They might have seemed an odd couple at first: Chicago, an inland city with a lingering inferiority complex and a good symphony orchestra that had never been on a world tour and appeared to be in something of an artistic slump; and Sir Georg Solti, the world-renowned music director of London’s Royal Opera, who had said, with equal measures of candor and self-assuredness, that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra needed him more than he needed it.
Yet the relationship that began in 1969 between Solti and Chicago grew to the point that the two became synonymous to music lovers around the world, in the manner of George Szell and Cleveland or Eugene Ormandy and Philadelphia. Solti’s full-time music directorship of the CSO ended in 1991, but the glory of their 22 years together will survive long past his death Friday at the age of 84.
From 1953 to 1963 the CSO had developed into a world-class ensemble, but it hit a plateau after the departure of director Fritz Reiner. Just two years after his arrival in Chicago, the Hungarian-born Solti took the orchestra on its first European tour, beginning in Edinburgh, where it received the kind of ovations and rapturous reviews that became routine during subsequent world tours.
Chicagoans seemed stunned by the international recognition and gave Solti and his CSO a ticker-tape parade on State Street. Solti wryly noted: “It has been my observation that most residents of a community are not aware how good the (people) in their midst are until they read about them somewhere else.”
Indeed, international accolades kept coming, until by the mid-1980s both Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were considered tops in the world, with Herbert von Karajan and his Berlin Philharmonic as the only serious rivals. Solti calmly confirmed it at a 1987 press conference: “Mark my word, the Chicago Symphony is the No. 1 orchestra in the world.” No one doubted it.
Grammys for best classical recordings became a yearly routine–Solti collected 32 Grammys during his career, more than any performer, classical or popular.
Sir Georg had planned to return to Chicago next month for various celebrations–his 1,000th performance with the CSO, the inauguration of the $150 million Symphony Center and his 85th birthday. Instead he will be remembered, most appropriately, through the music of the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra, on which he had such a deep and lasting influence.
