thumb|George Szell, 1954

George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Széll, or Georg Szell, was an Austro-Hungarian-born American conductor, composer and pianist. Considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors, 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."

Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the classical music world long after his death, and his name remains synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. While on tour with the orchestra in the late 1980s, then-music director Christoph von Dohnányi remarked, "We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review."

Life and career

Early life

György Endre Széll was born in Budapest but grew up in Vienna. His family was of Jewish origin but converted to Catholicism. As a young boy he was taken regularly to Mass.

Early career

thumb|George Szell at the age of 12

Szell began his formal music training as a pianist, studying with Richard Robert. One of Robert's other students was Rudolf Serkin; Szell and Serkin became lifelong friends and musical collaborators.

At the age of eleven, he began touring Europe as a pianist and composer, making his London debut at that age. Newspapers declared him "the next Mozart". Throughout his teenage years he performed with orchestras in this dual role, eventually making appearances as composer, pianist and conductor, as he did with the Berlin Philharmonic at age seventeen.

thumb|George Szell and composer [[Jaroslav Křička during the staging of Křička's opera The Gentleman in White in Prague, April 1932]]

Szell quickly realized that he was never going to make a career out of being a composer or pianist and that he much preferred the artistic control he could achieve as a conductor. He made an unplanned public conducting debut when he was seventeen, while vacationing with his family at a summer resort. The Vienna Symphony's conductor had injured his arm, and Szell was asked to substitute. Szell quickly turned to conducting full-time. Though he abandoned composing, throughout the rest of his life he occasionally played the piano with chamber ensembles and as an accompanist. Despite his rare appearances as a pianist after his teens, he remained in good form. During his Cleveland years he occasionally would demonstrate to guest pianists how he thought they should play a certain passage.

In the fifteen years during and after World War I, Szell worked with opera houses and orchestras in Europe: in Berlin, Strasbourg – where he succeeded Otto Klemperer at the Municipal Theatre – Prague, Darmstadt, and Düsseldorf, before becoming principal conductor, in 1924, of the Berlin State Opera, which had replaced the Royal Opera. In 1923 he conducted the premiere of Hans Gál's opera Die heilige Ente in Düsseldorf. He was engaged as first Kapellmeister at the Berlin State Opera from 1924 to 1929. At the same time, he directed the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and taught at the Berlin Academy of Music (from 1927 to 1930), making recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic.

From 1936 to 1939, he led the Scottish National Orchestra and, from 1937 to 1939, the Resident Orchestra of The Hague. In 1939, Szell returned to Prague as general music director and director of the Prague State Opera. The Prague Masonic Grand Lodge "Lessing of the Three Rings" lists him as a member under the name "Georg Szell".

Move to the U.S.

At the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, Szell was returning via the U.S. from an Australian tour and ended up settling with his family in New York City. Although plywood was later added to the hall, further changes were still required to achieve Szell's desired tone. He meticulously prepared for rehearsals and could play the entire score on the piano from memory. Preoccupied with phrasing, transparency, balance and architecture, Szell also insisted upon hitherto unheard-of rhythmic discipline from his players. The result was often a level of precision and ensemble playing normally found only in the best string quartets. His left hand, which he used to shape each sound, was often called the most graceful in music.

As a result of Szell's exactitude and very thorough rehearsals, some critics (such as Donald Vroon, editor of American Record Guide) have censured Szell's music-making as lacking emotion. In response to such criticism, Szell expressed this credo: "The borderline is very thin between clarity and coolness, self-discipline and severity. There exist different nuances of warmth – from the chaste warmth of Mozart to the sensuous warmth of Tchaikovsky, from the noble passion of Fidelio to the lascivious passion of Salome. I cannot pour chocolate sauce over asparagus." He further stated: "It is perfectly legitimate to prefer the hectic, the arhythmic, the untidy. But to my mind, great artistry is not disorderliness."

He has been described as a "literalist", playing only what is in the score. However, Szell was quite prepared to play music in unconventional ways if he thought the music needed these; and, like most other conductors before and since, he made many small modifications to orchestrations and notes in the works of Beethoven, Schubert and others.

Cloyd Duff, timpanist with the Cleveland Orchestra, once recalled how Szell had insisted that he play the snare drum part in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, an instrument which he was not supposed to play. A month after having recorded the concerto in Cleveland (October 1959), it was to be performed at Carnegie Hall, as part of an annual two-week tour of the Eastern United States along with Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5. Szell had begun getting increasingly irritated about the side drum part in the second movement and by the time they reached New York City, Szell's escalation was going off the scale. "Starting with the one who had played on the recording, Szell tried out each of the staff percussionists on the side drum part. He made them so nervous that, one by one, they all stumbled. Finally Szell turned to timpanist Cloyd Duff."

This is the story as Duff tells it: He did program contemporary music, however; he gave numerous world premieres in Cleveland, and he was particularly associated with such composers as Dutilleux, Walton, Prokofiev, Hindemith and Bartók. Szell also helped initiate the Cleveland Orchestra's long association with the composer-conductor Pierre Boulez. and also as a duo with Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster, violinist Rafael Druian, on four sonatas by Mozart.

Other orchestras

After World War II Szell became closely associated with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, where he was a frequent guest conductor and made a number of recordings. He also regularly appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, and at the Salzburg Festival. From 1942 to 1955, he was an annual guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic and served as Musical Advisor and senior guest conductor of that orchestra in the last year of his life. In 1960 he conducted the Columbia Symphony Orchestra with Robert Casadesus in a recording for Columbia Masterworks of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K. 482, and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488 (ML 5594, 1960).

Personal life

Szell married twice. The first, in 1920 to Olga Band (1898-1984), another of Richard Robert's pupils, ended in divorce in 1926. His second marriage, in 1938 to Helene Schultz Teltsch, originally from Prague, was much happier, and lasted until his death. Szell had homes on Park Avenue in New York City and in Shaker Heights, near Cleveland's orchestra hall. When not making music, he was a gourmet cook and an automobile enthusiast. He regularly refused the services of the orchestra's chauffeur and drove his own Cadillac to rehearsal until almost the end of his life.

The British government made Szell an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1963.

Death

He died from bone-marrow cancer in Cleveland in 1970. His body was cremated, and his ashes were buried, in Sandy Springs, Georgia, along with his wife upon her death in 1991.

Discography

Most of Szell's recordings were made with the Cleveland Orchestra for Epic/Columbia Masterworks (now Sony Classical). He also made recordings with the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra. Many live stereo recordings of repertoire Szell never conducted in the studio exist, both with the Cleveland Orchestra and other orchestras.

Below is a selection of Szell's more notable recordings — all with Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra (issued by Sony, unless otherwise noted).

Béla Bartók:

  • Concerto for Orchestra (1965)

Ludwig van Beethoven:

  • The 9 Symphonies (1957–64)
  • Symphony No. 6 (New York Philharmonic)
  • The Piano Concertos; Leon Fleisher (piano) (1959–61)
  • The Piano Concertos; Emil Gilels (piano) (1968, EMI)
  • Missa Solemnis (1967, TCO)

Johannes Brahms:

  • The 4 Symphonies (1964–67)
  • Piano Concertos; Leon Fleisher (piano) (1958 & 1962)
  • Piano Concerto No1 Clifford Curzon (piano) (1962)
  • Piano Concertos; Rudolf Serkin (piano) (1968 & 1966)
  • Violin Concerto; David Oistrakh (violin) (1969, EMI)
  • Concerto for violin and violoncello; David Oistrakh (violin), Mstislav Rostropovich (cello) (1969, EMI)

Anton Bruckner:

  • Symphony No. 3 (1966)
  • Symphony No. 8 (1969)

Claude Debussy:

  • La mer (1963)

Antonín Dvořák:

  • Symphonies Nos. 7-9 (1958–60)
  • Slavonic Dances (1962–65)
  • Cello Concerto; Pablo Casals (cello) / Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (1937, HMV)
  • Cello Concerto; Pierre Fournier (cello) / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1962, DG)

Joseph Haydn:

  • Symphonies Nos. 88, 92–99, 104 (1954–69)

Zoltán Kodály:

  • Háry János Suite (1969)

Gustav Mahler:

  • Symphony No. 4; Judith Raskin (soprano) (1965)
  • Symphony No. 6 (1967)
  • Symphony No. 10 (Adagio only) (1958)
  • Des Knaben Wunderhorn; Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) / London Symphony Orchestra (1968, EMI)

Felix Mendelssohn:

  • Symphony No. 4 (1962)
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream, Overture and Incidental Music (1967)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

  • Symphony No. 39 Part of the first series of recording with the Cleveland Orchestra, (Columbia Masterworks MM-801) (April 22, 1947)
  • Symphonies Nos. 28, 33, 35, 39-41 (1960–67)
  • Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Serenade K. 525) (1968)
  • Piano Concertos; Robert Casadesus (piano) (1955–68)

;Szell as pianist

:Piano Quartet No. 1 and No. 2; Budapest String Quartet (1946)

:Violin Sonatas, K. 301, K. 304, K. 376 and K. 296; Rafael Druian (violin) (1967)

Modest Mussorgsky:

  • Pictures at an Exhibition (1963)

Sergei Prokofiev:

  • Symphony No. 5 (1959)
  • Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3; Gary Graffman (p) (1966)

Maurice Ravel

  • Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 (1963)

Franz Schubert:

  • Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished" (1957)
  • Symphony No. 9 "The Great" (1957)

Robert Schumann:

  • The 4 Symphonies (1958–60)

Jean Sibelius:

  • Symphony No.2; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (1964, Philips)
  • Symphony No.2 (1970) – Live concert in Tokyo, Japan, Szell's last recording.

Bedřich Smetana:

  • The Moldau / New York Philharmonic (1951/2007 United Archives)
  • Four Dances from the Bartered Bride (1958)
  • String Quartet in E minor, From My Life (orch. Szell) (1949)

Richard Strauss:

  • Don Juan (1957)
  • Don Quixote; Pierre Fournier (cello), Abraham Skernick (viola) (1960)
  • Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (1957)
  • Tod und Verklärung (1957)
  • Four Last Songs; Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (S) / Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (1965, EMI)

Igor Stravinsky:

  • The Firebird Suite (1919 version) (1961)

Pyotr Tchaikovsky:

  • Symphony No. 4; London Symphony Orchestra (1962, Decca)
  • Symphony No. 5 (1959)
  • Symphony No. 6; Cleveland Orchestra (1969)
  • Capriccio Italien, Op. 45; Cleveland Orchestra (1958)

Richard Wagner:

  • Overtures, Preludes & Extracts from The Ring (1962–68)
  • Tannhäuser, Helen Traubel, Alexander Kipnis, Lauritz Melchior, Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra, live (1942, Music & Arts)

William Walton:

  • Symphony No. 2 "Liverpool" (1961)
  • Partita for Orchestra (1959)
  • Variations on Theme by Hindemith (1964)

Notes and references

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

  • George Szell discography
  • "Copyright free LP recording", Brahms: Symphony No. 3 by Szell and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, EuropaArchive.org
  • Szell conducting Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1954
  • Szell conducting Johann Strauss II's The Blue Danube, Op. 314 with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1934
  • Szell and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra with Robert Casadesus in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K. 482, and Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, in 1960
  • Szell conducting Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 ("Italian") with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1947
  • Szell conducting Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, and Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43, with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1966