Sir Georg Solti was an exclusive artist of Unitel for many years, and
during this time the larger part of his abundant repertoire was recorded
for television, predominantly with his orchestra, the Chicago Symphony.
To honor the great maestro, Unitel got together with him once again in 1995
to record a concert with the Vienna Philharmonic, in which Solti paid
homage to his Hungarian homeland, his roots and his teachers, the
Hungarians Kodály, Bartók and Weiner. It is only natural that Berlioz's
Rakoczy March could not be absent from such a dazzling Austro-Hungarian
concert. The second part of the concert is devoted to Beethoven, who was
not Hungarian but was adopted by Hungary's Austrian neighbors. The concert
is Unitel's last recording with the great artist, who passed away on
5 September 1997.
Sir Georg Solti (1912-1997), one of the greatest conductors of the 20th
century, was a testament to the elegance and impeccable tastefulness of
Central European music-making. Born in Budapest in 1912, he studied with
Béla Bartók, Ernö von Dohnányi, Zoltán Kodály and Leo Weiner. In 1937,
Toscanini chose him to be his assistant at the Salzburg Festival. After
the war, Solti was appointed Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera.
Further stations in his career were the Frankfurt Opera, the Royal Opera
House Covent Garden and the London Philharmonic. His remarkable partnership
with the Chicago Symphony began in 1954; he was named Music Director in
1969 and held this post for a phenomenal 22 years. He is credited with
greatly extending and enhancing the orchestra's worldwide reputation. Solti
died in September 1997, just before his 85th birthday.
