Celebrating the 100th birthday of Sir Georg Solti - October 21, 2012

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti Music Director

From the Archives: Musings from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Rosenthal Archives

• Solti 1: Born in Budapest
  October 21, 2012 7:24 am
  György Stern was born in Budapest, Hungary, on October 21, 1912. Near the end of his Memoirs—completed when he was eighty-four—Solti wrote: "I have had an enormously lucky life. I have said many times, and believe more every day, that I have a guardian angel who guides me and protects me. Looking back, there [...]
• Solti 2: Shostakovich's Symphony no. 15 and a 999th appearance
  October 19, 2012 2:39 pm
  Sir Georg Solti conducted his beloved Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the last time in March 1997. His performance on March 29 was his 999th time conducting the Orchestra. The program included Mussorgsky's Prelude to Khovanshchina, Shostakovich's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death with bass Sergei Aleksashkin, and Shostakovich's Symphony no. 15. [...]
• Solti 3: Mahler's Fifth Symphony, take two
  October 18, 2012 2:34 pm
  The work most closely identified with Sir Georg Solti's tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra would arguably be Mahler's Fifth Symphony. During his final season as music director, Solti and the Orchestra recorded Mahler's Fifth a second time for London Records. The work was recorded live in concert at the Musikverein [...]
• Solti 4: Solti's legacy
  October 17, 2012 4:01 pm
  In addition to his incredibly vast discography, Sir Georg Solti has left behind a distinct legacy, dedicated not only to the next generations of musicians but also to music lovers. Headquartered in Belgium, The Solti Foundation provides support to young instrumentalists and composers from all over the world, preparing to embark on international careers. [...]
• Solti 5: Stern family in Budapest
  October 16, 2012 5:47 pm
  "During the first six years of my life, Hungary was one of the most important components of the Habsburg dynasty’s vast Austro-Hungarian Empire, but after World War I it became an independent national entity As a result of the subsequent upsurge in Hungarian nationalism, many Hungarians with Germanic surnames were encouraged to adopt Hungarian [...]
• Solti 6: At Carnegie Hall
  October 15, 2012 2:52 pm
  During his tenure as music director, Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra traveled to Carnegie Hall nearly every season. A complete list of those concerts are below: January 8, 1970 HAYDN Symphony No. 102 in B-flat Major BARTÓK Dance Suite BRAHMS Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68 January 9, 1970 MAHLER Kindertotenlieder [...]
• Solti 7: Orchestra! with Dudley Moore
  October 12, 2012 5:30 pm
  In 1990, Sir Georg Solti and Dudley Moore collaborated with Channel 4 to present an educational documentary series of programs entitled Orchestra! The programs were later released on video by London Records; an audio recording of excerpts—including works by Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Corelli, Haydn, Mozart, Ravel, Schubert, R. Strauss, Stravinsky, and Wagner, among [...]
• Solti 8: Solti at the movies
  October 11, 2012 5:46 pm
  According to Sir Georg Solti's entry at the Internet Movie Database, his recordings have been included on numerous movie soundtracks. Specifically for the soundtrack for the 1994 film Immortal Beloved, he conducted a number of works by Beethoven with the London Symphony Orchestra. Several works by Tchaikovsky were included in the 1997 film Anna [...]
• Solti 9: 1986 tour to the Far East
  October 01, 2012 6:25 pm
  Sir Georg Solti shared the podium with Daniel Barenboim, leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's second trip to Asia in March and April 1986, including stops in Japan (Anjo, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo, and Toyota) and Hong Kong. March 26, 1986 - Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo, Japan March 28, 1986 - Shimin Kaikan, Nagoya, Japan March 30, [...]
• Solti 10: At the Liszt Academy
  September 28, 2012 8:04 pm
  "After two years at the Fodor School, I passed the entrance examinations [at the age of 12] for the Liszt Academy, where, for six years, I received the most significant part of my formal music education. The Liszt Academy is housed in a magnificent building, and its beautiful Art Nouveau concert hall has marvelous [...]
• Solti 11: Stout's Symphony no. 4 and George Lieder
  September 27, 2012 6:46 pm
  With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti led two world premieres by American composer and Northwestern University music professor Alan Stout. The first was the world premiere of Stout's Symphony no. 4, given on April 15, 1971. It had been commissioned by The Orchestral Association for the 80th anniversary season and was dedicated to [...]
• Solti 12: Books on Solti
  September 25, 2012 6:10 pm
  In 1967, Viking Press published John Culshaw's book, Ring Resounding, a detailed account of the first complete studio recording of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Solti was the conductor for those recordings, made in Vienna between 1958 and 1965 with an all-star cast of singers and the Vienna Philharmonic. Rand McNally & Company [...]
• Solti 13: Beethoven's Fidelio
  September 20, 2012 5:46 pm
  With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Georg Solti led Beethoven's opera Fidelio in March 1970 in Chicago and again in May 1979, with concerts in Chicago and New York City. March 12, 14, and 16, 1970, at Orchestra Hall Leonore Anja Silja, soprano Marzelline Lucia Popp, soprano Florestan Jess Thomas, tenor Jaquino Frank [...]
• Solti 14: Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
  September 19, 2012 5:08 pm
  At the beginning of a video documentary chronicling the recording sessions for Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion in 1987, Sir Georg Solti said, "I was fortunate enough. I met in my life many great musicians, composers, conductors, piano players. But if I'm looking back on my long life now today, who is [...]
• Solti 15: Happy 80th birthday
  September 18, 2012 4:55 pm
  On November 19, 1992, Pierre Boulez surprised Sir Georg Solti—then the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's music director laureate—with a special musical birthday gift. Sir Georg entered the stage, ready to conduct the first concert of the second week of his fall residency, but just as he stepped onto the podium to lead Mozart's Overture to [...]
• Solti 16: 1978 tour to Europe
  September 13, 2012 5:19 pm
  Sir Georg Solti led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's third trip to Europe in August and September 1978, including stops in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Scotland, and Switzerland. August 30, 1978 - Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg, Austria September 10, 1978 - Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany September 19, 1978 - Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium DEBUSSY [...]
• Solti 17: Kennedy Center Honors
  September 12, 2012 2:37 pm
  On December 5, 1993, Sir Georg Solti was one of five distinguished artists honored at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in Washington, D.C., along with composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, dancer and choreographer Arthur Mitchell, comedian and television host Johnny Carson, and gospel singer Marion Williams. [...]
• Solti 18: Blackwood’s Symphony no. 4
  September 11, 2012 2:47 pm
  Sir Georg Solti led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Easley Blackwood's Fourth Symphony on November 22, 1978. According to Arrand Parsons's program note, Blackwood "was one of several composers commissioned in 1970 by Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in celebration of the Orchestra's 80th anniversary. Blackwood began [...]
• Solti 19: Mahler's Symphony no. 9
  September 10, 2012 9:02 am
  In a recent, beautifully crafted article in The Guardian, Ed Vulliamy wrote, "Solti's shattering Mahler Ninth at the Royal Festival Hall with the Chicago orchestra in 1981 left anyone who heard it dazed with wonderment." [...]
• Solti 20: Zwilich's Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra
  August 31, 2012 10:28 am
  On February 2, 1989, Sir Georg Solti led the world premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, which had been commissoned for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's principal trombone, Jay Friedman. Zwilich—the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for music—contributed the program note: "When I was approached by the Chicago [...]
• Solti 21: With Toscanini in Salzburg
  August 30, 2012 11:25 pm
  "In the summer of 1936, I visted the Salzburg Festival for the first time and managed to attend, unofficially, a few rehearsals and performances. Bruno Walter and several other famous musicians were taking part, but the main attraction was [Arturo] Toscanini, who was conducting Fidelio, Falstaff, Die Meistersinger, and some orchestral concerts. The experience [...]
• Solti 22: 1990 tour to Japan
  August 29, 2012 6:29 pm
  Music Director Sir Georg Solti and Music Director Designate Daniel Barenboim shared conducting duties on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's third trip to Japan in April 1990. April 11, 1990 – Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan April 18, 1990 – Symphony Hall, Osaka, Japan BRUCKNER Symphony No. 8 in C Minor Sir Georg Solti, conductor April [...]
• Solti 23: Sharing the podium
  August 29, 2012 1:54 pm
  During his twenty-two years as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1969 until 1991), Sir Georg Solti shared the podium with several other titled conductors, who served in a variety of capacities. Irwin Hoffman was appointed assistant conductor by Jean Martinon in 1964 and was promoted to associate conductor the following year. After [...]
• Solti 24: Schoenberg's Moses und Aron
  August 27, 2012 12:26 pm
  Georg Solti conducted the British premiere of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron at Covent Garden in June 1965. In Memoirs, he wrote: "Although I had conducted works by Bartók and Stravinsky, I had never before conducted twelve-tone music of such complexity. Moses is a much harder work than, for example, Lulu. There is a bel [...]
• Solti 25: First recordings
  August 24, 2012 5:08 pm
  Georg Solti's fifty-year affiliation as a recording artist with the London/Decca company began in 1947. In his Memoirs, Solti wrote: "The story of my career as a recording artist begins in about 1945, when Max Lichtegg, a singer I had worked with in Zurich, introduced me to his friend Moritz Rosengarten, the head of [...]
• Solti 26: 1971 tour to Europe
  August 18, 2012 1:06 pm
  Music Director Georg Solti and Principal Guest Conductor Carlo Maria Giulini shared conducting duties during the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's first overseas tour to Europe in 1971. The Orchestra was on the road for nearly six weeks, leaving Chicago on August 26 and not returning until October 6, and the tour included twenty-five concerts in [...]
• Solti 27: Wearing many hats
  August 17, 2012 6:45 pm
  In addition to his twenty-two-year tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1969-1991), Sir Georg Solti held a number of notable posts with other orchestras and opera companies. His first official post was with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where he served as music director from 1946 until 1952. Subsequently, he [...]
• Solti 28: Verdi's Requiem
  August 15, 2012 3:56 pm
  Sir Georg Solti twice led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Verdi's Requiem, with concerts in Orchestra Hall and Carnegie Hall. April 24 and 26, 1975, at Orchestra Hall (special non-subscription concerts) April 30, 1975, at Carnegie Hall Leontyne Price, soprano Yvonne Minton, mezzo-soprano Luciano Pavarotti, tenor Gwynne Howell, bass Chicago Symphony Chorus [...]
• Solti 29: Bruckner's symphonies
  August 3, 2012 3:00 pm
  Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra recorded Bruckner's ten symphonies between January 1979 and October 1995 for London Records. Symphony No. 0 in D Minor Michael Woolcock, producer Michael Mailes and Simon Eadon, engineers Recorded at Orchestra Hall October 1995 Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (Linz version, 1865-66) Michael Woolcock, producer [...]

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