solti collaborated with Dudley Moore
Dudley Moore
Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...
to create a 1991 television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series, Orchestra!, which was designed to introduce audiences to the symphony orchestra. He also conducted the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
in performances of music by Beethoven for the 1994 film "Immortal Beloved"
Immortal Beloved (film)
Immortal Beloved is a 1994 film about the life of composer Ludwig van Beethoven . The story follows Beethoven's secretary and first biographer Anton Schindler as he attempts to ascertain the true identity of the Unsterbliche Geliebte addressed in three letters found in the late composer's private...
, about the composer.
Recordings
- Bach, Mass in B Minor
- Bach, St Matthew Passion
- Bartók, Concerto for Orchestra (1981)
- Bartók, Dance Suite (1981)
- Bartók, Piano Concertos #1 - 3 /w Ashkenazy
- Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste
- Bartók, Miraculous Mandarin Suite
- Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust
- Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, Liszt, Les Preludes
- Beethoven, Fidelio
- Beethoven, Missa Solemnis
- Beethoven, Complete Symphonies #1 - 9 (twice, 1972–74 and 1986–90)
- Beethoven, Piano Concertos #1 - 5 /w Ashkenazy
- Brahms, Symphonies #1-4
- Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem
- Brahms, Variations on a Theme by Haydn
- Bruckner, Symphonies #0-9
- Debussy, La mer / Nocturnes / Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune
- Del Tredeci, "Final Alice"
- Dvořák, Symphony #9 (From the New World)
- Elgar, "Enigma Variations"
- Handel, Messiah
- Haydn, "The Seasons"
- Liszt, "A Faust Symphony"
- Mephisto Magic (works by Liszt, Bartok, Weiner & Kodaly)
- Mahler, complete Symphonies #1 - 9, "Das Lied von der Erde"
- Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 3
- Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 4
- Mozart, Requiem (1991)
- Mussorgsky, Khovanshchina Prelude (1998)
- Mussorgsky (orchestrated by Ravel), Pictures at an Exhibition
- Mussorgsky (orchestrated by Shostakovich), Songs and Dances of Death with Sergei Aleksashkin (1998)
- Prokofiev, Symphony No. 1Symphony No. 1 (Prokofiev)Sergei Prokofiev began work on his Symphony No. 1 in D major in 1916, but wrote most of it in 1917, finishing work on September 10. It is written in loose imitation of the style of Haydn , and is widely known as the Classical Symphony, a name given to it by the composer...
(1982) - Ravel, "Le Tombeau de Couperin"
- Schoenberg, Moses und Aron (1984)
- Schoenberg, Variations
- Shostakovich, Symphony No. 8 (1989)
- Shostakovich, Symphony No. 10
- Shostakovich, Symphony No. 15 (1998)
- Strauss (R.), Also Sprach Zarathustra and other tone poems
- Strauss (R.), Several operas
- Stravinsky, Symphony Nos. 1 - 3
- Stravinsky, Petrushka/Jeu de Cartes
- Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring
- Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture, Romeo & Juliet Overture & The Nutcracker Suite
- Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 / Dohnanyi, "Variations on a Nursery Song" with pianist Andras Schiff (1986)
- Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 (1984)
- Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake, excerpts (1987)
- Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5 (1987)
- Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique"
- Tippett, Byzantium with Faye Robinson (1991)
- Tippett, Symphony No. 4 (1979)
- Tippett, Suite in D for the Birthday of Prince Charles (1981)
- Verdi, Rigoletto (with Robert Merrill, Anna Moffo, Alfredo Kraus)
- Verdi, La Traviata
- Verdi, Simon Boccanegra (1988, with Leo Nucci, Paata Burchuladze, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jaume Aragall)
- Verdi, Un ballo in maschera (1961), (1982)
- Verdi, Don Carlo (1965, with Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Tebaldi, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Grace Bumbry, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Martti Talvela)
- Verdi, Aida (1961) with Leontyne Price, Rita Gorr, Jon Vickers)
- Verdi, Requiem
- Verdi, Otello (1977) with Carlo Cossutta, Margaret Price, Gabriel Bacquier
- Verdi, Falstaff (with Geraint Evans, Ilva Ligabue, Giulietta Simionato, Mirella Freni, Robert Merrill, Alfredo Kraus, Rosalind Elias)
- Wagner, Der fliegende Hollander (1976)
- Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg (1997)
- Wagner, Tannhäuser Overture (1977)
- Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, Prelude and Liebestod (1977)
- Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (1958-1965)*
- Walton, Belshazzar's Feast
- Das Rheingold was recorded in Sept/Oct 1958, Die Walküre in Oct/Nov 1965, Siegfried in May/Oct 1962, and Götterdämmerung in May-Nov 1964.
Awards and recognition
- Sonning Award (1992; DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
) - Sir Georg Solti holds the record for having received the most Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s. He personally won 31 Grammys, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement AwardGrammy Lifetime Achievement AwardThe Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
, and is listed for 38 Grammys (6 went to the engineer and 1 to a soloist); he was nominated an additional 74 times before his death in 1997. - In 2007 his widow Lady (Valerie) Solti was made a Cultural Ambassador of Hungary, an honorary title granted by the Hungarian state.
- He was a recipient of Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
's Sanford Medal. - In 1987, a bronze bust of Solti by Dame Elisabeth FrinkElisabeth FrinkDame Elisabeth Jean Frink, DBE, CH, RA was an English sculptor and printmaker...
was dedicated in Chicago's Lincoln ParkLincoln ParkLincoln Park is an urban park in Chicago, which gave its name to the Lincoln Park, Chicago community area.Lincoln Park may also refer to:-Urban parks:*Lincoln Park , California*Lincoln Park, San Francisco, California...
outside the Lincoln Park ConservatoryLincoln Park ConservatoryThe Lincoln Park Conservatory is a conservatory and botanical garden in Lincoln Park in Chicago, Illinois. The conservatory is situated at 2391 North Stockton Drive just south of Fullerton Avenue, west of Lake Shore Drive, and part of the Lincoln Park, Chicago community area. Positioned near the...
. It was moved to the Solti Garden in Grant ParkGrant Park (Chicago)Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...
in 2006, near Orchestra HallSymphony CenterSymphony Center is a music complex located at 220 South Michigan Avenue in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta, Symphony Center includes the 2,522-seat Orchestra Hall, which dates from 1904; Buntrock Hall, a rehearsal and...
Portraits of Solti
The National Portrait Gallery has 6 photographic portraits of Solti including those by Anne-Katrin PurkissAnne-Katrin Purkiss
Anne-Katrin Purkiss is a photographer, born in Chemnitz, Germany in 1959 and moving to Britain in 1984 after graduating from University of Leipzig in 1983....
and Patrick Lichfield.
External links
- Georg Solti official website
- The Solti Foundation official website
- Two Interviews with Sir Georg Solti by Bruce Duffie, The Instrumentalist magazine, October 1995
- Tourdates.co.uk page on Richard Stoltzman and Sanford Medal, Solti mentioned as past recipient
- Grammy Award search results page on Solti