Biography
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Born
21 October 1912
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Born In
Budapest, Hungary
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Died
5 September 1997 (aged 84)
Born György Stern in Budapest, October 21st 1912.
His first job as Music Director was with the Bavarian State Opera.
Whilst in Germany soon after the war had ended in 1945, he met Richard Strauss (whom he would only ever meet 3 times). The elderly Strauss became a massive influence for Solti later during his professional career.
In 1952, Solti took over the Frankfurt Opera. It was with The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra that he recorded Richard Wagner's "The Ring". The actual recording took seven years to complete.
It was in the year 1961 that Solti became Music Director for The Royal Opera House in London. During those times, he met Valerie Pitts, a young journalist, whom he later married.
After his first trip to Chicago (1954) and fell in love with the orchestra, and was offered the seat of Music Director for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1969. He took the CSO on their first international tours. Together, they made over 100 recordings, including several operas.
Honours awarded to Solti included the British CBE (honorary), 1968, and an honorary knighthood (KBE), 1971, which became a substantive knighthood when he took British citizenship in 1972, after which he was known as Sir Georg Solti.
From 1992 onwards, Solti became a freelance conductor.
To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations, he created the World Orchestra for Peace. The orchestra comprised of representatives from 47 of the world's leading orchestras.
Throughout the summer of 1997, Solti spent a lot of time preparing Bach's St. John Passion. Later that year during the first week of September, Sir Georg Solti's life ended.
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