At that point I told the Parisians, I can't have three organizations. Wait until I'm leaving Covent Garden at the close of 1970-71. He accepted the job, not as music director but as music counselor, which is a title and doesn't mean anything. But he just couldn't give them time. It was obvious after two years that you can't make an orchestra in two weeks a year.
Nobody can do that.
Then they came back to me. It wasn't that we played some kind of trick on Karajan. They will travel to 15 cities in six weeks, with concerts being divided by Solti and Giulini. At the start of the trip there will be a recording session in Vienna of the Mahler Eighth, which will conclude Solti's disk cycle of the nine Mahler symphonies. Solti's plans for Chicago next season are equally grand.