Word: solti
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...Solti was guest-conducting in Italy and Vienna. Two years later he conducted the London Philharmonic, and in 1952 he moved from Munich to become general music director of the Frankfurt Opera. He had nine good years there (44 new productions), but in terms of his international career, it was records that brought him prominence. His 1957 recording of Wagner's Die Walküre with Kirsten Flagstad, Set Svanholm and the Vienna Philharmonic, was so successful that it prompted English Decca (London Records in the U.S.) to engage him to embark upon the complete Ring cycle, a prodigious...
Outraged. Though Solti first visited the U.S. in 1953 to conduct the San Francisco Opera, it was not until 1960 that he was offered an American orchestra. The experience was a disaster. Solti was hired by the Los Angeles Philharmonic as chief conductor, only to learn that a young conductor from India named Zubin Mehta had been chosen as his assistant-without his consent. Solti quit. Nothing against Mehta, says Solti, but a matter of principle. "If I had given in on this one point, it would never have been the same. I wasn't happy then...
...ascendancy to the directorship of England's Royal Opera at Covent Garden in 1961. Still something of a diamond in the rough, the Generalmusikdirektor of the Munich and Frankfurt operas had trouble adjusting to the British predilection for requesting rather than demanding. Recalls John Culshaw, producer of the Solti Ring cycle: "With such a bundle of energy who drives himself so hard, you either give him total loyalty or you can't stand him." Among those who could not stand him at first were the members of the chorus, outraged that he refused to meet their delegates...
...Solti did not go. In fact, it quickly became clear that he was not quite the ogre his Germanic brusqueness suggested. The musicians soon realized his remarkable talents and total dedication. They fondly began collecting "Solti-isms" that result from his frenzied blend of Hungarian, German and English. Examples: "Dis is it as ve vould never did it." To signify that the chorus was a bit muddy: "Here we have ze svimming." Running up to compliment a stand-in singer on his performance, he cried: "Congratulations, I thought it would be twice...
...Under Solti, Covent Garden had its most dynamic presence since the days of Sir Thomas Beecham in the 1930s. Aside from Karajan at Vienna, no other opera house was headed by a musician of Solti's caliber. When he took over, Solti proclaimed that "I have only one desire: to make Covent Garden the best opera house in the world." By the time he left in 1971, he had almost succeeded, and there was no one to dispute his right to the knighthood bestowed by the Queen a year later, shortly after he had become a British citizen...