Georg Solti, 84, `Fastest Baton In The West,' Dies

CHICAGO - By anyone's reckoning, Georg Solti, who died Friday at 84, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were one of the great conductor-orchestra partnerships of the century, perhaps of all time.

Mr. Solti, the Hungarian-born music director who became conductor laureate after his 1991 retirement from the symphony after 22 years at the podium, died while visiting Antibes, France.

In addition to his Chicago post, Mr. Solti was music director of the Royal Opera at Covent Garden for a decade starting in 1961, chief conductor of the Orchestre de Paris from 1970 to 1975, principal conductor of the London Philharmonic from 1979 to 1983 (he subsequently held the title conductor emeritus) and director of the Salzburg Easter Festival starting in 1992. Sir Georg was made a Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1972 for his contributions to British music.

His muscular, whiplash style of conducting, which led one critic to compare him to a beleaguered tennis player, did wonders to rejuvenate the orchestra when he arrived in 1969.

By spring 1970, the Solti-CSO juggernaut had begun its conquest of New York City with a celebrated performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. In 1971 came the orchestra's first European tour, with a triumphant parade down State Street upon its return.

Two years later, the "Fastest Baton in the West" had been given the ultimate media accolade, a Time magazine cover. Mr. Solti and the Chicagoans became known as the finest conductor and the greatest orchestra active in America.

Even at 84, he bounded onto the podium, ran onto the stage for curtain calls and slashed his baton through the air with more intensity than counterparts a third his age.

People still talk about Sept. 8, 1976, when he conducted "Le Nozze di Figaro" with the Paris Opera at the Metropolitan Opera House.

During the third act, Mr. Solti accidentally stabbed the baton into his forehead, opening a cut over his right eye. With blood streaming down his face, he left the podium for about a minute - as the performance continued - slapped some cold water on the cut and hopped right back on the podium.

"The tension? Yah, that is my nature," he said. "I'm born that way."

Mr. Solti won 30 Grammy Awards, more than any other musician, classical or popular. His most recent Grammy was a lifetime achievement award in 1996.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1912, Mr. Solti was quickly recognized by a doting Jewish mother as a possible child piano prodigy. His incipient virtuoso talents were nurtured at the Liszt Conservatory.

In 1936, he was chosen as an assistant to conductor Erich Leinsdorf, who was then assisting Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival.

When World War II broke out Mr. Solti, a Jew, fled to Switzerland.

Unable to gain a work permit as a conductor in Switzerland, he returned to the piano and won the 1942 Geneva International Piano Competition. In 1946, he was invited by the U.S. military authorities to conduct Beethoven's "Fidelio" in Munich. His will to succeed led to his appointment as music director of the Bavarian State Opera. He made his first records in 1947, as pianist for the violinist, Georg Kulenkampff, and as conductor with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra.

In 1952, Mr. Solti moved to Frankfurt, West Germany, as generalmusikdirektor, directing the city concerts as well as opera.

The turning point in his rise came in 1961, when he was named music director of London's Royal Opera, Covent Garden. He announced his intention of making Covent Garden "quite simply, the best opera house in the world," and in the opinion of many, he succeeded. For his efforts, he was rewarded with a knighthood on taking British nationality in 1972.

His final public performance was at Covent Garden's closing gala on June 14. He will never record the "Tristan und Isolde" he had planned for next summer.

"There's so much," he said in June. "There is a repertoire coming - slowly. Took me 70 years, but it is coming."

Information from Associated Press is included in this report.