George szell biography

George Szell originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer.
George Szell was a Hungarian-born American conductor, pianist, and composer who built the Cleveland Orchestra into a leading American orchestra during his.
George Szell, originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer.

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SZELL, GEORGE

SZELL, GEORGE (7 June 1897-30 July 1970), internationally renowned conductor and music director of the CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA, was born in Budapest to George Charles and Margarite Harmat Szell, and grew up in Vienna, studying with Mandyczewski (theory), J. B. Foerster and Max Reger (composition), and Richard Robert (piano).

He made his debut as pianist at 10, playing his own music. His conducting debut came at 16 with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Two years later, Szell was engaged by Richard Strauss for the staff of the Berlin State Opera House. He subsequently held other conducting posts, and was general musical director of the German Opera and Philharmonic of Prague and director of the Scottish Natl. Orchestra.

He became music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1946, continuing in that position until his death. With the orchestra, he toured the U.S. and Canada, Europe (1957, 1959), and the Far East just before his death in 1970. He was known as a stern taskmaster, bordering at times on the tyrannical, but was greatly respected by fellow musicians. At

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Remembering George Szell, Powerhouse Conductor

Michael Charry was the "sorcerer's apprentice" to celebrated 20th-century conductor George Szell. For the last decade of Szell's tenure at the Cleveland Orchestra, Charry was an assistant conductor.

Now, Charry has captured the power of Szell's artistry — as well as his tempestuous personality — in a new biography called George Szell: A Life of Music.

Charry vividly recalls Szell testing him on how many notes he could find in a chord when he first auditioned for the job.

"He sat down and played a chord something like this and he said, 'How many?'" Charry says. "I said six or seven and he said, 'Can you name them?' and I actually did name them. And, passing that, then we went to the rest of the audition. I had the feeling, though, that if my ear hadn't been good enough, he would have said, 'Thank you very much, but you may go.' "

Charry says that, even as a child prodigy, Szell was a brutal critic.

"From the age of 2 on, he could sing songs in many languages; he had a wonderful ear," Charry says. "His mother was an amate

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George Szell

Classical conductor and composer (1897–1970)

For the Hungarian Prime Minister, see Kálmán Széll.

The native form of this personal name is Széll György. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell,^[1] was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. Considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors,^[2] he was music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and recorded much of the standard classical repertoire in Cleveland and with other orchestras.

Szell came to Cleveland in 1946 to take over its respected if undersized orchestra, which was struggling to recover from the disruptions of World War II. By the time of his death he was credited, to quote the critic Donal Henahan, with having built it into "what many critics regarded as the world's keenest symphonic instrument."^[3]^[4]

Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the cla