Word: szell
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...Vienna when it isn't Von Karajan." More to the point, everybody knows that it is Bing who calls the tunes at the Met. Great conductors usually have egos to match, and the inevitable collision between Bing and the baton men caused such autocratic maestros as George Szell and the late Fritz Reiner to boycott the house...
MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO. 4 (Columbia). This glorious work contains Mahler's song "Das himmlische Leben," and George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra recreate the Teutonic paradise. Judith Raskin, who sings the three soprano solos, sounds warm and free, yet her precise technique never allows a hint of bombast. "St. Cecilia with all her relatives are the excellent court musicians," goes the final refrain of the song, and the Cleveland and Miss Raskin could not be better described...
...Cleveland had safely and on the whole admirably negotiated the longest and, in the opinion of many pianists, the most difficult piano concerto ever composed. It was, in fact, a monstrosity, as some critics limply acknowledged. But they had to concede, along with Cleveland's crusty old George Szell, that it was "a monstrosity full of genius," and that the man who wrote it was a genius full of monstrosity, one of the most spectacular figures in the history of Western music...
...sound with new space-age computer. Machine says major problems-lack of bass, uneven distribution of sound, fluttery echoes-are largely corrected. Critics say machine has flipped circuit; their ears hear otherwise. Musicians say now it is like playing in the bottom of huge barrel. Conductor George Szell, after conducting at hall for four weeks, describes panel's contribution: "Imagine a woman, lame, a hunchback, cross-eyed and with two warts. They've removed the warts." Schuman decides back-to-work...
DVORAK: SLAVONIC DANCES (Columbia). At his worst, Dvoŕák can make music sound like busy work for idle hands, but he can also evoke the folk music of Bohemia echoing across silent valleys and hills. It is this Dvoŕák that George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra capture...