Word: solti
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Hedi had begun the taming of the Magyar and Valerie now completed the process. When he was in one of his intense moods, relaxed, unassuming Valerie went her own sweet way, and that, surprisingly, unwound him. She never debunked him and, more important, never inflated him. In short, says Solti's American Manager Ann Colbert, "Valerie took him off the pedestal." The aura of happy domesticity sits well on Solti these days. He has even been known to end an evening's rehearsal early to go home and tuck his first child. Daughter Gabrielle, now 3, into...
Though spectacular on the podium, he is just plain Georg in real life. Where Karajan tools around in a flashy sports car, Solti drives a Volvo sedan. Where Bernstein emerges from a concert in a flowing cape, Solti strolls out in a faded turtleneck. He prefers mineral water to wine, and his daily drink is usually a Scotch just after the concert and before his late-night supper; he never eats before conducting...
...also watches the stock market. That is not surprising, considering his wealth. Solti's combined earnings from concerts and recordings now probably exceed a quarter-million dollars a year. Royalties from his disks, spurred by the popularity of his Ring and Mahler cycles, have risen drastically in the past several years; he is comforted by the knowledge that if anything happened to him ("Look, I am 60 after all"), future royalties would certainly assure his young family a good income for at least the next 15 years. Yet signs of wealth are extremely hard to detect in his lifestyle...
...Solti talks regularly of slowing down. He notes that Gabrielle will be five in 1975 and ready for a stable home and school life. Also, he and Valerie are expecting a second child this month. Like fatherhood, though, Solti's biggest successes have come late in life and, while mellower now, he is going as hard today as he did as a handyman at the Budapest opera 40 years ago. This week he brings the Chicago into New York for two sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, then on to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. In July...
After all, notes a friend, Toscanini is one of Solti's heroes-and he conducted until...