Sir Georg Solti centenary thread

[Petrushka]

I liked Elgar's 1 he did, actually.

I remember the Prom programmers that year were rather perplexede, because there was Solti saying that we be doing LvB's Missa Solemnis or nothing else(perhaps that was another time?)

What year, BBM? I think you could be referring to 1982 when the then customary tradition of the LvB 9 on the penultimate night was replaced by the Missa Solemnis. Solti and the LPO had performed it a few days earlier in Edinburgh so they brought it to the Proms on September 10. I was there and it proved to be one of the most unforgettable Proms I've attended. There was a star-studded line-up of soloists: Helen Donath, Doris Soffel, Siegfried Jerusalem and Hans Sotin and I was incredibly lucky enough to meet them all, and Solti, backstage afterwards. I still have the signed programme.

[BBMmk2]

Yes Petrushka,that was the Prom Year I was talkiing about. yes, that Prom was the highlight for me backi then!

[Petrushka]

Yes Petrushka,that was the Prom Year I was talkiing about. yes, that Prom was the highlight for me backi then!

And I am desperate to find a recording of it! The Prom was broadcast live on BBC2 as well as R3 so someone out there must have it.

[kernelbogey]

Today at 1500:

Solti Episode 1 of 2
Duration: 2 hours
First broadcast: Saturday 20 October 2012
In the first of two editions of Saturday Classics dedicated to Georg Solti in his centenary year, James Jolly explores some of the great conductor's best recordings.

[BBMmk2]

Today at 1500:

[Petrushka]

Great new release from ICA Classics: http://www.icartists.co.uk/classics/...hony-orchestra

The BBC archives will also contain Prom performances from Solti and the CSO in Bruckner 7, Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and Beethoven 9. Let's hope that they make an appearance on this fascinating label very soon. And if anyone from ICA Classics is reading this, how about the 1982 Beethoven Missa Solemnis referred to above?

[Stanley Stewart]

My intro to "Die Frau ohne Schatten" was hypnotically conducted by Solti at ROH on 10 April 1976. James King and Heather Harper played the Emperor and Empress, Walter Berry as Barak, and any luxury cast list which included Teresa Cahill, Angela Bostock, Heather Begg, Gillian Knight and Elizabeth Bainbridge as Five Solo Voices already had a head start. The setting was dominated by an enormous staircase and it is worth remembering that the stage at Covent Garden matches the size of the auditorium. A quite magnificent design by Josef Svobada.

[BBMmk2]

Catching up on iplayer the Saturday Classics, with James Joly. At the moment its just shorter extracts?

[Tony Halstead]

46 ( yes FORTY-SIX) years ago I did an audition for a 'job' at the Royal Opera House.... the only person who listened to me was the great (Sir) Georg Solti...
He was RUTHLESS in his demand for RHYTHMIC accuracy. Maybe I failed the audition because I wasn't 'rhythmic enough'...?

[rauschwerk]

He was RUTHLESS in his demand for RHYTHMIC accuracy.

I can well believe it, and I think that those who dislike Solti's approach to music do so partly because they find him too much of a policeman. Last night I listened to one of his Haydn recordings (Symphony 101) and thought it rather fine, yet I once saw a poor review of that set which spoke of "harried phrase endings".

[rogerjovovich]

I'm also great fan of his but I am also a great fan of Barbirolli....Strangely, Solti is quite under-represented on my shelves - Eugene Onegin, + Elgar and Bartok violin concertos with Kyung Wha Chung - all great recordings - but unfortunately I never saw him live.

[aeolium]

I can well believe it, and I think that those who dislike Solti's approach to music do so partly because they find him too much of a policeman.

Nowhere more so than in his earlier Mozart performances, which I regret to say turned me off him as a conductor for a long time, and only later on did I revisit his work (with other composers) and began to appreciate his achievement.

[Stanley Stewart]

I wanted to remember the Solti centenary, yesterday (21 Oct), by rummaging through a chaotic video collection for transfer to DVD and was glad to retrieve an off-air video of his Beethoven Sym 9 with CSO, 13 Sept - Proms 96. Glad, too, to add Solti: The Making of a Maestro, a first rate 90 mins Omnibus documentary, transmitted on BBC 1 (ye, gods!) on 28 Sept, 97. Ironically, the programme was completed only a few days before his death. Finally, his This Is Your Life tribute from 1987, a delightful bit of froth and he entered the spirit of the broadcast with a sustained twinkle. He only froze when recalling an urgent visit to Switzerland in the late 1930s and received a three- word telegram from his father in Hungary, "Don't come back" - he never saw him again. Otherwise, we saw several operatic stalwarts, including Hans Hotter and Birgit Nillson; the love and affection between them rang true. Valerie Solti sat by him throughout and commented on his enjoyment of TV comedians. Frankie Howerd was wheeled-on and asked whether he could call him Georgy - not Boy George, of course! I then spent the afternoon browsing through Solti on Solti - A Memoir (1997) to fill-in a few memory gaps. All hugely enjoyable and rewarding.

I wish the BBC had shown a repeat of "The Making of a Maestro", yesterday, as it provided a well researched and comprehensive coverage of his phenomenal career with lots of fascinating archive material.

[Nick Armstrong]

Love or loathe Solti, or in my case both (depending on the music - 'Elektra' live in the opera house with him conducting was one of my best ever evenings of music), this must be worth a watch next Friday:

Maestro or Mephisto: the Real Georg Solti, BBC4 8pm 9.11.12

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nrp47

[rauschwerk]

...this must be worth a watch next Friday:

Maestro or Mephisto: the Real Georg Solti, BBC4 8pm 9.11.12

Looks promising if one ignores the ludicrous catchpenny title.