kdelkins said:

For instance his early digital recording of Wagner orchestral music in Vienna was horrible, making one wonder whether this was the same person who had such a triumph with the a same forces and material 20 years earlier.

kdelkins said:

Solti is one of the few conductors that could just plain get it wrong. Buying a solti disc can be a real gamble. For instance his early digital recording of Wagner orchestral music in Vienna was horrible, making one wonder whether this was the same person who had such a triumph with the a same forces and material 20 years earlier.

tream said:

Interesting post. I think performers, like performing styles and even composers, go in and out of fashion. After a musical performer's death they may be an initial flood of tributes, then the performer may go into eclipse for awhile before rediscovery. There was a reaction like this even with a performer like Karajan-during his life, at least according to Gramophone, he could do no wrong. Perceptions of his work turned negative for a time after his death, and only now are we having a realistic evaluation of his recorded legacy. (Lots of peaks and valleys).

I think Solti is out of fashion these days, except for perhaps his Ring. Even there, revisionists are dissing his conducting and complaining about the supposed lack of line, etc., which, if you actually listen, is not true. Almost no one views his Mahler as successful these days, but each release was eagerly awaited during his lifetime and usually went to the top of the critical lists.

For my ear, Solti was hugely successful in Mozart (great recordings of the operas), Schumann (his recordings of the symphonies were a fresh treat after the Karajan recordings), Wagner, Verdi,R. Strauss, Bartok and Mahler. His Beethoven was not inconsequential, nor his Berlioz. In opera, he worked consistently with the best singers of his time, without pushing them into unsuitable roles, a la Karajan. The notable exception was Vickers, who refused to work with Solti, preferring Karajan-too bad, because I think Vickers would have found a better foil in Solti. Certainly the one recording they did together, Aida, is a classic.

At some point the pendulum will swing back and we'll remember that Solti was a lot more than his Ring, and the Mahler 8.

alberich said:

.....also his "Italian" symphony made in Israel.

alberich said:

DECCA has let Sir Georg down rather: too many recordings have been allowed to go out of the catalogue or have been put into the bargain "Double Decca" series and thus are never reviewed. The reputations of Karajan and Bernstein have been kept going by a number of special editions. I would agree that his first Bruckner with the VPO are well worth restoring to the catalogue, also his "Italian" symphony made in Israel. In my view, he made many fine orchestral recordings in Chicago too: "La Mer", Berlioz, the Brahms symphonies, the first Beethoven 9th, the "0" and 1st of Bruckner and the Haydn oratorios. The Verdi "Requiem" is superb too, though the RCA recorded sound is not up to the DECCA version. I also love his Stravinsky and the Shotakovich 15th, which acquired new significance after hearing it as the final music of the DVD "Solti on Solti" - the best documentary about a conductor I have seen.

Peter said:

Here it is:
http://www.buywell.com/cgi-bin/buywellic2/04150.html

alberich said:

Thank you, Peter! Oddly, it only seems to be available only in Australia at present, despite having been issued last April, and is not mentioned on the Decca site. Again, it seems wrong to me to issue it on Decca's cheapest label, so it will get no reviews and one wonders how much care has been taken over re-mastering.