Word: solti
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Mehta's appointment ended a yearlong search at the Philharmonic. Sir Georg Solti, director of the Chicago Symphony, turned down the post last year. Cleveland's Lorin Maazel and London's pianist-conductor Daniel Barenboim were also mentioned. Mehta himself said no when first asked if he wanted to be among those considered. When the Philharmonic came back with a firm offer a month ago (for an amount undoubtedly in excess of $100,000), he gave in. "My decision was a hard one," he said last week. "But New York is the center of the world...
BEETHOVEN: THE NINE SYMPHONIES (London, 9 LPs). Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra may have been made for each other, but they were also made to play Beethoven...
BEETHOVEN: THE NINE SYMPHONIES (Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Sir Georg Solti, conductor; London; $50). With at least 15 complete sets of the Beethoven symphonies on the market, there could be only two reasons for yet another version: Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony. Solti has in this orchestra as versatile and flexible an instrument as any conductor could ask for. When the collaboration is fueled by the immense spirit of Beethoven, the result is a glorious musical combustion...
...unsentimental romanticist, Solti works easily within the huge design of the Eroica. He treats the long first movement almost as an extended phrase. If he lacks something of the rhythmic intensity of Toscanini, Solti nevertheless fuses the conflicting elements of the symphony into a coherent whole with no sacrifice of tonal beauty. The sad serenity of the adagio of the Ninth Symphony surges to the famed choral movement with stunning emotional impact. Partisans will want to stick with some of the classic interpretations: Toscanini's Seventh, for instance, or the Erich Kleiber/Amsterdam Concertgebouw Fifth. But for consistent clarity, warmth...
While an undergraduate at Dartmouth, I had the opportunity to stage manage Sir Georg Solti's Chicago Symphony Orchestra for three years in a row. On one occasion, Sir Georf and I talked at length about his style of conducting. He said that economics in movement was essential in the presentation of fine music. "Anything else," he said, "detracts from the concert and the music presented there...