OBITUARY: Sir Georg Solti | The Independent OBITUARY: Sir Georg Solti Sunday 7 September 1997 23:02 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Georg Solti was an international figure acclaimed as one of the great conductors of his generation. His work in the opera house, on the concert platform and in the recording studio touched several peaks. They included his 10 years as Music Director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1961-71), as Artistic Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for over 20 years (1969-91) and of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1979- 83). Born Hungarian (as Gyorgy Stern, in 1912), he became a British subject in 1972, thereby acquiring the right to the title conferred by his appointment as KBE the previous year in acknowledgement of his work at Covent Garden.

On taking up this post he announced his intention to make Covent Garden "quite simply, the best opera house in the world", and in the opinion of many he did so, though his tenure was sometimes stormy: "You arrive with hosannas and then comes the crucifixion. I wasn't ready for the crucifixion because I didn't know enough about the British character." After leaving there he explained: "I have never been a specialist and now I want less than ever to be a specialist. Never stick to what you are famous for, never become a cliche. Always, always I fight the cliche." That sense of purpose informed his command of orchestras as well as his interpretations, not least in Richard Strauss and Wagner, whose Der Ring des Nibelungen Solti was the first to record complete and helped to make 1960s classical best- sellers. Though he professed no religious orthodoxy ("I'm religious, not in a formal way, but in believing seriously in the high order of the world"), he was born a Jew and this affected his early career.

From childhood piano lessons and a public debut at the age of 12 he went the next year to the Liszt Academy at Budapest, where his teachers included Bartk and Dohnnyi for piano, Kodly for composition. He joined the Budapest Opera as a repetiteur, worked with Toscanini at the 1936 and 1937 Salzburg Festivals, and made his conducting debut in Le nozze di Figaro at Budapest in 1938. Finding Jews barred from contract appointments at the Budapest Opera, he left in 1939 hoping to further his career elsewhere. Warned by his mother against returning, he became confined to Switzerland by the outbreak of war. No labour permits were forthcoming to work as a conductor, so he returned to the piano and voice-coaching, and won first prize at the 1942 Geneva International Piano Competition, which brought engagements to help him through the war years.

He was still determined on a conducting career, and a chance acquaintance brought him an invitation to conduct Fidelio at Munich in 1946; his appointment as Music Director at the Bavarian State Opera there followed (1946-52), and the foundation of the company's post-war repertory and reputation under his direction. He was then 33, and from the first secure base in his life he began to tour widely, making his British debut in 1949 with the LPO (after some initial gramophone records with them), and conducting Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne in 1954. Solti moved to Frankfurt as General Music Director, 1952-60, where he was heard and invited to conduct Der Rosenkavalier at Covent Garden by the Earl of Harewood, then on the opera house staff. He did so in 1959 with such success that he was offered the music directorship left vacant by Rafael Kubelik.

Highlights of the Solti decade included the British premiere of Moses und Aron (Schoenberg), the first production there of Die Frau ohne Schatten (Strauss), the Ring cycles and Britten's Billy Budd and A Midsummer Night's Dream. A volatile, dynamic platform figure, prematurely bald, he galvanised orchestras to a pitch of sustained excitement which could make some performances sound hard-driven (Mozart particularly). Musicians spoke of an almost devilish flicker in his eyes while conducting (one labelled him "the screaming skull"), and his intense commitment sometimes exacerbated relationships with singers and others. But he insisted he was "a romantic at heart" and in later years he was professionally more relaxed. He made pioneering use of stereo recording techniques both for symphonic music and in simulating the theatrical dimension of opera, notably in association with John Culshaw, Decca's innovative recording producer.

Their records won a number of international awards, as have others conducted by Solti in the 30 years from Long-Play stereo to compact disc, though he seldom listened again once they were finished: "I hate going back to my old records." His American career developed concurrently after his making his debut there with the San Francisco Opera in 1953 (in Elektra). A contract for Los Angeles was about to be signed when he accepted the Covent Garden invitation instead. He first went to Chicago as Artistic Director in 1969, overlapping his first two seasons at Covent Garden, and quickly established a rapport with an orchestra of whom he later said: "It's a marvellous thing to be musically happily married. I am, and I know." This mirrored a more settled phase in his personal life after his divorce in 1966 from his first wife, Hedi Oeschli, whom he met and married in Switzerland. His second marriage in 1967 was to Valerie Pitts, 25 years his junior, after meeting her as a London television reporter sent to interview him; they had two daughters, Gabrielle and Claudia.

His main home was in London, with others in Italy and Switzerland. Although English was long his principal language, he never lost a "goulash accent" which spiced his vivid conversation on rare off-duty occasions. He additionally took on the Principal Conductorship of L'Orchestre de Paris, 1971-75, for part of that time serving also as Music Adviser to the Paris Opera. In 1983 he worked with Sir Peter Hall in staging a new production of the Ring operas at the Bayreuth Festival which caused some controversy. In 1986 he returned to the concert platform as a pianist for the first time in 40 years, at the Aldeburgh Festival and in London in aid of musical charities. He hated any sort of retirement, saying, "I would be unbearable and I could not wish that on my family", and continued musically active throughout his eighties, with an engagement to conduct Verdi's Requiem at the BBC Proms in London next Friday and a South Bank concert with the LPO later this month.

In 1995 he launched a scheme to promote a personal choice of young talent in London, underwriting costs of a recital he hoped would become an annual event. Through his combination of physical energy, authority, artistic perception and sensibility, Sir Georg Solti left an enduring imprint of his personality on more than 50 years of musical performance the world over.

Gyorgy Stern (Georg Solti), conductor: born Budapest 21 October 1912; conductor and pianist, State Opera, Budapest 1930-39; Musical Director, Bavarian State Opera 1946-52; Musical Director, Frankfurt Opera, and Permanent Conductor, Museums, Concerts, Frankfurt 1952-61; Musical Director, Covent Garden Opera Company 1961-71 (Musical Director Laureate, Royal Opera 1992); CBE (Hon) 1968, KBE 1971; Music Director, Chicago Symphony Orchestra 1969- 91 (Music Director Laureate); Musical Director, Orchestre de Paris 1972- 75; Principal Conductor and Artistic Director, London Philharmonic Orchestra 1979-83 (Conductor Emeritus); Artistic Director, Salzburg Easter Festival 1992-93; married 1946 Hedwig Oeschli (marriage dissolved 1966), 1967 Valerie Pitts (two daughters); died Antibes,

 France 5 September 1997.

More about: Georg Solti Biography Georg Solti Biography Find Georg Solti on Amazon.com Born Gyorgy Solti (surname pronounced "Shoal-tee"), October 21, 1912, in Budapest, Hungary; son of Mores (a grain merchant) and Theres Solti; married Hedi Oeschli, 1946 (divorced, 1966); married Valerie Pitts; children: (second marriage) Gabrielle, Claudia. Education: Studied piano, composition, and conducting at Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest, under Bela Bartok, Ernst von Dohnanyi, and Zoltan Kodaly; graduated 1930. Addresses: Management--Colbert Artists Management, 111 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019. Sir Georg Solti is perhaps the most famous living conductor in international music circles, and certainly the most sought after. His wide operatic and orchestral repertory--and his no-nonsense approach to music-making--have brought him respect and admiration onstage and off.

In a career that has spanned more than 60 years, Solti has received accolades from around the world and continuous conducting engagements with the best orchestras and opera companies. Solti was born on October 21, 1912, in Budapest, Hungary, and displayed an early affinity for music. When he was 13 years old, he saw conductor Erich Kleiber lead a performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and he knew then that he wanted to be a conductor. He studied piano, composition, and conducting at the renowned Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, under the tutelage of eminent musicians Bela Bartok, Ernst von Dohnanyi, and Zoltan Kodaly. After graduating from the academy in 1930, he began work at the Budapest State Opera as a repetiteur--someone who assists backstage, coaches singers, and performs other miscellaneous duties.

In 1936 and 1937, Solti assisted world-famous conductor Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, but he did not get his first conducting job until 1938, when he led a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Marriage of Figaro at the Budapest State Opera. His debut was unfortunately overshadowed by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's invasion of Austria; Solti, who is Jewish, fled to Switzerland for the rest of World War II. While in Switzerland, Solti turned his attention to the piano, coaching an operatic tenor and winning first prize at the Concours International piano competition in Geneva in 1942. After the war, the American forces occupying Germany began a search for musicians who could rekindle the country's musical life--bu who did not have any Nazi associations. Solti was offered the post of music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1946 and served in that capacity until 1952. He also appeared at the Salzburg Festival and conducted in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Florence, and Buenos Aires.

With his reputation on the rise and his operatic repertory increasing, Solti next accepted a position as music director of the Frankfurt City Opera and remained there for nearly a decade. Then, from 1961 to 1971, he worked as music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in England. His association with England and the English became a close one: he raised the visibility of both Covent Garden and British opera singers in general, and made a point of programming works by native composers such as Benjamin Britten. He also conducted the British premiere of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg's opera Moses und Aron--a production that won international acclaim. For his contribution to musical life in England, Solti was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972. From 1979 to 1984, he served as principal conductor and artistic director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and later became its conductor emeritus. In 1992 he was made music director laureate at Covent Garden.

One of Solti's biggest career undertakings was the recording of Richard Wagner's monumental cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, which consists of four operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung. Work on the legendary recording began in 1958 and took eight years to complete. Record producer John Culshaw wrote in Ring Resounding, his book about the project: "Nothing comparable in scope, cost, or artistic and technical challenge had been attempted in the history of the gramophone." The recording is still available and continues to serve as the definitive interpretation of the German composer's masterpiece. Many music specialists agree that Solti is at his best with German, Austrian, and Hungarian music from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries--a repertory that includes the works of composers Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner, and Richard Strauss.

Yet Solti has also excelled in his performances of the music of Hungary's Bela Bartok, Italy's Giuseppe Verdi, and France's Hector Berlioz. In addition, Solti is notable for his willingness to program works that fall outside of the traditional orchestral and operatic repertory. In 1970, he won the Gold Baton Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for having programmed the greatest number of pieces written since 1940. Solti's conducting style is clear and direct. Although he is one of the more acrobatic conductors, his movements are never superfluous. "The things that intrigue me," he was quoted as saying in Time, "are how to make forms clear. How to hold a movement together, or, if I am conducting opera, how to build an act or a scene." While he s commonly believed to be a commanding presence both on and off the podium, Solti is not tyrannical, and musicians respect his businesslike attitude. The pinnacle of Solti's career has been his association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO).

He began his post with the CSO in 1969, and, though he resigned formally in 1991, he holds the title of music director laureate and continues to work with the orchestra, though more sporadically than before. Solti brought the CSO to international prominence, increasing its repertory and its reputation. By the mid-1970s it had become one of the top five orchestras in North America. In an article in the New Yorker in 1974 Solti stated, "I have never found a group of musicians who take music so seriously. I think my Chicago Symphony is the finest in the world." In 1992 Solti began an appointment as artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival, and the next year he recorded the festival's production of Strauss's opera Die Frau ohne Schatten; the recording won a Grammy Award in 1993. Solti has won more Grammy awards than any artist--31 as of 1994.

In June of 1994 Solti embarked upon the Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall, a two-week workshop during which 80 instrumentalists aged 18 to 30 worked with principal players from five U.S. orchestras. The purpose of the project--which was conceived by Solti and by Carnegie Hall executive director Judith Arron--was to give younger players an opportunity to perform with, and learn from, experienced orchestral musicians. In a Carnegie Hall press release, Solti was quoted as saying: "Working with young musicians is one of the great joys of my life.

For several years I have hoped to find a way in which I could pass on to tomorrow's generation of orchestral musicians the experience I have been fortunate to inherit from my teachers and from over 50 years of practical work with orchestras all over the world." by Joyce Harrison Georg Solti's Career Repetiteur at Budapest State Opera, 1930-38, and at Salzburg Festival, 1936 and 1937, where he assisted Arturo Toscanini; conducting debut at Budapest, March 11, 1938, with Mozart's Marriage of Figaro; went to Switzerland, 1939; appointments at Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Germany, 1946-52, Frankfurt City Opera, 1952-61, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1961-71, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1969-91, l'Orchestre de Paris, 1970-75, and London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1979-84; co-founder of Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall, June 1994;

 recording artist with more than 250 releases, chiefly with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic.

Georg Solti's Awards First prize in Concours International piano competition, Geneva, 1942; Gold Baton Award from ASCAP, 1970; dubbed Knight Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, 1972; Kennedy Center Honors, 1993; winner of more Grammy awards than any artist, including awards for recordings of Verdi's Aida, Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9, the complete Beethoven and Brahms symphonies, Schoenberg's Moses und Aron, Bach's Mass in B Minor, and Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten; numerous honorary degrees and international awards. Famous Works Selective Works On London (Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) Bach: Mass in B Minor. (London Philharmonic Orchestra, with pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy) Bartok: Piano Concertos 1-3; Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 ("Choral"). (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) Brahms: Symphonies 1-4; Tragic Overture; Academic Festival Overture.

(Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) Haydn: The Creation. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Vienna Boys Choir, Vienna State Opera Chorus, and Vienna Singverein Chorus and Soloists) Mahler Symphony No. 8. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) Mahler: Symphony No. 9. (London Philharmonic Orchestra) Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with Franz Mazura and Philip Langridge) Schoenberg: Moses und Aron. (Vienna Philharmonic and State Opera Chorus, with Julia Varady, Hildegard Behrens, Placido Domingo, and Jose Van Dam) Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten. (National Philharmonic Orchestra, with Luciano Pavarotti, Margaret Price, and Renato Bruson) Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera. (Vienna Philharmonic) Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (complete). Further Reading Books Culshaw, John, Ring Resounding, Viking Press, 1967. Furlong, William Barry, Season with Solti: A Year in the Life of the Chicago Symphony, Macmillan, 1974.

Robinson, Paul, Solti, Lester & Orpen, 1979. Periodicals Chicago, October 1987. Sir Georg Solti facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Sir Georg Solti Sources Sir Georg Solti is perhaps the most famous living conductor in international music circles, and certainly the most sought after. His wide operatic and orchestral repertory—and his no-nonsense approach to music-making—have brought him respect and admiration onstage and off. In a career that has spanned more than 60 years, Solti has received accolades from around the world and continue us conducting engagements with the best orchestras and opera companies. Solti was born on October 21, 1912, in Budapest , Hungary , and displayed an early affinity for music. When he was 13 years old, he saw conductor Erich Kleiber lead a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and he knew then that he wanted to be a conductor.

He studied piano, composition, and conducting atthe renowned Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, under the tutelage of eminent musicians Béla Bartók, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Zoltan Kodály. After graduating from the academy in 1930, he began work at the Budapest State Opera as a répétiteur —someone who assists backstage, coaches singers, and performs other miscellaneous duties. In 1936 and 1937, Solti assisted world-famous conductor Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival in Austria , but he did not get his first conducting job until 1938, when he led a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro at the Budapest State Opera. His debut was unfortunately overshadowed by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ’s invasion of Austria; Solti, who is Jewish, fled to Switzerland for the rest of World War II . While in Switzerland, Solti turned his attention to the piano, coaching an operatic tenor and winning first prize at the Concours International piano competition in Geneva in 1942.

After the war, the American forces occupying Germany began a search for musicians who could rekindle the country’s musical life—but who did not have any Nazi associations. Solti was offered the post of music director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1946 and served in that capacity until 1952. He also appeared at the Salzburg Festival and conducted in Paris , Berlin , Rome , Vienna , Florence, and Buenos Aires . Important to British Opera With his reputation on the rise and his operatic repertory increasing, Solti next accepted a position as music director of the Frankfurt City Opera and remained there for nearly a decade. Then, from 1961 to 1971, he worked as music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden , in England .

His association with England and the English became a close one: he raised For the Record… Born György Solti (surname pronounced “Shoal-tee” ), October 21, 1912, in Budapest, Hungary; son of Mores (a grain merchant) and Theres Solti; married Hedi Oeschli, 1946 (divorced, 1966); married Valerie Pitts; children: (second marriage) Gabrielle, Claudia. Education: Studied piano, composition, and conducting at Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest, under Béla Bartók, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Zoltan Kodály; graduated 1930.

Répétiteur at Budapest State Opera, 1930-38, and at Salzburg Festival, 1936 and 1937, where he assisted Arturo Toscanini; conducting debut at Budapest, March 11, 1938, with Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro; went to Switzerland, 1939; appointments at Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Germany, 1946-52, Frankfurt City Opera, 1952-61, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1961-71, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1969-91, l’Orchestre de Paris, 1970-75, and London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1979-84; co-founder of Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall, June 1994; recording artist with more than 250 releases, chiefly with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic.

Selected awards: First prize in Concours International piano competition, Geneva, 1942; Gold Baton Award from ASCAP, 1970; dubbed Knight Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, 1972; Kennedy Center Honors, 1993; winner of more Grammy awards than any artist, including awards for recordings of Verdi’s Aïda, Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9, the complete Beethoven and Brahms symphonies, Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten; numerous honorary degrees and international awards. Addresses: Management —Colbert Artists Management, 111 West 57th St., New York , NY 10019. the visibility of both Covent Garden and British opera singers in general, and made a point of programming works by native composers such as Benjamin Britten. He also conducted the British premiere of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg’s opera Moses und Aron —a production that won international acclaim. For his contribution to musical life in England, Solti was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972.

From 1979 to 1984, he served as principal conductor and artistic director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and later became its conductor emeritus. In 1992 he was made music director laureate at Covent Garden. One of Solti’s biggest career undertakings was the recording of Richard Wagner’s monumental cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, which consists of four operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. Work on the legendary recording began in 1958 and took eight years to complete. Record producer John Culshaw wrote in Ring Resounding, his book about the project: “Nothing comparable in scope, cost, or artistic and technical challenge had been attempted in the history of the gramophone.” The recording is still available and continues to serve as the definitive interpretation of the German composer’s masterpiece.

Champion of Large Repertory Many music specialists agree that Solti is at his best with German, Austrian, and Hungarian music from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries—a repertory that includes the works of composers Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner, and Richard Strauss . Yet Solti has also excelled in his performances of the music of Hungary’s Béla Bartók, Italy’s Giuseppe Verdi, and France ’s Hector Berlioz. In addition, Solti is notable for his willingness to program works that fall outside of the traditional orchestral and operatic repertory. In 1970, he won the Gold Baton Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for having programmed the greatest number of pieces written since 1940. Solti’s conducting style is clear and direct. Although he is one of the more acrobatic conductors, his movements are never superfluous.

“The things that intrigue me,” he was quoted as saying in Time, “are how to make forms clear. How to hold a movement together, or, if I am conducting opera, how to build an act or a scene.” While he is commonly believed to be a commanding presence both on and off the podium, Solti is not tyrannical, and musicians respect his businesslike attitude. Headed Chicago Symphony Orchestra The pinnacle of Solti’s career has been his association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). He began his post with the CSO in 1969, and, though he resigned formally in 1991, he holds the title of music director laureate and continues to work with the orchestra, though more sporadically than before. Solti brought the CSO to international prominence, increasing its repertory and its reputation. By the mid-1970s it had become one of the top five orchestras in North America . In an article in the New Yorker in 1974 Solti stated, “I have never found a group of musicians who take music so seriously.

I think my Chicago Symphony is the finest in the world.” In 1992 Solti began an appointment as artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival, and the next year he recorded the festival’s production of Strauss’s opera Die Frau ohne Schatten; the recording won a Grammy Award in 1993. Solti has won more Grammy awards than any artist—31 as of 1994. In June of 1994 Solti embarked upon the Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall, a two-week workshop during which 80 instrumentalists aged 18 to 30 worked with principal players from five U.S. orchestras. The purpose of the project—which was conceived by Solti and by Carnegie Hall executive director Judith Arron—was to give younger players an opportunity to perform with, and learn from, experienced orchestral musicians. In a Carnegie Hall press release, Solti was quoted as saying: “Working with young musicians is one of the great joys of my life.

For several years I have hoped to find a way in which I could pass on to tomorrow’s generation of orchestral musicians the experience I have been fortunate to inherit from my teachers and from over 50 years of practical work with orchestras all over the world.” On London (Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) Bach: Mass in B Minor. (London Philharmonic Orchestra, with pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy) Bartók: Piano Concertos 1-3; Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”). (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) Brahms: Symphonies 1-4; Tragic Overture; Academic Festival Overture. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) Haydn: The Creation. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Vienna Boys Choir, Vienna State Opera Chorus, and Vienna Singverein Chorus and Soloists) Mahler: Symphony No. 8. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) Mahler: Symphony No. 9. (London Philharmonic Orchestra) Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro. (Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with Franz Mazura and Philip Langridge) Schoenberg: Moses und Aron.

(Vienna Philharmonic and State Opera Chorus, with Julia Varady, Hildegard Behrens, Placido Domingo, and Jose Van Dam) Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten. (National Philharmonic Orchestra, with Luciano Pavarotti, Margaret Price, and Renato Bruson) Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera. Vienna Philharmonic) Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (complete). Books Culshaw, John, Ring Resounding, Viking Press, 1967. Furlong, William Barry, Season with Solti: A Year in the Life of the Chicago Symphony, Macmillan, 1974. Robinson, Paul, Solti, Lester & Orpen, 1979. Periodicals Chicago Tribune, November 28, 1993. Christian Science Monitor, December 3, 1993. High Fidelity, January 1967. New Yorker, May 27, 1974.

New York Times, April 25, 1971; December 10, 1972; June 5, 1994. Opera News, January 12, 1974; September 1976. Pulse!, October 1992. Time, May 5, 1973. Washington Post, December 5, 1993. Additional information for this profile was obtained from a press release for the Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall, February 17, 1993. —Joyce Harrison Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA Wagner Operas -- Wagnerians -- Conductors "Prelude to Act III" Tristan und Isolde Daniel Barenboim (b. 1942) Daniel Barenboim was born in Argentina to Russian-Jewish parents. He started piano lessons at the age of five, and when he was only seven years old, he gave his first formal concert in Buenos Aires. In 1952, the Barenboim family moved to Israel.

Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents brought him to Salzburg to take part in conducting classes. During that summer he met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler. In 1955 he studied harmony with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He made his debut as a pianist in 1952 and his first recordings in 1954. In 1967 he made his debut as a conductor. His Bayreuth debut occurred in 1981, and he has conducted at the Festival up to 1999. Barenboim is currently the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a position he took up in 1991, following Sir Georg Solti. He is also music director of the Berlin State Opera, a position he has held since 1992. On July 7, 2001, Barenboim led the Berlin Staatskapelle in part of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem. The concert sparked an outcry, with Barenboim being branded as a fascist by some Israelis.

Wagner's music has been taboo in Israel, because Adolf Hitler's theories of racial purity and extermination of Jews drew partly from Wagner's anti-Semitic writings. Barenboim said he had decided to defy the taboo on Wagner when at a news conference he was interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone to the tune of Wagner's ''Ride of the Valkyries''. "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he explained. "Prelude to Act II" Tristan und Isolde Karl Böhm (1894-1981) Karl Böhm studied law before he entered the Graz Conservatory, and then the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied under Eusebius Mandyczewski, a good friend of Johannes Brahms. In 1917 he became a rehearsal assistant in Graz, in 1919 the assistant director of music and in 1920 the senior director of music. In 1927 he was appointed as musical director in Darmstadt. From 1931 to 1934 he fulfilled the same function at the Hamburg Opera.

In 1933, he conducted in Vienna for the first time, a performance of Tristan und Isolde. He succeeded Fritz Busch, who had gone into exile, as the head of the Dresden Opera. He held this post from 1934 to 1942. This was an important period for maestro Böhm, in which he conducted first performances of works by Richard Strauss. He made his debut at Bayreuth after the war, in 1962 with a performance of Tristan und Isolde, which he conducted until 1970. In 1964 he conducted Die Meistersinger in Bayreuth; and from 1965 to 1967 he conducted the last production of the Ring directed by Wieland Wagner. In 1971 he returned to Bayreuth this time to conduct Der Fliegende Höllander. One of the great recordings of Tristan und Isolde is of one of his live Bayreuth performances from 1966, featuring the dream cast of Birgit Nilsson, Wolfgang Windgassen, and Christa Ludwig. Dr.

Böhm received numerous honors throughout his life, among them was becoming the first Austrian Generalmusikdirektor, an honor which was bestowed on him in 1964. "Prelude to Act I" Parsifal Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) Pierre Boulez was born in Montbrison, France. He initially studied mathematics at Lyon before pursuing music at the Paris Conservatoire under Olivier Messiaen and Andrée Vaurabourg. He went on to write atonal music in a post-Anton Webern serialism style greatly influenced by Messiaen. In his unique style, Boulez began serialising not only the pitches of notes, but also the durations, dynamics, accents, and so on. He became one of the most outspoken philosophical leaders of the post-war movement in the arts towards greater abstraction and experimentation. As a conductor, Boulez is noted for his perceptive readings of ground breaking works from the first half of the 20th century. He excells, for example, in the works of Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók and Edgar Varèse.

He served as the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 1971-1977. At Bayreuth he has had a distinguished, and at times controversial career conducting Wagner's operas. in 1970 he was invited to conduct Parsifal at the Festspielhaus, and the success of that production led Wolfgang Wagner to select him to be the conductor of the centennial Ring directed by Patrice Chereau. That production, though one of the greatest ever seen at the Festival, was marred by violent controversy and harsh criticism. In the summer of 2004, Boulez was invited back to Bayreuth to conduct Parsifal. This production, conceived by Christoph Schlingensief, was one of the most controversial events ever presented at Bayreuth, and Boulez was there, once again, in the middle of it. "Prelude to Act II" Die Walküre Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954) Wilhelm Furtwängler, the son of the archaeologist Adolf Furtwängler, spent his youth in Munich, where his father lectured at the university.

His musical education was provided by Anton Beer-Waldbrunn and Joseph Rheinberger. In 1920, he took over the directorship of the symphony concerts of the Berlin Opera from Richard Strauss. Within two years he gained such renown that he was appointed director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1928 he succeeded Felix Weingartner as the director of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, but refused to take on the directorship of the opera at the same time. In 1931 he became the joint musical director of the Bayreuth Festival on an equal footing with Arturo Toscanini. His practice of hiring numerous Jewish artists was strongly criticised by the National Socialist regime. He received invitations from all over the world to conduct symphony concerts and operas as a guest conductor, mainly for the works of Richard Wagner. Philadelphia, New York and Vienna offered him the directorship of their opera houses, but Furtwängler refused because he did not want to leave Germany. In 1936, the New York Philharmonic offered him the opportunity to succeed Arturo Toscanini.

This offer tempted him to go into exile, but in a mysterious report from the Berlin branch of the Associated Press it was alleged that Furtwängler was willing to be reinstated as the director of the Berlin Opera. This incorrect report triggered an angry reaction against the conductor in New York, and he decided not to take the New York position. In the same year, he again conducted in Bayreuth for the first time since 1931. He conducted there again in 1937, 1943 and 1944. Not until December 1946 was he cleared of all allegations of collaborating with the National Socialists. At the reopening of the Bayreuth festival, Wieland Wagner invited him to conduct a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. "Overture" Tannhäuser Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989) Herbert von Karajan was born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1908. His father, Dr. Ernst von Karajan, was physician and surgeon at what is now the Salzburg Provincial Hospital. He was raised in a cultivated musical environment.

At the age of four he started taking piano lessons with Franz Ledwinka, and in 1916 he enrolled at the Mozarteum Conservatory in Salzburg before entering the Vienna Music Academy in 1926. He made his conducting debut in 1928 and became chief conductor in Ulm, Germany before moving on to the larger city of Aachen in 1935, where he was appointed Germany's youngest general music director. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1937 and at the Berlin State Opera in 1938. He was one of the conductors chosen by Wieland Wagner to reopen the Bayreuth Festival in 1951. In 1955 he was appointed music director for life of the Berlin Philharmonic, which he turned into one of the best orchestra in the world.

Simultaneously at the helm of the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival and the Berlin Philharmonic, and closely connected to the Vienna Symphony, London's Philharmonia Orchestra (which had been created especially for him) and Milan's La Scala, Karajan became known as the "General Music Director of Europe" His production of the Ring for the Salzburg festival (a similar production was also mounted at the Metropolitan Opera, in New York City) owed much to Wieland Wagner's visual style. Herbery von Karajan towered over European musical life as very few had done before. He died in Salzburg on July 16, 1989. "Prelude to Act II" Götterdämmerung Hans Knappertsbusch (1888-1965) Hans Knappertsbusch was one of the most renowned and beloved conductors of the middle twentieth century. Although he grew up playing and loving music, his parents objected to the notion of a musical career. Thus Knappertsbusch studied philosophy at Bonn University. In 1908, however, he entered the Cologne Conservatory and took conducting courses with Fritz Steinbach.

Knappertsbusch began his career as a staff conductor at the Mülheim-Ruhr Theater (1910-12) and then as opera director in his home town of Elberfeld. Equally important to his development were his forays into the music of Wagner. He spent several summers as an assistant to director Siegfried Wagner and conductor Hans Richter at the Bayreuth Festival. During the Nazi years he refused several demands made by the Nazis and was fired from his lifetime post in 1936. He conducted a memorable Salome in Covent Garden in 1936 and 1937, and made some guest appearances elsewhere in Germany, but was content to maintain a low profile during the Nazi regime. Knappertsbusch gained a reputation for broad, magisteral performances, and became famous for his unhurried readings of Wagner's scores. He was famous for disliking rehearsals, often cutting them short. When the Bayreuth Festival reopened in 1951, Knappertsbusch worked closely with Wieland Wagner on orchestral matters (though the conductor was known to dislike the director's spare, revolutionary stage productions).

Perhaps Knappertsbusch's most notable recording is his stereo account of Parsifal from the Bayreuth stage. "Prelude to Act III" Lohengrin James Levine (b. 1943) James Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in a cultured, musical family. He studied piano in childhood and was a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony at the age of ten. After studies in piano and conducting at the Juilliard School, Levine became assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. He made his opera debut conducting Giacomo Puccini's Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in 1971. Two years later he became the house's principal conductor and in 1976 its music director. In that position he has built the Metropolitan Opera orchestra into one of the finest ensembles in the world. His performances of Wagner's works at the MET are legendary, and his readings of Parsifal have become truly memorable experiences, not just at the MET, but worldwide.

At the Bayreuth Festival he conducted Parsifal annually between his 1982 debut there (conducting the centennial production of the work) and 1993, and from 1994 until 1998 he conducted the Ring in a controversial staging by Alfred Kirchner. To an already exhaustingly busy schedule, James Levine has added the leadership of one of America's great orchestras. In the 2004-2005 season he became the Musical Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, while maintaining his post of Musical director at the MET. Unfortunately, recent serious illness has forced him to abandon his post in Boston. In addition, Levine stepped down as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera at the end of the 2015-2016 season to assume the new position of Music Director Emeritus.

"Prelude to Act I" Die Meistersinger Fritz Reiner (1888-1963) Fritz Reiner was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1888 and studied at the Royal Hungarian Academy that has produced many outstanding conductors and musicians including Reiner, Bartok, Kodaly, Dohnanyi, Szell, Ormandy, Solti and Dorati. He also graduated with a law degree from the University of Budapest. At the age of twenty one he became the Chorusmaster of the Budapest Opera and two years later the conductor of the Budapest Volksoper. From 1914 to 1922 he was principal conductor of the Royal Opera in Dresden. At Dresden he worked with Richard Strauss on productions of his early operas and conducted the German premiere of Die Frau Ohne Schatten. In 1922 Reiner became conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra becoming a U.S. citizen in 1928. In 1932 he went to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to head the orchestral and opera departments.

After a decade (1938-48) as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he joined the Metropolitan Opera. Then in 1953 he became Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which he built into one of the world's greatest. Dr. Reiner was forced to resign his post in 1962 due to ill health, and he died the following year. No recording available for this artist Anton Seidl (1850-1898) Anton Seidl was born in Budapest on May 7, 1850, and entered the Leipzig Conservatorium at the age of twenty in 1870. He remained there until 1872, when he was summoned to Bayreuth as one of Wagner's copyists. At Bayreuth he assisted in making the first fair copy of Der Ring des Nibelungen basing himself on the composer's manuscript score. Wagner and Seidl worked together closely between 1872 and 1876. Thoroughly imbued with the Wagnerian spirit, it was natural that he should take a part in the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876.

During this time, Wagner wrote to his young assistant: "My dear friend, pay more attention to the stage, follow my staging directions ... and you will find the correct way through the music." His chance as a conductor came when, on Wagner's recommendation, he was appointed to the Leipzig Stadt-Theater, where he remained until 1882 when he went on tour with Angelo Neumann's Nibelungen Ring company. The critics attributed much of the artistic success that the company had at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in June of that year to his great conducting. In 1883 Seidl went with Neumann to Bremen, but two years later was appointed successor to Leopold Damrosch as conductor of the German Opera in New York. In 1885 he joined the Metropolitan Opera where he led most of the important premieres of the MET's initial German seasons. According to Metropolitan Opera records he was paid $3,250 for his services for the 1885-86 season. In 1886 he returned to Bayreuth, this time as a famous conductor, and in 1897 made his debut in Covent Garden.

He died in New York on the 28th of March 1898. "Prelude to Act III" Die Meistersinger Sir Georg Solti (1912-1997) Georg Solti studied piano and composition with Zoltan Kodaly and Béla Bartók at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, giving his first concert at the age of twelve. He began working as assistant at the Budapest Opera in 1930 and served as musical director from 1934 to 1939. In the summers of 1936 and 1937 he was assistant to Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival, an encounter that left a deep impression on the young musician. After the outbreak of the Second World War, he emigrated to Zurich, resuming his career as a pianist. He won first prize at the Geneva International Competition in 1942. His career took off at the end of the Second World War. For almost twenty-five years, he concentrated entirely on conducting operas.

He was chief musical director of the Munich Opera from 1947 to 1951 and of the Frankfurt Opera from 1952 to 1961. Covent Garden excelled during his tenure as musical director (1961-71). In 1951 he conducted for the first time in Salzburg. At the end of the 1950’s he made his first recordings of Wagner's music with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. His complete stereo recording of the Ring with the Vienna Philharmonic, produced by John Culshaw for London Records in the 1960's is one of the landmark recordings of the 20th century. In 1969 he took over as director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and his second career as a conductor of orchestral music began. He remained in this post until 1991. From 1972 to 1975 he was also director of the Orchestre de Paris. In 1973, Rolf Liebermann appointed him as musical adviser to the Paris Opera.

In 1983, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Richard Wagner, he conducted Der Ring des Nibelungen in Bayreuth. "Good Friday Spell" Parsifal Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) Toscanini was born in Parma, Italy, and began training at the Parma Conservatory when he was nine years old. There he learned to play the cello and studied musical composition. In 1885 he graduated from the Conservatory with top awards. One year later he received an invitation to play with the Italian opera in Rio de Janeiro. On the night of a performance of Aida, the conductor became ill, and Toscanini was asked to fill in. After a spectacular performance which he conducted from memory, he was asked to remain as conductor of the Italian opera until the end of the season. This twist of fate led to an outstanding career spanning several decades. Toscanini began his conducting career in major Italian opera houses in Rome, Milan and Turin, touring with different opera companies from 1887 to 1896.

He was appointed Chief Conductor of La Scala, Milan in 1898. After conducting in Buenos Aires, Toscanini came to the United States in 1908 to be the conductor of the Metropolitan Opera. In 1929 he made his debut at Bayreuth, becoming the first non-German to conduct at the Festival. In 1933, however, as Hitler came to power, he withdrew from Bayreuth, and never came back to the Festspielhaus. In protest of the Fascists governments rising in Europe and their persecution of Jewish artists, he conducted the inaugural concerts of the newly-formed Palestine Orchestra, later named the Israel Philharmonic. In New York City, The NBC Symphony Orchestra was formed specifically for him in 1937. He conducted this orchestra for seventeen years, broadcasting concerts from New York to radios, and later televisions across the country. At the age of 87 Toscanini retired, and he died in New York City on January 16, 1957.

Question: Born in Hungary in 1912, which pianist and conductor was music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1961-71, and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1969-91?
Answer: GEORG SOLTI