Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

Georg Solti Conductor

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: Hungary
  • Born: Oct 21, 1912
  • Died: Sep 5, 1997

Sir Georg Solti, KBE was an orchestral and operatic conductor, best known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leo Weiner and ErnÅ‘ Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis, and because he was a Jew he fled the increasingly restrictive anti-semitic laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist.

After the war, Solti was appointed musical director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1946. In 1952 he moved to the Frankfurt Opera, where he remained in charge for nine years. He took West German citizenship in 1953. In 1961 he became musical director of the Covent Garden Opera Company, London.

My entire learning process is slow, because I have no visual memory. learning

I would never have become music director of the Chicago Symphony, which would have been an extremely sad loss. sad