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George Szell
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(b Budapest, 7 June 1897; d Cleveland, 29 July 1970). American conductor. After study in Vienna he conducted at the Berlin Staatsoper from 1915; later appointments were at Strasbourg, Darmstadt, Prague and Glasgow. His American début was in 1931 and he settled in the USA in 1939. From 1946 to 1970 he was musical director of the Cleveland Orchestra, developing a superb ensemble that embodied his strict notions of discipline in producing an orchestral sound with the clarity and balance of chamber music. He toured with that orchestra and also became closely associated with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Salzburg Festival.
| Biography: George Szell |
As conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra for almost a quarter-century, Hungarian-born George Szell (1897 - 1970) built the ensemble into one of the world's greatest symphony orchestras. For sheer precision and accuracy of interaction, the Cleveland Orchestra under Szell was unmatched.
In many ways, Szell lived up to the image of European conductors that Americans frequently had and enjoyed. He was an absolute authoritarian who drilled his players relentlessly in order to produce the detailed and fully thought-out interpretations of classical works he demanded. An imposing figure who stood six feet tall on the podium, he loomed larger than life for the orchestra's players, who often feared his withering stare and chilly personality. Szell was the kind of figure around whom anecdotes circulate, each more outrageous than the last. It was said that when a member of the orchestra's violin section suffered a serious fall, Szell phoned the dressing room solely to ask whether the man's violin had been damaged. But the end result of Szell's single-mindedness was an orchestra that could match any other in the world and that excelled those in other medium-sized U.S. cities by far.
Showed Prodigal Talent
The son of attorney and businessman Georg Charles Szell and his wife Margarethe, Szell was born in Budapest, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, on June 7, 1897. He sometimes used the Hungarian form of his name, György, and Americanized it to George when he settled in the United States. Szell grew up mostly in Vienna, Austria, and he showed tremendous talent on the piano from an early age. He made his debut with the Vienna Tonküstler Orchestra (Vienna Musical Artists' Orchestra) when he was 11, playing, in addition to established classical piano concertos, a Rondo for piano and orchestra of his own composition. He quickly performed in several other European capitals and was hailed as a child prodigy in the Austrian tradition of Mozart.
Szell's parents, however, realized that child prodigies often burn out, and they insisted that their son get a better-rounded musical education. Szell studied theory and composition with some of the top figures in the German-speaking musical world, including the composer and organist Max Reger and the musicologist Eusebius Mandyczewski. He began to look to the German capital of Berlin as the height of musical art and was quoted as saying in Opera News that he had left before picking up "that phony Viennese gemütlichkeit" - the relaxed sociability exemplified in Vienna's great waltz tradition. Szell was serious-minded from an early age.
Szell found his life's work the first time he picked up a conductor's baton, leading the Vienna Konzertvereins-Orchester (Vienna Concert Association Orchestra) in a 1913 performance. The following year he appeared as piano soloist, guest composer, and conductor with the mighty Berlin Philharmonic; as conductor he led the high-spirited orchestral work Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, by Richard Strauss. Strauss was a noted opera conductor as well as a composer, and Szell offered himself up as an intern. He spent two years as Strauss's assistant, never earning a cent but absorbing the intricacies of the European classical tradition, especially opera. The internship paid off when Strauss recommended his young disciple for a conducting post at the opera house in Strassburg. When that city reverted to French control, Szell moved on to a series of opera conducting posts in mostly German cities - Darmstadt, Düsseldorf, and, from 1929 to 1937, the German opera house in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He married Olga Band in 1920, but the couple divorced six years later.
Szell was by now in demand as a guest orchestral conductor as well, and he made his American debut with the St. Louis Symphony in 1930. Of Jewish background, Szell was unnerved by the rise of fascism in Germany in the mid-1930s. He sought out orchestral posts in Western Europe, landing one with the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow in 1937. He married Helene Schultz Teltsch the following year. Traveling to Australia in 1939, Szell heard that war had broken out in Europe. He started back to Glasgow via Canada and the United States but then learned that the Scottish Orchestra had disbanded and that he thus had no job to return to.
Taught Compositionin New York
Staying on in New York, Szell landed a job as a composition instructor at the Mannes College of Music. After two years in Scotland he was a competent English speaker, and during his years in Cleveland, Ohio, he spoke English with a heavy German accent but perfect grammatical correctness. Szell's name was well known among European conductors who had already ventured to the U.S., and it did not take him long to find major conducting engagements. Szell conducted Strauss's Salome at the Metropolitan opera in December of 1942 and appeared as guest conductor with various American orchestras, including the Detroit Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. Szell became an American citizen in 1946, and after several appearances in Cleveland he was offered the post of conductor and music director there that year.
"A new leaf will be turned over with a bang," Szell announced (according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.) "People talk about the New York, the Boston, and the Philadelphia [orchestras]. Now they will talk about the New York, the Boston, the Philadelphia, and the Cleveland." The claim seemed rash; Cleveland had a long tradition of classical music dating back to the large population of German immigrants who settled there in the nineteenth century, but the Cleveland Orchestra was not regarded as a major presence in American music. Szell, after making sure he had the backing of the orchestra's board, immediately set about making changes. He enlarged the orchestra, fired a group of well-entrenched players who he felt were not up to snuff, and scoured American orchestras and music schools for the best new talent. His aim, he was quoted as saying by Harold C. Schonberg in The Great Conductors, was to create "a combination of the best elements of American and European orchestral playing. I wanted to combine the American purity and beauty of sound and their virtuosity of execution with the European sense of tradition, warmth of expression, and sense of style."
By the early 1950s the Cleveland Orchestra was essentially an ensemble that Szell had created. The large group of string players interacted seamlessly, like a string quartet, and if emotion was not Szell's strong suit, his attention to detail and his absolute control over the orchestra were widely praised. The Cleveland Orchestra was heard all over the country on the radio, and world-class soloists put Cleveland's east-side Severance Hall on their itineraries. Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra began making a long series of recordings for the Columbia label, covering the symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms, and much of the rest of the standard nineteenth-century Germanic repertory. In music close to his central European roots, such as the Symphony No. 8 of Antonín Dvořák, he was regarded as perhaps the finest conductor alive. Szell was not exactly enamored with contemporary music, and often assigned concerts of new works to assistant conductors, although, he did lead numerous world premieres in Cleveland, including that of Paul Hindemith's Piano Concerto (1947).
Szell often returned to Europe to conduct, and in 1957 he felt the Cleveland Orchestra was ready to face the Continent's notoriously tough newspaper critics. The orchestra won rave reviews and returned to Europe in 1965 and 1967. The orchestra also frequently appeared around the U.S., but Szell refused to allow the group to perform for segregated audiences in Southern cities, and the Cleveland Orchestra became the first top American orchestra to hire an African-American musician. In 1970 the orchestra toured Japan in connection with the Expo '70 world's fair there. His love of Mozart found an outlet in guest-conducting appearances at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, and he often returned to his first love, conducting opera.
Compared Mozart's Music to Asparagus
Szell was popular among Clevelanders; if he could not be said to be exactly friendly, he had a dry wit that appealed to classical music lovers. When asked about the charge that his interpretations of Mozart lacked emotion, he replied (according to the All Music Guide) that one does not pour chocolate sauce over asparagus. He encouraged young musicians and orchestra players and audiences alike were proud that he had put Cleveland on the international musical map.
Stories that circulated about Szell among the musicians of the orchestra, however, often had a less positive flavor. Szell's need for total control led him to act coldly, some felt. "He looks at us the way you study a bug," one musician was quoted as saying in Opera News. When musicians encountered Szell on the street he would not acknowledge their presence - to do so, he felt, would be to cross a boundary and thus to diminish his authority. Szell's rehearsals were exacting, and players reported that they were as exhausting as actual concerts. His authoritarian streak was only rarely displayed to audiences; one winter night he stopped the orchestra, announced that he would give audience members five minutes to cough and clear their throats, and stalked off.
Some in the musical community felt that Szell was his own worst enemy, but New York Metropolitan Opera general manager Rudolf Bing, hearing that, replied "Not while I'm alive" (according to Schonberg). Szell ordered around renowned soloists, and one, violinist Henryk Szeryng, decided that he would not put up with it. The two disagreed over the proper tempo for a movement in one concerto, and both refused to back down. The orchestra was forced to slow down when Szeryng started playing and to speed up when Szell was once again in control. But that was a rare lapse in a Szell performance, for his iron control, all agreed, resulted in playing of a remarkably high standard for a very long time. Szell made no friends by saying that the Cleveland Orchestra's rehearsals started where those of other ensembles left off, but the statement had a high degree of truth.
Szell was adamant about bringing out fine musical details. Schonberg quoted him as saying that "everything a good composer writes down is expected to be heard, except in obvious cases where a coloristic impression is intended," and the Cleveland Orchestra on a good night, which was almost every night under Szell, achieved an awe-inspiring clarity of texture. His talents extended beyond German music; he conducted the orchestral music of his adopted country enthusiastically, and he excelled in the work of composers, like Finland's Jean Sibelius, who specialized in complicated orchestral textures. His love for the challenges of good orchestration also made him an admired specialist in the oversized operas of Richard Wagner.
Suffering from cancer in his later years, Szell died in Cleveland on July 30, 1970. Subsequent conductors - Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst - inherited a precision-tuned instrument, and the Cleveland Orchestra remained among the world's most renowned. The legacy of George Szell loomed large in American musical life.
Books
International Dictionary of Opera, St. James, 1993.
Sadie, Stanley, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., Macmillan, 2001.
Schonberg, Harold C., The Great Conductors, Simon and Schuster, 1967.
Periodicals
National Review, June 16, 2003.
Opera News, December 5, 1992.
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), December 31, 1999.
Washington Post, February 12, 1978.
Online
"George Szell," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (January 26, 2006).
"George Szell," Sony Classical, http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/szell/bio.html (January 26, 2006).
| Columbia Encyclopedia: George Szell |
Szell, George (sĕl), 1897-1970, American conductor and pianist, b. Budapest. He moved with his family to Vienna during his childhood and started his piano training at an early age studying at the State Academy of Music in Vienna and in Leipzig. Deciding on a career as a conductor, Szell assisted Richard Strauss at the Berlin State Opera, then held conducting posts in Strasbourg (1917), Prague (1919-21), Darmstadt (1922), and Düsseldorf (1922-24). He was the chief conductor of the Berlin State Opera from 1924 to 1930. Szell made his American debut (1930) with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Settling in the United States in 1939, he taught at the New School for Social Research and at the Mannes School of Music in New York City and was principal conductor at the Metropolitan Opera (1942-46). In 1946 he became a U.S. citizen. From that year until his death he was musical director of the Cleveland Orchestra, which, under his leadership, became one of the world's finest orchestras. He took leave to conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, and returned (1963) to the United States as guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic, for which he also acted as interim conductor during the period from 1969 to 1970. Szell's interpretations were marked by clarity and objective adherence to the composer's intentions.
| Quotes By: George Szell |
Quotes:
"Conductors must give unmistakable and suggestive signals to the orchestra, not choreography to the audience."
| Artist: George Szell |
- Period: Modern (1910-1949)
- Country: Hungary/USA
- Born: June 07, 1897 in Budapest, Hungary
- Died: July 29, 1970 in Cleveland, OH
Biography
Part of the wave of great Hungarian conductors who took over American musical life just before and after World War II -- the others included Fritz Reiner, Antal Dorati, and Eugene Ormandy -- George Szell quickly transformed a middling Midwestern orchestra into one of the nation's Big Five. His cultivation of the Cleveland Orchestra set an example of discipline and hard work that gradually helped raise the standards of orchestras across America.Although born in Hungary, Szell was raised in Vienna where he studied composition with Eusebius Mandyczewski, and piano with Richard Robert; he also studied composition in Prague with J.B. Foerster. Szell was a wunderkind, playing a Mozart piano concerto with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra when he was ten, and composing a number of solid chamber and orchestral works in a lush, late Romantic style as a child and teenager. He was 17 when he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in a program that included one of his own compositions.
Despite these early successes, Szell rose through the conducting ranks in the traditional way of the period, with a series of opera positions: Royal Opera of Berlin (1915-1917), Strasbourg (1917-1918), Prague (1919-1921), Darmstadt (1921-1922), and Düsseldorf (1922-1924). Szell's first prestigious post came to him in 1924, when he was named first conductor of the Berlin State Opera; he simultaneously served as a professor at Berlin's Hochschule für Musik. In 1929, he moved on to become general music director of the German Opera and Philharmonic in Prague, where he remained until 1937.
Szell began focusing more on orchestral repertory in the 1930s; he made his U.S. debut as guest conductor of the St. Louis Symphony in 1930, and in 1937 he was appointed conductor of the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow, while maintaining a steady relationship with the Residentie Orkest in The Hague. Szell was in America in 1939 when war broke out in Europe; he remained in the U.S. through the war, first depending on guest engagements and then, in 1942, becoming a regular conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, where he was especially praised for his Wagner performances. In 1946 Szell took American citizenship and became music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, a post he held for 24 years. He was also the New York Philharmonic's music advisor and senior guest conductor during the last two years of his life.
Although Szell made a recordings in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s for Decca, and in Cleveland at the end of his life for EMI, the bulk of his substantial discography was the result of his long collaboration with Columbia Records in Cleveland. There, Szell had inherited an able but ordinary orchestra and, through sheer determination, molded it into one of America's finest. A Szell performance was remarkable for its textural clarity, chamber-like balances, and precision of attack and release. He drilled his orchestra mercilessly, even in works it had performed with him not long before. Szell was particularly admired for his performances of Austro-Germanic classics from Haydn to Richard Strauss, his sharp renderings of works by a select group of twentieth century composers including Bartók, Prokofiev, Janácek, and Walton), and his idiomatic way with Dvorák. Indeed, some collectors maintain that Szell's monaural, early 1950s recording of Dvorák's Eighth Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra has never been equaled. His treatment of French composers, on the other hand, was criticized for its lack of atmosphere, and detractors maintained that he achieved precision at the expense of emotional expression. To those who demanded a warmer approach to his beloved Mozart, however, Szell is said to have retorted, "One does not pour chocolate sauce over asparagus." ~ James Reel, All Music Guide
Discography
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| Wikipedia: George Szell |
For the Hungarian Prime Minister, see Kálmán Széll.
George Szell (pronounced /ˈsɛl/) (June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll or Georg Szell,[1] was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, and for the recordings of the standard classical repertoire he made in Cleveland and with other orchestras.
Szell came to Cleveland in 1946 to take over a respected, but undersized, orchestra which was struggling to recover from the disruptions of World War II. By the time of his death he was credited, to quote the critic Donal Henahan, with having built it into "what many critics regarded as the world's keenest symphonic instrument."[2][3] Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the classical music world long after his death, and in some circles his name remains synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. While on tour with the Orchestra in the late 1980s, then Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi remarked, "We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review."[4]
Contents |
Life and career
Early career
Szell was born in Budapest but grew up in Vienna. He began his formal music training as a pianist, studying with Richard Robert. One of Robert's other students was Rudolf Serkin; Szell and Serkin became lifelong friends and music collaborators.[5] In addition to studying piano, Szell was schooled in music composition by Eusebius Mandyczewski (a personal friend of Brahms), and by the composer Max Reger for a brief period. When he was fourteen he signed a ten-year exclusive publishing contract with Universal Edition in Vienna. Szell's work as a composer is virtually unknown today. In addition to writing original pieces, he arranged Bedřich Smetana's String Quartet No. 1, From My Life, for orchestra.
At age eleven, Szell began touring Europe as a pianist and composer, making his London debut at that age. Newspapers declared him "the next Mozart." Throughout his teenage years he performed with orchestras in this dual role, eventually making appearances as composer, pianist and conductor, as he did with the Berlin Philharmonic at age seventeen.[6]
Szell quickly realized that he was never going to make a career out of being a composer or pianist, and that he much preferred that artistic control that was granted to conductors. He made an unplanned public debut as a conductor when he was sixteen. When the orchestra at a summer resort where he was vacationing with his family suddenly found itself without a conductor (due to his arm being injured), Szell was asked to substitute. Szell quickly turned to conducting fulltime. While he ceased composing, throughout the rest of his life he occasionally played the piano with chamber ensembles and as an accompanist. Despite his rare appearances as a pianist after his teens, he remained in good form. During his Cleveland years he occasionally would demonstrate to guest pianists how he thought they should play a certain passage.[6]
In 1915, at the age of 18, Szell won an appointment with Berlin's Royal Court Opera (now known as the Staatsoper). There, he was befriended by its Music Director, Richard Strauss. Strauss instantly recognized Szell's talent and was particularly impressed with how well he conducted his own music –- Strauss once said that he could die a happy man knowing that there was someone who performed his music so perfectly. In fact, Szell ended up conducting part of the world premiere recording of Don Juan for Strauss. Due to oversleeping, Strauss showed up an hour late to the recording session. Strauss had Szell rehearse the orchestra for him, and since the recording session was prepaid for, and there was no Strauss, but Szell was there, Szell conducted the first half of the recording (since no more than five minutes could be fit onto a side of a 78, the music was broken up into four chunks). Strauss arrived as Szell was finishing conducting the second part; he exclaimed that what he heard was so good that it could go out under his own name. Strauss went on to conduct the last two parts, leaving the Szell-conducted half of the recording as part of the full world premiere recording of Don Juan.[6]
Szell credited Strauss as being a major influencing force of his conducting style. Much of his baton technique, the Cleveland Orchestra’s transparent lean sound, and Szell's willingness to be an orchestra builder came from Strauss. The two remained friends after Szell left the Royal Court Opera in 1919. Even after World War II when Szell had settled in the United States, Strauss kept track of how his protégé was doing.[7]
During the 1920s and 1930s Szell moved around from opera houses and orchestras in Europe: in Berlin, Strasbourg, where he succeeded Otto Klemperer at the Municipal Theatre, Prague, Darmstadt, Düsseldorf and Glasgow before becoming principal conductor, in 1924, of the Berlin Staatsoper, which had replaced the Royal Opera. In 1930, Szell made his United States debut with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. At this time he was better known as an opera conductor than an orchestral one.
Move to the U.S.
At the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, Szell was returning via the U.S. from an Australian tour; he ended up settling with his family in New York City.[2] After spending a year teaching, Szell began to receive frequent guest conducting invitations. Important among these invitations was a series of four concerts with Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1941. In 1942 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut; he conducted the company regularly for the next four years. In 1943 he made his New York Philharmonic debut. In 1946 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
The Cleveland Orchestra: 1946 to 1970
In 1946, Szell was asked to become the Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra. At the time the Cleveland Orchestra was a highly regarded regional American orchestra (the top-tier American orchestras were Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and NBC Symphony Orchestra). For Szell, working in Cleveland would represent an opportunity to create his own personal ideal orchestra, one which would combine the virtuosity of the best American ensembles, with the homogeneity of tone of the best European orchestras. Szell made it clear to the trustees of the Orchestra that if they wanted him to be their next conductor, they would have to agree to give him total artistic control of the Orchestra; they agreed. He held this post until his death.
The next decade was spent firing musicians, carefully hiring replacements, increasing the orchestra's roster to over one hundred players, and relentlessly drilling the orchestra. Szell's rehearsals were legendary for their intensity. Absolute perfection was demanded from every player. Musicians would be dismissed on the spot for making too many mistakes or simply questioning Szell's authority. Although Szell was not alone in this practice — Toscanini was nothing if not dictatorial — such firings would not happen today: musicians' unions are much stronger now than they were then. If Szell heard a player practicing backstage before a concert and did not like what he heard, he would not hesitate to berate the musician and give detailed notes on how the music should be played, despite the concert being minutes away. Szell’s autocratic style extended to giving suggestions to the Severance Hall janitorial staff on mopping technique and what brand of toilet paper to use in the restrooms.[8]
Szell proudly boasted: "the Cleveland Orchestra gives seven concerts a week and the public is invited to two." Some critics found the Orchestra to sound over-rehearsed in concert, lacking spontaneity. Szell conceded this critique, saying that the orchestra did much of its best work during rehearsals. But Szell's high standards paid off.
By the end of the 1950s it became clear to the world that the Cleveland Orchestra, noted for its flawless precision and chamber-like sound, would take its place alongside the greatest orchestras in America and Europe. In addition to taking the Orchestra on annual tours to Carnegie Hall and the East Coast, Szell led the orchestra on its first international tours to Europe, the Soviet Union, Australia, and Japan.
Conducting style
Szell's manner in rehearsal was indubitably that of an autocratic taskmaster.[9][10] He meticulously prepared for rehearsals and could play the entire score on the piano from memory.[11] Preoccupied with phrasing, transparency, balance and architecture, Szell also insisted upon hitherto unheard-of rhythmic discipline from his players.[12] The result was often a level of precision and ensemble playing normally found only in the best string quartets.[13] For all Szell's absolutist methods, many of the orchestra's players were proud of the musical integrity to which he aspired.[11] Video footage also shows that Szell took care to explain what he wanted and why, expressed delight when the orchestra produced what he was aiming for, and avoided over-rehearsing parts that were in good shape.[14] His left hand, which he used to shape each sound, was often called the most graceful in music.[15]
As a result of Szell's exactitude and very thorough rehearsals, some musicians and critics[who?] have censured Szell's music-making as lacking emotion. In response to such criticism, Szell expressed this credo: "The borderline is very thin between clarity and coolness, self-discipline and severity. There exist different nuances of warmth — from the chaste warmth of Mozart to the sensuous warmth of Tchaikovsky, from the noble passion of Fidelio to the lascivious passion of Salome. I cannot pour chocolate sauce over asparagus."[8]
He has been described as a "literalist", playing only what is in the score. However, Szell was quite prepared to play music in unconventional ways if he thought the music needed these; and, like most other conductors before and since, he made many small modifications to orchestrations and even notes in the works of Beethoven, Schubert and others.[13]
Repertoire
Szell primarily conducted works from the core Austro-German classical and romantic repertoire, from Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, through Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms, and on to Bruckner, Mahler and Strauss. He said once that as he got older he consciously narrowed his repertoire, feeling it was "actually my task to do those works which I thought I'm best qualified to do, and for which a certain tradition is disappearing with the disappearance of the great conductors who were my contemporaries and my idols and my unpaid teachers."[16] He did however program contemporary music; he gave numerous world premieres in Cleveland, and he was particularly associated with such composers as Dutilleux, Walton, Prokofiev, Hindemith and Bartók. Szell also helped initiate the Cleveland Orchestra's long association with composer-conductor and avant-garde icon Pierre Boulez.[11] At the same time, Szell championed the music of Haydn and Mozart in a period when those composers were little represented in concert programs.
Other orchestras
After World War II Szell became closely associated with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, where he was a frequent guest conductor and made a number of recordings. He also regularly appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, and at the Salzburg Festival. From 1942 to 1955, he was an annual guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic and served as Musical Advisor and senior guest conductor of that orchestra in the last year of his life.
Personal life
Szell married twice. The first, in 1920 to Olga Band, ended in divorce in 1926. His second marriage, in 1938 to Helene Schultz Teltsch, originally from Prague, was much happier, and lasted until his death.[2][17] When not making music, he was a gourmet cook and an automobile enthusiast. He regularly refused the services of the orchestra's chauffeur and drove his own Cadillac to rehearsal until almost the end of his life. He died in Cleveland, Ohio in 1970.
Discography
Most of Szell's recordings were made with the Cleveland Orchestra for Epic/Columbia Masterworks/CBS Masterworks (now Sony Classical). He also made recordings with the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra. Few of his mono recordings have been reissued. Many live stereo recordings of repertoire Szell never conducted in the studio exist, both with the Cleveland Orchestra and other orchestras.
Below is a selection of Szell's more notable recordings (all with the Cleveland Orchestra, and issued by Sony, unless otherwise noted).
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References
- ^ Sources differ on Szell's birthname or "real" name. Slonimsky 2001, for example, begins its entry, "Szell, George (actually, György)...". This form would seem consistent with Szell's Hungarian origins. However, both Charry 2001 and Rosenberg 2000 fail to cite the name "György" at all, mentioning instead the more Germanic "Georg," which would seem appropriate in Szell's childhood home of Vienna. Rosenberg goes so far as to say, "[h]e was born Georg Szell on June 7, 1897, in Budapest..." (p. 237, emphasis added). Sources agree, however, that in later life (at least after coming to America) Szell went by the Anglicised "George," and that is the name credited on his extant recordings.
- ^ a b c Henahan, Donal (31 July 1970). "George Szell, Conductor, Is Dead". The New York Times: pp. 1.. http://books.google.com/books?id=dht-QrfdzIwC&pg=PA145&lpg=PA145&dq=szell+henahan&source=web&ots=BEtagzUPJC&sig=it2jxE2lz8rAn_OOeOQOJHVs3P8. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
- ^ Brown, Richard; Brown, Gene (1978). The Arts. New York: Arno Press. ISBN 0405111533. http://books.google.com/books?id=dht-QrfdzIwC&pg=PA145&lpg=PA145&dq=szell+henahan&source=web&ots=BEtagzUPJC&sig=it2jxE2lz8rAn_OOeOQOJHVs3P8.
- ^ Oestreich, James R. (26 January 1997). "Out From Under the Shadow". The New York Times.
- ^ Rosenberg, Donald (2000). The Cleveland Orchestra Story: "Second to None". Cleveland: Gray & Company. pp. 238. ISBN 1886228248.
- ^ a b c George Szell. Interview with John Culshaw. BBC London. September 1968.
- ^ Mermelstein, David (1997): "George Szell and Richard Strauss." (Liner notes). Sony Music Entertainment Inc. ASIN B0000029XS
- ^ a b Rosenberg, Donald (2000). The Cleveland Orchestra Story: "Second to None". Cleveland: Gray & Company, p. 238. ISBN 1886228248
- ^ Bernheimer, M. (May 2002). "Proper Conduct". http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=17100.
- ^ "Gary Graffman, CIM Commencement Address". May 21, 2007. http://www.cim.edu/newsIssuesInMusic.php.
- ^ a b c McLanathan, R.B.K., Braun, G., and Brown, G. (1978). The Arts. Ayer Publishing. ISBN 0405111533. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dht-QrfdzIwC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=szell+score+memory&source=web&ots=BFmfnuQPJC&sig=9N-MsNEnUvjmuiGiqd_i2eRSe6M&hl=en#PPA147,M1.
- ^ Adelstein, B.. "Conductors". http://www.bernardadelstein.com/conductors.html.
- ^ a b Schiff, D. (July 18, 1999). "Rehearing Szell: Intensity Without Ponderousness". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05EFD71E3CF93BA25754C0A96F958260.
- ^ "Video of Szell rehearsing the 2nd movement of Beethoven Fifth Symphony". http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vXCD5Cuum6c.
- ^ "The Glorious Instrument". Time. 22 Fbreuary 1963. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,828034-4,00.html. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ^ Kozinn, Allan (19 October 1997). "Filling Out the Picture of an Autocratic Maestro". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E7DE173FF93AA25753C1A961958260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fOrganizations%2fC%2fCleveland%20Orchestra. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
- ^ Charry, Michael (2005). "George Szell: Biography and Chronology". SonyClassical. http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/szell/bio.html. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
Further reading
- Charry, Michael; Sadie, Stanley ed. (2001). "George Szell". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. London: MacMillan. vol. 24; pp. 880–881. ISBN 0333608003.
- Schonberg, Harold (1967). The Great Conductors. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 337–340; Index. ISBN 0671207350.
- Slonimsky, Nicolas; Kuhn, Laura Diane (2001). Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. New York: G. Schirmer. vol. 6; pp. 3559–3560. ISBN 0028655257.
- Rosenberg, Donald (2000). The Cleveland Orchestra Story: Second to None. Cleveland, Ohio: Grey & Company Publishers. ISBN 1-886228-24-8.
External links
- George Szell at Allmusic
- George Szell fansite
- George Szell discography
- Video of Szell rehearsing the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
- European archive Copyright free LP recording of Brahms 3rd symphony by George Szell (conductor) and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra at the European Archive (for non-American viewers only).
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Mentioned in
- Chicago Symphony Orchestra Historic Telecasts, Vol. 2: George Szell (1961 Music Film)
- Cleveland Orchestra (music)
- Pablo Casals (Classical Album)
- Dinner Classics: The French Album (1989 Album by Various Artists)
- The French Album (Classical Album)
- James Levine (American conductor & musician)
- George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra - One Man's Triumph (1966 Music Film)
- Chicago Symphony Orchestra Historic Telecasts, Vol. 1: Fritz Reiner (1954 Music Film)
- Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4 (Classical Album)
- Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies & Overtures (Box Set) (Classical Album)
- Emil Gilels Plays Beethoven (Box Set) (Classical Album)
- Friedrich Guld Plays Beethoven & Bach [includes DVD] (Classical Album)
- Wyn Morris (Classical Musician)
- Robert Lawson Shaw (American musician)
April 29, 2006
Conductors must give unmistakable and suggestive signals to the orchestra, not choreography to the audience.
- George Szell
