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A life of music
Univ of Illinois Press
June 2011
On Sale: June 1, 2011
412 pages ISBN: 0252036166 EAN: 9780252036163 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
This book is the first full biography of George Szell, one
of the greatest orchestra and opera conductors of the
twentieth century. From child prodigy pianist and composer
to world-renowned conductor, Szell's career spanned seven
decades, and he led most of the great orchestras and opera
companies of the world, including the New York Philharmonic,
the NBC and Chicago Symphonies, the Berlin Philharmonic, the
Vienna Philharmonic and Opera, and the Concertgebouw
Orchestra. A protégé of composer-conductor Richard Strauss
at the Berlin State Opera, his crowning achievement was his
twenty-four-year tenure as musical director of the Cleveland
Orchestra, transforming it into one of the world's greatest
ensembles, touring triumphantly in the United States,
Europe, the Soviet Union, South Korea, and Japan. Michael Charry, a conductor who worked with Szell and
interviewed him, his family, and his associates over several
decades, draws on this first-hand material and
correspondence, orchestra records, reviews, and other
archival sources to construct a lively and balanced portrait
of Szell's life and work from his birth in 1897 in Budapest
to his death in 1970 in Cleveland. Readers will follow Szell from his career in Europe, Great
Britain, and Australia to his guest conducting at the New
York Philharmonic and his distinguished tenure at the
Metropolitan Opera and Cleveland Orchestra. Charry details
Szell's personal and musical qualities, his recordings and
broadcast concerts, his approach to the great works of the
orchestral repertoire, and his famous orchestrational
changes and interpretation of the symphonies of Robert
Schumann. The book also lists Szell's conducting repertoire
and includes a comprehensive discography. In highlighting Szell's legacy as a teacher and mentor as
well as his contributions to orchestral and opera history,
this biography will be of lasting interest to concert-goers,
music lovers, conductors, musicians inspired by Szell's many
great performances, and new generations who will come to
know those performances through Szell's recorded legacy.
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