Georg Solti

The Hungarian conductor Georg Solti, born in Budapest on 21 October 1912, had a stunning career. A pupil of Bela Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, and Erno Dohnányi, he left Hungary for Switzerland in 1939. His early conducting career was in assisting Toscanini at Salzburg just prior to the War. Post-war posts were with the Opera at Munich, then Frankfurt, and then ten years at Covent Garden. In America he had periods with the Chicago SO, San Francisco Opera, and the Met, whilst his European orchestral accomplishments were with the Orchestre de Paris and the London Philharmonic. His was the first studio recorded cycle of Wagner's Ring. He died on 5 September 1997, whilst on holiday in the south of France.