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The greatly distinguished Hungarian-born American conductor and composer, George Szell [originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell], was born György Endre Szél in Budapest. His family moved to Vienna when he was a child. His family was of Jewish origin but converted to Catholicism. As a young boy he was taken regularly to Mass. He began his formal music training as a pianist, studying with Richard Robert. One of Robert's other students was Rudolf Serkin; Szell and Rudolf Serkin became lifelong friends and musical collaborators. He also studied composition with Eusebius Mandyczewski; also compoosition in Prague with Josef Bohuslav Foerster. He played W.A. Mozart's piano concerto with Wiener Symphoniker when he was 10 years old, and the orchestra also performed and overture oif his composition. At the age of 11, 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. At the the age of 17, he led the Berliner Philharmoniker and played the piano in an ambitious program which included a symphonic work of his own.
George 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 17, while vacationing with his family at a summer resort. The Wiener Symphoniker's conductor had injured his arm, and Szell was asked to substitute. He 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 1915, at the age of 18, George Szell won an appointment with Berlin's Royal Court Opera (now known as the Staatsoper). There, he was befriended by its Music Director, Richard Strauss. Strauss instantly recognized Szell's talent and was particularly impressed with how well the teenager conducted Strauss's music. Strauss once said that he could die a happy man knowing that there was someone who performed his music so perfectly. In fact, Szell ended up conducting part of the world premiere recording of Don Juan for Strauss. The composer had arranged for Szell to rehearse the orchestra for him, but having overslept, showed up an hour late to the recording session. Since the recording session was already paid for, and only Szell was there, Szell conducted the first half of the recording. Strauss arrived as Szell was finishing conducting the second part (of four); he exclaimed that what he heard was so good that it could go out under his own name. Strauss went on to record the last two parts, leaving the Szell-conducted half as part of the full world premiere recording of Don Juan. Szell credited Strauss as being a major influence on his conducting style. Much of his baton technique, the Cleveland Orchestra's lean, transparent sound, and Szell's willingness to be an orchestra builder all came from Strauss. The two remained friends after Szell left the Royal Court Opera in 1919; even after World War II, when Szell had settled in the USA, Strauss kept track of how his protégé was doing.
In the 15 years during and after World War I George Szell worked with opera houses and orchestras in Europe: in Berlin, Strasbourg - where he succeeded Otto Klemperer at the Municipal Theatre (1917-1918) - Prague (1919-1921), Darmstadt (1921-1922), and Düsseldorf (1922-1924; in 1923 he conducted there the premiere of Hans Gál's opera Die heilige Ente). He held the position of Principal Conductor of the the Berlin Staatsoper (1924-1929), which had replaced the Royal Opera; then conducted in Vienna and the German Theatre in Prague (1930-1937).
George Szell made his USA debut as a guest conductor of Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1930. In 1937 he was appointed conductor of the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow (until 1939); he was also a regular conductor with the Residentie Orkest Den Haag (1937-1939). Before World War II he appeared with orchestras in various countries, including the USA and the Soviet Union. He then conducted in Australia. At the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, after the Australian tour, he was again in the USA, which was to become his adoptive country by naturalization in 1946. He settled with his family in New York City. His American conducting engagements included appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, NBC Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1942 he was appointed a conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, ehere he received high praise of his interpretation of Wagner's music dramase; remained on its roster until 1946. He also conducted performance with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1944-1945. From 1940 to 1945 he taught composition, orchestration, and music theory at the Mannes College of Music in Manhattan; his composition students at Mannes included George Rochberg and Ursula Mamlok.
George Szell came to Cleveland in 1946 to take over a respected if undersized orchestra, which was struggling to recover from the disruptions of World War II. “A new leaf will be turned over with a bang!” said Szell, who was named Music Director and Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra in January 1946. “People talk about the New York, the Boston, and the Philadelphia. Now they will talk about the New York, the Boston, the Philadelphia, and the Cleveland.” However, his time in Cleveland began during a period of unrest and uncertainty. The Cleveland Orchestra’s previous Music Director, Erich Leinsdorf, had temporarily vacated his post after being drafted into the armed forces. During Erich Leinsdorf’s absence, Szell made his Severance Hall debut - in November 1944 - to glowing reviews. And despite Leinsdorf’s impending return, public opinion shifted toward Szell. Following intense negotiations that included granting Szell complete artistic control over personnel, programming, scheduling, and recording, the Cleveland Orchestra's Board of Trustees appointed him the ensemble’s 4th Music Director. Shortly after accepting the position, he remarked that he would "dedicate all [his] efforts…to make The Cleveland Orchestra second to none in quality of performance." He devoted much of his energy to exacting his will on his musicians - releasing some and hiring others in an effort to achieve his desired sound. He expected technical perfection and total commitment from musicians during rehearsals and performances. His standards were stringent, his goals lofty: He was singularly focused on elevating the Cleveland Orchestra to new levels of excellence.
Not long into his tenure, George Szell began making guest appearances in other cities, especially New York, and the Orchestra steadily gained a reputation as one ofthe world's leading ensembles. By the early 1950's, he'd grown concerned about "dry" acoustics at Severance Hall - an issue that had preoccupied him since his arrival in Cleveland. "I only wish you had a hall with acoustics worthy of your great art," said Leopold Stokowski, former conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. "In the hall the music was dry and half dead-sounding." Although plywood was later added to the hall, further changes were still required to achieve Szell's desired tone.
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As early as the 1955-1956 season, Szell recognized the need for an outdoor venue at which the Cleveland Orchestra would host summer concerts and programs. During the preceding years, summer attendance for Cleveland Orchestra performances at Cleveland’s Public Auditorium had waned and, among the adjustments made to provide employment for the musicians, a series of concerts was played before Cleveland Indians baseball games. Around the same time, Szell determined that the Cleveland Orchestra needed to embark on its first international tour if it hoped to keep pace with other major symphonies. As a result, the Cleveland Orchestra traveled to Europe in the spring of 1957, with stops in Antwerp, Brussels, and behind the Iron Curtain. The tour was a success, bringing the Cleveland Orchestra worldwide acclaim and instilling a sense of pride in the citizens of Cleveland.
The next decade or so was a busy and fruitful time for Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. By the 1958-1959 season, acoustic renovations had been completed on a new stage - the Szell Shell - that surrounded the musicians and projected their tone in a different way, eliminating “dryness” and providing clearer-sounding strings. In July 1968, the Cleveland Orchestra opened its new summer home, Blossom Music Center, about 25 miles south of Cleveland, providing Szell and his musicians with year-round employment. Two years later, in May 1970, the Cleveland Orchestra continued to advance its reputation internationally by touring to the Far East, including stops in Japan and Korea. However, Szell's health began to deteriorate. During a concert in Anchorage, Alaska, he ceased conducting momentarily. That would be Szell’s final performance - he died on July 30, 1970.
George Szell's manner in rehearsal was that of an autocratic taskmaster. 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. For all Szell's absolutist methods, many of the orchestra's players were proud of the musical integrity to which he aspired. Video footage also shows that Szell took care to explain what he wanted and why, expressed delight when the orchestra produced what he was aiming for, and avoided over-rehearsing parts that were in good shape. His left hand, which he used to shape each sound, was often called the most graceful in music.
As a result of George 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 even notes in the works of L.v. Beethoven, Schubert and others.
George Szell was partcularly renowned for his authoritative and exemplary performance of works from the core Austro-German classical and romantic repertoire, from Haydn, W.A. Mozart and L.v. Beethoven, through Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, and on to Bruckner, Gustav Mahler and Strauss. He said once that as he got older he consciously narrowed his repertoire, feeling it was "actually my task to do those works which I thought I'm best qualified to do, and for which a certain tradition is disappearing with the disappearance of the great conductors who were my contemporaries and my idols and my unpaid teachers." However, he was also capable of outstanding interpretations of 20th century masterpieces. He gave numerous world premieres in Cleveland, and he was particularly associated with such composers as Henri Dutilleux, William Walton, Prokofiev, Paul Hindemith and Béla Bartók. Szell also helped initiate the Cleveland Orchestra's long association with the composer-conductor Pierre Boulez.
After World War II, George Szell became closely associated with the Concertgebouw Orchestra 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, Wiener Philharmoniker, and at the Salzburg Festival. From 1942 to 1955, he was an annual guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; and from 1969 until his death, served as Musical Advisor and Senior Guest Conductor of that orchestra.
George 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. 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. 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.
George Szell is widely considered one of the 20th century's greatest conductors. He is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and for the recordings of the standard classical repertoire he made in Cleveland and with other orchestras. He was a stern disciplanarian, demanding the outmost exertions from his musicians to achieve tonal perfection, but he was also willing to labor tirelessly at his task. Unde his guidance the Cleveland Orchestra rose to the heights of symphonic excellence, taking its place in the foremost rank of wold orchestras. The British government made Szell an honorary Commander of the Orderof the British Empire (CBE) in 1963.
Most of George 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 Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. Many live stereo recordings of repertoire Szell never conducted in the studio exist, both with the Cleveland Orchestra and other orchestras. Through his recordings, he 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 Cleveland Orchestra in the late 1980's, then-Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi remarked, "We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review." |
