Born: June 7, 1897; Hungary
Died: July 30, 1970; USA
Period: 20th Century
Part of the wave of great Hungarian conductors who took over American musical life just before and after World War II -- the others included Fritz Reiner, Antal Dorati, and Eugene Ormandy -- George Szell quickly transformed a middling Midwestern orchestra into one of the nation's Big Five. His cultivation of the Cleveland Orchestra set an example of discipline and hard work that gradually helped raise the standards of orchestras across America.Read more
Although born in Hungary, Szell was raised in Vienna where he studied composition with Eusebius Mandyczewski, and piano with Richard Robert; he also studied composition in Prague with J.B. Foerster. Szell was a wunderkind, playing a Mozart piano concerto with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra when he was ten, and composing a number of solid chamber and orchestral works in a lush, late Romantic style as a child and teenager. He was 17 when he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in a program that included one of his own compositions.
Despite these early successes, Szell rose through the conducting ranks in the traditional way of the period, with a series of opera positions: Royal Opera of Berlin (1915-1917), Strasbourg (1917-1918), Prague (1919-1921), Darmstadt (1921-1922), and Düsseldorf (1922-1924). Szell's first prestigious post came to him in 1924, when he was named first conductor of the Berlin State Opera; he simultaneously served as a professor at Berlin's Hochschule für Musik. In 1929, he moved on to become general music director of the German Opera and Philharmonic in Prague, where he remained until 1937.
Szell began focusing more on orchestral repertory in the 1930s; he made his U.S. debut as guest conductor of the St. Louis Symphony in 1930, and in 1937 he was appointed conductor of the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow, while maintaining a steady relationship with the Residentie Orkest in The Hague. Szell was in America in 1939 when war broke out in Europe; he remained in the U.S. through the war, first depending on guest engagements and then, in 1942, becoming a regular conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, where he was especially praised for his Wagner performances. In 1946 Szell took American citizenship and became music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, a post he held for 24 years. He was also the New York Philharmonic's music advisor and senior guest conductor during the last two years of his life.
Although Szell made a recordings in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s for Decca, and in Cleveland at the end of his life for EMI, the bulk of his substantial discography was the result of his long collaboration with Columbia Records in Cleveland. There, Szell had inherited an able but ordinary orchestra and, through sheer determination, molded it into one of America's finest. A Szell performance was remarkable for its textural clarity, chamber-like balances, and precision of attack and release. He drilled his orchestra mercilessly, even in works it had performed with him not long before. Szell was particularly admired for his performances of Austro-Germanic classics from Haydn to Richard Strauss, his sharp renderings of works by a select group of twentieth century composers including Bartók, Prokofiev, Janácek, and Walton), and his idiomatic way with Dvorák. Indeed, some collectors maintain that Szell's monaural, early 1950s recording of Dvorák's Eighth Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra has never been equaled. His treatment of French composers, on the other hand, was criticized for its lack of atmosphere, and detractors maintained that he achieved precision at the expense of emotional expression. To those who demanded a warmer approach to his beloved Mozart, however, Szell is said to have retorted, "One does not pour chocolate sauce over asparagus." Read less
Label: Sony Classical Masterworks
Catalog: 47276
Release Date: 10/20/2009
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Carl Orff,
Richard Wagner,
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Ludwig van Beethoven
...
Performer:
William Wildermann,
Emilia Cundari,
Albert Da Costa,
Nell Rankin
Conductor:
Michael Tilson Thomas,
Leonard Bernstein,
Eugene Ormandy,
Andre Kostelanetz
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cleveland Orchestra,
Cleveland Orchestra Boys Choir,
Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
...
Label: Sony Classical Masterworks
Catalog: 47283
Release Date: 10/02/2009
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Antonín Dvorák,
Franz Liszt,
Johannes Brahms,
Jaromir Weinberger
...
Performer:
Earl Wild
Conductor:
Sir Andrew Davis,
Andre Kostelanetz,
Leonard Bernstein,
George Szell
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philharmonia Orchestra,
Columbia Symphony Orchestra,
New York Philharmonic
...
Label: Decca
Catalog: 001268202
Release Date: 03/31/2009
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Johannes Brahms
Performer:
Clifford Curzon
Conductor:
George Szell,
Hans Knappertsbusch
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra,
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 28949
Release Date: 03/10/2009
Number of Discs: 10
Composer:
Ralph Vaughan Williams,
Jacques Offenbach,
Georges Bizet,
Giuseppe Verdi
...
Performer:
John Shirley-Quirk,
Luciana Serra,
Neil Shicoff,
Alain Vanzo
...
Conductor:
Sir David Willcocks,
Sylvain Cambreling,
Georges Prętre,
Herbert von Karajan
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Chamber Orchestra,
Brussels Théâtre de la Monnaie Orchestra,
Paris Opera Orchestra
...
Recommendation
Label: Orfeo D'or
Catalog: 774083
Release Date: 10/28/2008
Number of Discs: 3
Composer:
Felix Mendelssohn,
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Claude Debussy,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Nathan Milstein,
Leon Fleisher
Conductor:
George Szell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Label: Medici Masters
Catalog: 28-2
Release Date: 09/30/2008
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Sir Edward Elgar,
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Antonín Dvorák
Performer:
Pierre Fournier
Conductor:
Hans Rosbaud,
George Szell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra
Label: London/Decca Historic Series
Catalog: 425972
Release Date: 09/16/2008
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Performer:
Pilar Lorengar
Conductor:
George Szell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra,
London Symphony Orchestra
Label: Cbs Masterworks Portrait
Catalog: 46446
Release Date: 06/05/2008
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Béla Bartók
Performer:
Rudolf Serkin,
Anshel Brusilow
Conductor:
George Szell,
Eugene Ormandy
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cleveland Orchestra,
Philadelphia Orchestra
Label: Sony
Catalog: 721581
Release Date: 01/15/2008
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Johannes Brahms,
Franz Schubert
...
Performer:
Leon Fleisher,
Raphael Hillyer,
Isidore Cohen,
Robert Mann
...
Conductor:
George Szell,
Seiji Ozawa
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cleveland Orchestra,
Juilliard String Quartet,
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Label: Sony
Catalog: 26
Release Date: 12/12/2007
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Rudolf Serkin
Conductor:
George Szell,
Eugene Ormandy
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Columbia Symphony Orchestra,
Philadelphia Orchestra
Label: Orfeo D'or
Catalog: 704077
Release Date: 10/30/2007
Number of Discs: 7
Composer:
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Richard Strauss,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Christoph W. Gluck
...
Performer:
Clifford Curzon,
Rudolf Firkusny
Conductor:
George Szell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Dresden Staatskapelle,
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
...
Label: Medici Masters
Catalog: 10-2
Release Date: 10/30/2007
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Carl Maria von Weber,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Robert Casadesus
Conductor:
Romanus Hubertus,
George Szell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cologne West German Radio Symphony Orchestra
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 435335
Release Date: 10/26/2007
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Johann Strauss Jr.,
Josef Strauss,
Johann Strauss Sr.
Conductor:
Erich Kleiber,
Clemens Krauss,
George Szell,
Herbert von Karajan
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 000988602
Release Date: 10/09/2007
Number of Discs: 6
Composer:
Johann Pachelbel,
Edvard Grieg,
Camille Saint-Saëns,
Gabriel Fauré
...
Performer:
Alfons Kontarsky,
Aloys Kontarsky,
Wolfgang Herzer,
Göran Söllscher
...
Conductor:
Baumgartner,
Neeme Järvi,
Seiji Ozawa,
Rafael Kubelik
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Lucerne Festival Strings
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 55095
Release Date: 08/06/2007
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Andrew Lloyd Webber,
Gioachino Rossini,
Johann Strauss Jr.,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
...
Performer:
Barbara Hendricks,
Ola Samnegĺrd,
Maria Callas,
Cheryl Studer
...
Conductor:
Eric Ericson,
Alceo Galliera,
John Barker,
Riccardo Muti
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Eric Ericson Chamber Choir,
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra members,
Philharmonia Orchestra
...
Label: Warner Classics
Catalog: 65701
Release Date: 08/06/2007
Number of Discs: 3
Composer:
Antonín Dvorák,
Franz Joseph Haydn,
Ernest Bloch,
Richard Strauss
...
Performer:
Mstislav Rostropovich,
Ulrich Koch,
David Oistrakh
Conductor:
Carlo Maria Giulini,
Mstislav Rostropovich,
Leonard Bernstein,
Herbert von Karajan
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Philharmonic Orchestra,
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields,
ORTF National Orchestra
...
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 97307
Release Date: 07/31/2007
Number of Discs: 6
Composer:
Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer:
Eric Heidsieck,
Paul Tortelier,
Stephen Kovacevich,
Siegfried Rudolf Frese
...
Conductor:
Herbert von Karajan,
Wolfgang Sawallisch,
Riccardo Muti,
Jeffrey Tate
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philharmonia Orchestra,
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,
Nash Ensemble
...
Label: Sony
Catalog: 63037
Release Date: 06/15/2007
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Robert Casadesus,
Gaby Casadesus
Conductor:
Eugene Ormandy,
George Szell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philadelphia Orchestra,
Cleveland Orchestra,
Columbia Symphony Orchestra