Sir Georg Solti: Not Respected?

[Cellini]

Solti, hmmm, like HvK, was a great commercial success. It's a pity that critics seem to have this snobbery aboiut them when conductors acheive commercial success.

Sorry to be a bit blunt with you, BBM, but you seem hung up on snobbery and achieving commercial success. What has that got to do with the quality of the interpretation? Lots of people have commercial success - look at most pop singers.

[Ferretfancy]

Dracom

I said "leaving the Ring aside" simply because I took it as a given that most of us would have it on our shelves. I certainly was not intending to sideline its significance. A friend of mine worked for a while at Henry Staves, and a wealthy customer came in to buy one of the first copies of Das Rheingold. A few hours later he came back and ordered 18 more copies to give to his friends!
I'm sorry to have left you speechless, but believe me, I think the Solti Ring is one of the greatest recording achievements of all time.
Bws.
Ferret

[aeolium]

I did not care greatly for the Mozart or Beethoven recordings of his I heard, but found myself enjoying his discs of Schumann and Elgar symphonies. I'm slightly surprised he did so much recording work with the VPO as he seems to have suffered badly from antisemitism there (at least according to John Drummond).

[Mandryka]

I did not care greatly for the Mozart or Beethoven recordings of his I heard, but found myself enjoying his discs of Schumann and Elgar symphonies. I'm slightly surprised he did so much recording work with the VPO as he seems to have suffered badly from antisemitism there (at least according to John Drummond).

I was somewhat surprised to hear that he didn't get on with the VPO, considering the frequency with which he recorded with them. I've heard part of the problem was that he didn't flatter the orchestra in the way it was used to from other conductors.

[DracoM]

And the Parsifal took a lot of people by suprise for its inwardness, grasp of paragraphs, and its transcendental UNdriven playing. That bleached out 'white' exhausted tone of Kollo's exactly portrayed the 'changed' Parsifal, and the tempi and Solti's texturing of Act 3 is rarely going to be bettered IMO.

[Mandryka]

And the Parsifal took a lot of people by suprise for its inwardness, grasp of paragraphs, and its transcendental UNdriven playing. That bleached out 'white' exhausted tone of Kollo's exactly portrayed the 'changed' Parsifal, and the tempi and Solti's texturing of Act 3 is rarely going to be bettered IMO.

I love Solti's version. The analogue sound is perfect. I still hold that up as my exemplar of what sound on an opera recording should be like.

[PaulT]

All our lives have to be better for experiencing Solti. There are so few top conductors around that we would be foolish
to disparage any of them.
For myself I come in very much at the tail end of his career. I was never very partial to the Chicago sound while Haitink and Tennstedt surely excelled more at the LPO.
I'm really looking forward to getting the recently issued Elgar 2 DVD.
Two favourite recordings would be the Mahler Resurrection (LSO) and a VHS of Bruckner 7
(Proms 1978). I expect some of you were at that concert. Did Solti ever conduct Bruckner as well as that again ?

Ah yes, his LSO Mahler 2 - the second Mahler recording I bought (the first being no 3 with Kubelik). And I was at the Bruckner 7 Prom and have the VHS tape. When I was a student in the early 1970s I was a regular at the Sunday afternoon RFH concerts. Week after week it was either Haitink and the LPO or Solti and the LSO with Mahler or Bruckner on the agenda. Rich pickings indeed. I recall Solti's Bruckner 8 and 9 from the 1970s that seemed to me as good as the 7 and certainly far more satisfying than a Mehta Bruckner 9 from about the same time. Also an RFH Rite of Spring and a Sinfonie Fantastique that was so electrifying I went to hear it again at the Fairfield Hall. He brought the Chicago Symphony to London and a Brahms 1 brought the house down.

I went to Robert Mayer's 100th birthday concert. Solti was there, not conducting but accompanying on the piano for Yvonne Minton. Later I spied him sitting in the stalls with Valerie and approached him with some trepidation to ask if he would autograph my programme. He willingly obliged, then put his finger to his lip and with an impish grin said: "put it under your coat otherwise everyone will want one!

[DracoM]

Ah yes, that LSO Resurrection Symp!
First 'boxed set' I ever bought. Blew my socks off.

[Barbirollians]

I cannot say that I liked everything he did but his early LSO Bartok, his Elgar symphonies and violin concerto with Chung , his Mahler 8,Bruckner 1, Dvorak 9,La Traviata with Gheorghiu and that Rosenkavalier I treasure.

[aeolium]

I'm not sure why we should feel that a conductor ought to excel in everything he attempts. Like most people, he will probably have musical 'blind spots' but may well for contractual reasons have to perform music he doesn't feel a great affinity for. I can hardly think of any conductor who has achieved consistent excellence across many different musical styles (perhaps Mackerras comes as close as any).

[Cellini]

I'm not sure why we should feel that a conductor ought to excel in everything he attempts. Like most people, he will probably have musical 'blind spots' but may well for contractual reasons have to perform music he doesn't feel a great affinity for. I can hardly think of any conductor who has achieved consistent excellence across many different musical styles (perhaps Mackerras comes as close as any).

Yes, that's perfectly true. And I'm sure there must be good things that Solti did, it's just that I haven't heard them yet. As I don't listen to very much orchestral music these days I probably won't get too many opportunities to hear him, but I will keep an eye out for any R3 exposure. I will especially listen out for any Solti Bartok on R3. (Can't face listening to Parsifal these days).

[Dave2002]

Yes, that's perfectly true. And I'm sure there must be good things that Solti did, it's just that I haven't heard them yet. As I don't listen to very much orchestral music these days I probably won't get too many opportunities to hear him, but I will keep an eye out for any R3 exposure. I will especially listen out for any Solti Bartok on R3. (Can't face listening to Parsifal these days).

I think Solti did some things very well indeed. I only heard him conduct live on a few occcasions, but it did seem to me that his live performances were really very different from his recorded ones. With the Chicago orchestra he got a quieter pianissimo live than most conductors achieve - made a change from the mf we normally get.

Maybe we'll just have to agree to differ about some of his recordings, but I really like his Mahler 8 and his Mozart Marriage of Figaro with Kanawa. He was also good in some other Mozart.

[umslopogaas]

Post 37 PaulT

Programme autograph ... I think Solti was a willing signer of fan's possessions. I've bought, secondhand, two of his opera recordings on LP where the booklets are signed on the front by him: Das Rheingold and Gotterdammerung. I'm rather proud of them. I similarly acquired, quite by chance, the LPs of Bellini's I Puritani, signed on the inside of the lid by Joan Sutherland, who stars in the recording, and Richard Bonynge, who conducts. I'm in no sense a collector of autographs, but they do add something a bit special.

However, the one I really do treasure, and which makes me feel slightly giddy when I handle it, is a 1972 Russian Melodiya LP of Shostakovich's 15th symphony. There's a black and white shot of the composer on the cover, looking upwards and to the left, pensive expression and hand under his chin. At the bottom is a white panel with Russian script which says D. Shostakovich, symphony no. 15 in A major, op. 141. Next to the composer's name is a biroed signature by him. I know its his, I've seen other examples used on record sleeves and its very distinctive. I dont think the dealer I bought it from recognised it, he probably thought it was part of the artwork, but it isnt, its clearly written on afterwards. This was the year the symphony was recorded and the LP was probably imported specially from the USSR. Shostakovich did visit the UK at the invitation of the Fitzwilliam Quartet at around this time, and was presumably asked to sign it. Shostakovich is an awe-isnpiring person and to have his signature on the first recording of one of his major works is a great privilege.

[Cellini]

Post 37 PaulT

Programme autograph ... I think Solti was a willing signer of fan's possessions. I've bought, secondhand, two of his opera recordings on LP where the booklets are signed on the front by him: Das Rheingold and Gotterdammerung. I'm rather proud of them. I similarly acquired, quite by chance, the LPs of Bellini's I Puritani, signed on the inside of the lid by Joan Sutherland, who stars in the recording, and Richard Bonynge, who conducts. I'm in no sense a collector of autographs, but they do add something a bit special.

However, the one I really do treasure, and which makes me feel slightly giddy when I handle it, is a 1972 Russian Melodiya LP of Shostakovich's 15th symphony. There's a black and white shot of the composer on the cover, looking upwards and to the left, pensive expression and hand under his chin. At the bottom is a white panel with Russian script which says D. Shostakovich, symphony no. 15 in A major, op. 141. Next to the composer's name is a biroed signature by him. I know its his, I've seen other examples used on record sleeves and its very distinctive. I dont think the dealer I bought it from recognised it, he probably thought it was part of the artwork, but it isnt, its clearly written on afterwards. This was the year the symphony was recorded and the LP was probably imported specially from the USSR. Shostakovich did visit the UK at the invitation of the Fitzwilliam Quartet at around this time, and was presumably asked to sign it. Shostakovich is an awe-isnpiring person and to have his signature on the first recording of one of his major works is a great privilege.

Yes, I would agree. A bit like having Beethoven's autograph.

[Petrushka]

Yes, I would agree. A bit like having Beethoven's autograph.

I, too, have Shostakovich's autograph though mine was purchased via a dealer and is on an autograph book page. Unfortunately, I failed to find how and when this was obtained but there is no doubting it's authenticity. Still off-topic (apologies) I also have Elgar, Britten and Walton's signatures (the fanfare from Facade in Walton's case).

Returning to topic, I attended a 1982 Prom of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis under Solti and went backstage afterwards and got my programme signed by all the singers (Helen Donath, Doris Soffel, Siegfried Jerusalem and Hans Sotin) and Solti himself. I badly want to hear a recording of that Prom (Sept 10 1982) which was also live on BBC2. Can anyone oblige?