Quotes by Georg Solti

About Georg Solti:

Sir Georg Solti was an orchestral and operatic conductor, best known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leo Weiner and Ern? Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis, and because he was a Jew he fled the increasingly restrictive anti-semitic laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Friends are very important to me, and I have always had many of them. There are probably many reasons why this is so, but two seem to me more valid than any of the others I am a naturally friendly person, and I hate to be alone.

Georg Solti

The experience awakened 'my tremendous musical ambition, which has never subsided to this day.

Georg Solti

But one day, when I was still young, I was parted from my family and left my native country. I hunted and searched for music, and destiny turned me into the object of my hunt. The circumstances of life became my 'antlers' and prevented me from return...

Georg Solti

I can only hope that neither of my daughters was scarred by their upbringing.

Georg Solti

Although both sides of my family were religious, I was never forced to practice the Jewish faith. I did not really rebel against it, but then, as today, I disliked organized religion. I have a strange inhibition about praying with others.

Georg Solti

The academy gave me a grounding in discipline and hard work that has sustained me throughout my life, and the lessons I learned there I now try to impress on young people.

Georg Solti

During the first six years of my life, Hungary was one of the most important components of the Habsburg dynasty's vast Austro-Hungarian Empire, but after World War I it became an independent national entity.

Georg Solti

I was born and trained to communicate music, just as the sons were born and trained to hunt, and I was lucky to have grown up in Hungary, a country that lives and breathes music-that has a passionate belief in the power of music as a celebration of l...

Georg Solti

My entire learning process is slow, because I have no visual memory.

Georg Solti

The stag tells him that he is the eldest of the sons - the father's favorite - and he warns the father that if he tries to shoot any of the stags, their antlers will tear him to pieces.

Georg Solti

I wanted to get away from my past and everything connected with it.

Georg Solti

After about six months, I told my mother that I wanted the lessons to stop, and she was intelligent enough not to force me to continue. Besides, the lessons cost money, which was anything but abundant in our household.

Georg Solti

I would never have become music director of the Chicago Symphony, which would have been an extremely sad loss.

Georg Solti

Author Bio

  • NameGeorg Solti
  • DescriptionHungarian orchestral and operatic conductor
  • AliasesSir Georg Solti
  • BornOctober 21, 1912
  • DiedSeptember 5, 1997
  • CountryHungary
  • ProfessionConductor; Pianist; Musician
  • AwardsKnight Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire; Grand Order Of Merit With Star And Shoulder-Sash; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; Grammy Trustees Award; Léonie Sonning Music Prize