187-682: Sir Georg Solti KBE ( / dʒ ɔːr dʒ ˈ ʃ ɒ l t i / JORJ SHOL -tee , Hungarian: [ˈʃolti] ; born György Stern ; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor , 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 , Leó Weiner , and Ernő Dohnányi . In
374-494: A Hungarian Soviet Republic and promised the restoration of Hungary's former grandeur. Instead, his efforts at reconquest failed, and Hungarians were treated to Soviet-style repression in the form of armed gangs who intimidated or murdered enemies of the regime. This period of violence came to be known as the Red Terror . Within weeks of his coup, Kun's popularity plummeted. On May 30, 1919, anti-communist politicians formed
561-543: A GBE (in recognition of his role as chairman of the Scottish War Savings Committee) and the award of medal of the order to Lizzie Robinson, a munitions worker. The order had been established primarily as a civilian award; in August 1918, however, not long after its foundation, a number of awards were made to serving naval and military personnel. Four months later, a 'Military Division' was added to
748-767: A German citizen for two decades. During his Frankfurt years, Solti made appearances with other opera companies and orchestras. He conducted in the Americas for the first time in 1952, giving concerts in Buenos Aires. In the same year, he made his debut at the Edinburgh Festival as a guest conductor with the visiting Hamburg State Opera . The following year, he was a guest at the San Francisco Opera with Elektra , Die Walküre , and Tristan und Isolde . In 1954, he conducted Don Giovanni at
935-414: A baton, drawing a "darker and deeper, much more relaxed" tone from the players. It's a marvelous thing to be musically happily married. ... I am and I know. I'm a romantic type of musician, and this is a romantic orchestra. That is our secret... Sir Georg Solti (1973) As well as raising the orchestra's profile and helping it return to prosperity, Solti considerably expanded its repertoire. Under him,
1122-404: A broad riband or sash, passing from the right shoulder to the left hip. Knights Commander and male Commanders wear the badge from a ribbon around the neck; male Officers and Members wear the badge from a ribbon on the left chest; female recipients other than Dames Grand Cross (unless in military uniform) normally wear it from a bow on the left shoulder. An oval eight-pointed star is worn, pinned to
1309-780: A bronze bust of Solti by Dame Elisabeth Frink was dedicated in Lincoln Park , Chicago, outside the Lincoln Park Conservatory . It was first displayed temporarily at the Royal Opera House in London. The sculpture was moved to Grant Park in 2006 in a new Solti Garden , near Orchestra Hall in Symphony Center . In 1997, to commemorate the 85th anniversary of his birth, the City of Chicago renamed
1496-475: A bully, and after working with Solti, Jon Vickers refused to do so again. Nevertheless, under Solti, the company was recognised as having achieved parity with the greatest opera houses in the world. Queen Elizabeth II conferred the title "the Royal Opera" on the company in 1968. By this point, Solti was, in the words of his biographer Paul Robinson, "after Karajan, the most celebrated conductor at work". By
1683-489: A bulwark against Soviet encroachment or invasion. Horthy was obsessed with the Communist threat. One American diplomat remarked that Horthy's anti-communist tirades were so common and ferocious that diplomats "discounted it as a phobia". Horthy clearly saw his country as trapped between two stronger powers, both of them dangerous; evidently, he considered Hitler to be the more manageable of the two, at least at first. Hitler
1870-553: A burning building containing explosives. In December 1922 the statutes of the order were amended; there having been a large number of awards for war work prior to this date, these amended statutes placed the order on more of a peacetime footing. For the first time numbers of appointments were limited, with the stipulation that senior awards in the Civil Division were to outnumber those in the Military Division by
2057-453: A circlet bearing the motto of the Order; the reverse bears George V's Royal and Imperial Cypher. (Prior to 1937 Britannia was shown within the circlet.) The size of the badges varies according to rank: the higher classes have slightly larger badges. The badges of Knights and Dames Grand Cross, Knights and Dames Commander, and Commanders are enamelled, with pale blue crosses, crimson circlets and
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#17327933492412244-466: A citizen of a Commonwealth realm can convert their appointment from honorary to substantive, and they then enjoy all privileges of membership of the order, including use of the title of Sir and Dame for the senior two ranks of the Order. (An example of the latter is Irish broadcaster Terry Wogan , who was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order in 2005, and on successful application for British citizenship, held alongside his Irish citizenship,
2431-523: A cliché to say he mellowed as he got older, but his performances remained thrilling right to the end. Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians In 1983, Solti conducted for the only time at the Bayreuth Festival . By this stage in his career, he no longer liked abstract productions of Wagner, or modernistic reinterpretations, such as Patrice Chéreau's 1976 Bayreuth Centenary Ring , which he found grew boring on repetition. Together with
2618-462: A closer look, he discovered that: two or three men were on the floor and he [Horthy] had another by the throat, slapping his face and shouting what I learned afterward was: "So you would betray your country, would you?" The Regent was alone, but he had the situation in hand.... The whole incident was typical not only of the Regent's deep hatred of alien doctrine, but of the kind of man he is. Although he
2805-573: A conviction shared by Horthy and his country's ruling class that would help drive Hungary into a fateful alliance with Adolf Hitler. The nation of the Hungarians loved and admired Budapest, which became its polluter in the last years. Here, on the banks of the Danube, I arraign her. This city has disowned her thousand years of tradition, she has dragged the Holy Crown and the national colors in
2992-702: A counter-revolutionary government in the southern city of Szeged , which was occupied by French forces at the time. There, Gyula Károlyi , the prime minister of the counter-revolutionary government, asked former Admiral Horthy, still considered a war hero, to be the Minister of War in the new government and take command of a counter-revolutionary force that would be named the National Army ( Hungarian : Nemzeti Hadsereg ). Horthy consented, and he arrived in Szeged on June 6 June. Soon afterward, because of orders from
3179-443: A gold central medallion. Officers' badges are plain silver-gilt, while those of Members are plain silver. From 1917 until 1937, the badge of the order was suspended on a purple ribbon, with a red central stripe being added for the military division in 1918. Since 1937, the ribbon has been rose-pink with pearl-grey edges (with the addition of a pearl-grey central stripe for the military division). Knights and Dames Grand Cross wear it on
3366-454: A good match with Solti and he with us." Peck's colleague, violinist Victor Aitay, said, "Usually conductors are relaxed at rehearsals and tense at the concerts. Solti is the reverse. He is very tense at rehearsals, which makes us concentrate, but relaxed during the performance, which is a great asset to the orchestra." Peck recalled Solti's constant efforts to improve his own technique and interpretations, at one point experimentally dispensing with
3553-413: A meeting with Hitler in 1935, Horthy was well pleased that Hitler informed him that he wanted Germany and Hungary to partition Czechoslovakia, but Horthy went on to tell Hitler that he must be careful not to do anything that might cause an Anglo-German war because British sea power would sooner or later cause the defeat of Nazi Germany . Horthy was always torn between his belief that an alliance with Germany
3740-553: A new work by Richard Rodney Bennett . The public in Munich and Berlin were, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , "beside themselves with enthusiasm". Solti's bald head and demanding rehearsal style earned him the nickname "The Screaming Skull". A music historian called him "the bustling, bruising Georg Solti – a man whose entire physical and mental attitude embodied the words 'I'm in charge'." Singers such as Peter Glossop described him as
3927-536: A one-party state modeled on the Nazi party control of Germany. Gömbös died in 1936 before he realized his most extreme goals, but he left his nation headed into a firm partnership with the German dictator. Hungary now entered into intricate political maneuvers with the regime of Adolf Hitler, and Horthy began to play a greater and more public role in navigating Hungary along this dangerous path. For Horthy, Hitler served as
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#17327933492414114-492: A proportion of six to one. Furthermore appointments in the civil division were to be divided equally between UK and overseas awards. With regard to the Medal of the Order (but not the order itself), a distinction was made in 1922 between awards 'for gallantry' and awards 'for meritorious service' (each being appropriately inscribed, and the former having laurel leaves decorating the clasp, the latter oak leaves). In 1933 holders of
4301-692: A recording artist flourished from the mid-1950s. Among the orchestras with whom Solti recorded were the Berlin Philharmonic , Chicago Symphony, London Philharmonic, London Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras. Soloists in his operatic recordings included Birgit Nilsson , Joan Sutherland , Régine Crespin , Plácido Domingo , Gottlob Frick , Carlo Bergonzi , Kiri Te Kanawa , Ben Heppner and José van Dam . In concerto recordings, Solti conducted for, among others, András Schiff , Julius Katchen , Clifford Curzon , Vladimir Ashkenazy , and Kyung-wha Chung . Solti's most celebrated recording
4488-620: A requirement that state employees with foreign-sounding names must change them. Mor Stern, a self-employed merchant, felt no need to change his surname, but thought it prudent to change that of his children. He renamed them after Solt , a small town in central Hungary. His son's given name, György, was acceptably Hungarian and was not changed. Solti described his father as "a kind, sweet man who trusted everyone. He shouldn't have, but he did. Jews in Hungary were tremendously patriotic. In 1914, when war broke out, my father invested most of his money in
4675-467: A répétiteur at the opera in Budapest, and with his standing enhanced by his association with Toscanini, Solti was given his first chance to conduct, on 11 March 1938. The opera was Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro . During that evening, news came of the German invasion of Austria. Many Hungarians feared that Hitler would next invade Hungary; he did not do so, but Horthy, to strengthen his partnership with
4862-641: A small clique in the Covent Garden audience. Rotten vegetables were thrown at him, and his car was vandalised outside the theatre, with the words "Solti must go!" scratched on its paintwork. Some press reviews were strongly critical; Solti was so wounded by a review in The Times of his conducting of The Marriage of Figaro that he almost left Covent Garden in despair. The chief executive of the Opera House, Sir David Webster , persuaded him to stay with
5049-424: A small delegation to meet Horthy, announcing, "Hungary's Parliament has elected you Regent! Would it please you to accept the office of Regent of Hungary ?" To their astonishment, Horthy declined, unless the powers of the office were expanded. As Horthy stalled, the politicians gave in to his demands and granted him "the general prerogatives of the king, with the exception of the right to name titles of nobility and of
5236-450: A terrible record, because the orchestra was not very good at that time and I was so excited. It is horrible, surely horrible – but by now it has vanished." He had to wait two years for his next recording as a conductor, in London, Haydn's Drum Roll symphony, in sessions produced by John Culshaw , with whose career Solti's became closely linked over the next two decades. Reviewing the record, The Gramophone said, "The performance of
5423-722: A triple bill in English of Ravel's L'heure espagnole , Schoenberg's Erwartung , and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi . As the decade went on, however, more and more productions had to be sung in the original language to accommodate international stars. [Solti] announced his intention of making Covent Garden "quite simply, the best opera house in the world", and in the opinion of many he succeeded. Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Like his predecessor Rafael Kubelík , and his successor Colin Davis , Solti found his early days as musical director marred by vituperative hostility from
5610-678: A two-year wave of violent repression known today as the White Terror . These reprisals were organized and carried out by officers of Horthy's National Army , particularly Pál Prónay , Gyula Ostenburg-Moravek and Iván Héjjas . Their victims were primarily communists , social democrats , and Jews . Most Hungarian Jews were not supporters of the Bolsheviks, but much of the leadership of the Hungarian Soviet Republic had been young Jewish intellectuals, and anger about
5797-595: A ubiquitous motto of Hungarian outrage. When in 1927 the British newspaper magnate Lord Rothermere denounced the partitions ratified at Trianon in the pages of his Daily Mail , an official letter of gratitude was eagerly signed by 1.2 million Hungarians. But Hungary's stability was precarious, and the Great Depression derailed much of Bethlen's economic balance. Horthy replaced him with an old reactionary confederate from his Szeged days: Gyula Gömbös . Gömbös
Georg Solti - Misplaced Pages Continue
5984-414: A war loan to help the country. By the time the bonds matured, they were worthless." Mor Stern was a religious man, but his son was less so. Late in life, Solti recalled, "I often upset him because I never stayed in the synagogue for longer than 10 minutes." Teréz Stern was from a musical family, and encouraged her daughter Lilly, by eight years the elder of the children, to sing, and György to accompany her on
6171-470: A wrongly perceived notion that a completely powerless Hungary must be kept down". The first decade of Horthy's reign was primarily consumed by stabilizing the Hungarian economy and political system. Horthy's chief partner in these efforts was his prime minister István Bethlen . It was commonly known that Horthy was an Anglophile , and British political and economic support played a significant role in
6358-426: A year they sought. He suggested giving them three and a half months a year and inviting Carlo Maria Giulini to take charge for a similar length of time. The orchestra declined to proceed on these lines. When Solti accepted the orchestra's second invitation, they agreed that Giulini should be appointed to share the conducting. Both conductors signed three-year contracts with the orchestra, effective from 1969. One of
6545-516: Is an image of Britannia surrounded by the motto, with the words "For Meritorious Service" at the bottom; on the reverse is George V's Imperial and Royal Cypher, with the words "Instituted by King George V" at the bottom. The name of the recipient is engraved on the rim. This medal is nicknamed "the Gong", and comes in both full-sized and miniature versions – the latter for formal white-tie and semi-formal black-tie occasions. A lapel pin for everyday wear
6732-973: Is not a member of the College of Arms , as are many other heraldic officers; and the Lady Usher of the Purple Rod does not – unlike the Order of the Garter equivalent, the Lady Usher of the Black Rod – perform any duties related to the House of Lords . Since the Second World War, several Commonwealth realms have established their own national system of honours and awards and have created their own unique orders, decorations and medals. A number, though, continue to make recommendations for appointments to
6919-532: The Billboard charts, the sole classical album alongside best sellers by Elvis Presley and Pat Boone , and brought Solti's name to international prominence. He appeared with leading orchestras in New York City, Vienna, and Los Angeles, and at Covent Garden, he conducted Der Rosenkavalier and Britten 's A Midsummer Night's Dream . In 1960, Solti signed a three-year contract to be music director of
7106-580: The German cruiser Prinz Eugen . During his ensuing state visit, Hitler asked Horthy for troops and matériel to participate in Germany's planned invasion of Czechoslovakia. In exchange, Horthy later reported, "He gave me to understand that as a reward we should be allowed to keep the territory we had invaded." Horthy said he declined, insisting to Hitler that Hungary's claims on the disputed lands should be settled by peaceful means. Three months later, after
7293-661: The Glyndebourne Festival . The reviewer in The Times said that no fault could be found in Solti's "vivacious and sensitive" conducting. In the same year Solti made his first appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , at the Ravinia Festival . In 1960, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, conducting Tannhäuser , and he continued to appear there until 1964. In
7480-604: The Hegyvidék district of the Buda side of Budapest. He was the younger of the two children of Teréz ( née Rosenbaum ) and Móricz "Mor" Stern, both of whom were Jewish. In the aftermath of the First World War it became the accepted practice in Hungary for citizens with Germanic surnames to adopt Hungarian ones. The territorial revisionist regime of Admiral Horthy enacted a series of Hungarianisation laws, including
7667-633: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . The excisions, eventually ratified in the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, cost Hungary two-thirds of its territory and one-third of its native Hungarian speakers; this dealt the population a terrible psychological blow. The second trauma began in March 1919, when Communist leader Béla Kun seized power in the capital, Budapest , after the first proto-democratic government in Hungary faltered. Kun and his loyalists proclaimed
Georg Solti - Misplaced Pages Continue
7854-628: The Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1962. Even before he took the post, the philharmonic's autocratic president, Dorothy Chandler , breached his contract by appointing a deputy music director without Solti's approval. Although he admired the chosen deputy, Zubin Mehta , Solti felt he could not have his authority undermined from the outset, and he withdrew from his appointment. He accepted an offer to become musical director of Covent Garden Opera Company , London. When first sounded out about
8041-787: The Munich Agreement put control of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland in Hitler's hands, by the First Vienna Award Hungary annexed some of the south-eastern parts of Czechoslovakia. Horthy enthusiastically rode into the re-acquired territories at the head of his troops, greeted by emotional ethnic Hungarians: "As I passed along the roads, people embraced one another, fell upon their knees, and wept with joy because liberation had come to them at last, without war, without bloodshed." But as "peaceful" as this annexation was, and as just as it may have seemed to many Hungarians, it
8228-604: The Oper Frankfurt . The city's opera house had been destroyed in the war, and Solti undertook to build a new company and repertoire for its recently completed replacement. He also conducted the symphony concerts given by the opera orchestra. Frankfurt's was a less prestigious house than Munich's and he initially regarded the move as a demotion, but he found the post fulfilling and remained at Frankfurt from 1952 to 1961, presenting 33 operas, 19 of which he had not conducted before. Frankfurt, unlike Munich, could not attract many of
8415-559: The Order of Canada . On the other hand, the Australian Honours System unilaterally created in 1975 did not achieve bi-partisan support until 1992, which was when Australian federal and state governments agreed to cease Australian recommendations for British honours; the last Australian recommended Order of the British Empire appointments were in the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours . New Zealand continued to use
8602-721: The Ring recordings, observed, "Many people have said 'Oh well, of course John Culshaw made Solti.' This is not true. He gave him the opportunity to show what he could do." Solti's first recordings were as a piano accompanist, playing at sessions in Zurich for violinist Georg Kulenkampff in 1947. Decca's senior producer, Victor Olof did not much admire Solti as a conductor (nor did Walter Legge, Olof's opposite number at EMI's Columbia Records ), but Olof's younger colleague and successor, Culshaw, held Solti in high regard. As Culshaw, and later James Walker , produced his recordings, Solti's career as
8789-557: The Second Vienna Award . But despite their cooperation with the Nazi regime, Horthy and his government would be better described as " conservative authoritarian " than "fascist". Certainly, Horthy was as hostile to the home-grown fascist and ultra-nationalist movements that emerged in Hungary between the wars (particularly the Arrow Cross Party ) as he was to Communism. The Arrow Cross leader, Ferenc Szálasi ,
8976-706: The Soviet Union . With the support of Adolf Hitler , Hungary succeeded in reoccupying certain areas ceded to neighbouring countries by the Treaty of Trianon. Under Horthy's leadership, Hungary provided support to Polish refugees when Germany attacked their country in 1939 and participated in the Axis powers ' invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Some historians view Horthy as unenthusiastic about contributing to
9163-464: The Treaty of Trianon . Furthermore, the three states with which Hungary had territorial disputes, namely Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania, were all allies of France, so a German-Hungarian alliance seemed logical. On the other hand, Admiral Horthy was a good navalist who believed that sea power was the most important factor in war. He felt that Britain, as the world's greatest sea power, would inevitably defeat Germany should another war begin. During
9350-546: The civil service . It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or a dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal , whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. The order was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V , who created the order to recognise 'such persons, male or female, as may have rendered or shall hereafter render important services to Our Empire'. Equal recognition
9537-574: The 1930s, he sought and failed to emulate the Nazis by generating a Hungarian fascist mass movement. In 1932, he was charged with incitement, sentenced to six months in prison, and stripped of his rank of lieutenant colonel. Prónay would support the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross and lead attacks on Jews before being captured by Soviet troops sometime during or after the Battle of Budapest of 1944–45, dying in captivity in 1947/48. Precisely how much Horthy knew about
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#17327933492419724-758: 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 ' influence on Hungarian politics, and being Jewish, he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish 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
9911-473: The 21st century quotas were introduced to ensure consistent representation among recipients across nine categories of eligibility: with the largest proportion of awards being reserved for community, voluntary and local service. Non-military awards of the British Empire Medal resumed in 2012, starting with 293 BEMs awarded for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee . In 2017 the centenary of
10098-675: The 50th anniversary of the United Nations , he formed the World Orchestra for Peace, which consisted of 81 musicians from 40 nations. The orchestra has continued to perform after his death, under the conductorship of Valery Gergiev . Solti regularly returned to Covent Garden as a guest conductor in the years after he relinquished the musical directorship, greeted with "an increasingly boisterous hero's welcome" ( Grove ). From 1972 to 1997, he conducted 10 operas, some of them in several seasons. Five were operas he had not conducted at
10285-530: The Allied powers, a cabinet was reformed, and Horthy was not given a seat in it. Undaunted, Horthy managed to retain control of the National Army by detaching the army command from the War Ministry. After the Communist government collapsed and its leaders fled, French-supported Romanian forces entered Budapest on August 6, 1919. In retaliation for the Red Terror , reactionary crews have now exacted revenge in
10472-535: The British CBE (honorary), 1968, and an honorary knighthood (KBE), 1971, which became a substantive knighthood when he took British citizenship in 1972, after which he was known as Sir Georg Solti. He was also awarded honorary citizenship from the coastal town of Castiglione della Pescaia , in Tuscany , a holiday destination particularly frequented by celebrities where he owned a holiday house and used to spend
10659-739: The British Empire . Rather than using this chapel, the Order now holds its great services upstairs in the nave of the cathedral. In addition to the Chapel of the Order of the British Empire, St Paul's Cathedral also houses the Chapel of the Order of St Michael and St George . Religious services for the whole Order are held every four years; new Knights and Dames Grand Cross are installed at these services. Knights Grand Cross and Knights Commander prefix Sir , and Dames Grand Cross and Dames Commander prefix Dame , to their forenames. Wives of Knights may prefix Lady to their surnames, but no equivalent privilege exists for husbands of Knights or spouses of Dames. Such forms are not used by peers and princes, except when
10846-443: The British Empire for Gallantry. Any individual made a member of the order for gallantry after 14 January 1958 wears an emblem of two crossed silver oak leaves on the same ribbon as the badge, with a miniature version on the ribbon bar when worn alone. When the ribbon only is worn the emblem is worn in miniature. It could not be awarded posthumously , and was replaced in 1974 with the Queen's Gallantry Medal (QGM). If recipients of
11033-514: The Chicago Symphony gave its first cycles of the symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler . He introduced new works commissioned for the orchestra, such as Lutosławski's Third Symphony , and Tippett's Fourth Symphony , which was dedicated to Solti. Another new work was Tippett's Byzantium , an orchestral song-cycle, premiered by Solti and the orchestra with soprano Faye Robinson. Solti frequently programmed works by American composers, including Charles Ives and Elliott Carter . Solti's recordings with
11220-441: The Chicago Symphony included the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler. Most of his operatic recordings were with other orchestras, but his recordings of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer (1976), Beethoven's Fidelio (1979), Schoenberg's Moses und Aron (1984) and his second recordings of Die Meistersinger (1995) and Verdi's Otello (1991) were made with the Chicago players. After relinquishing
11407-419: The Communist revolution easily translated into anti-Semitic hostility. In Budapest, Prónay installed his unit in the Hotel Britannia , where the group swelled to battalion size. Their program of vicious attacks continued; they planned a citywide pogrom against the Jews until Horthy found out and put a stop to it. In his diary, Prónay reported that Horthy: reproached me for the many Jewish corpses found in
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#173279334924111594-454: The Decca Record Company. He made more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. During the 1950s and 1960s, Decca had an alliance with RCA Victor , and some of Solti's recordings were first issued on the RCA label. Solti was one of the first conductors who came to international fame as a recording artist before being widely known in the concert hall or opera house. Gordon Parry, the Decca engineer who worked with Solti and Culshaw on
11781-489: The Franz Liszt Academy included some of the most eminent Hungarian musicians, including Béla Bartók , Leó Weiner , Ernő Dohnányi , and Zoltán Kodály . Solti studied under the first three, for piano, chamber music, and composition, respectively. Some sources state that he also studied with Kodály, but in his memoirs, Solti recalled that Kodály, whom he would have preferred, turned him down, leaving him to study composition first with Albert Siklós and then with Dohnányi. Not all
11968-412: The German war effort and the Holocaust in Hungary (out of fear that it may sabotage peace deals with Allied forces), in addition to several attempts to strike a secret deal with the Allies of World War II after it had become obvious that the Axis would lose the war, therefore eventually leading the Germans to invade and take control of the country in March 1944 (Operation Margarethe). However, prior to
12155-420: The Hungarian government yielded to Allied threats of renewed hostilities in 1921. Subsequently, Charles was escorted out of Hungary and into exile, while the House of Habsburg and Hungarian monarchy was formally dethroned. Ideologically a national conservative , Horthy has sometimes been labelled as a fascist . In the late 1930s, Horthy's foreign policy led him into an alliance with Nazi Germany against
12342-418: The Jew should be the image reflected of Hungary, especially abroad. Since, however, one of the most important tasks of the government is to raise the standard of living, i.e., we have to acquire wealth, it is impossible, in a year or two, to replace the Jews, who have everything in their hands, and to replace them with incompetent, unworthy, mostly big-mouthed elements, for we should become bankrupt. This requires
12529-416: The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Georg Solti (a fine conductor who is new to me) is remarkable for rhythmic playing, richness of tone, and clarity of execution." The Record Guide compared it favourably with EMI 's rival recording by Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic . In 1951, Solti conducted at the Salzburg Festival for the first time, partly through the influence of Furtwängler, who
12716-430: The Met in New York, and as carefully presented as anything in Milan or Vienna ". The company's repertory in the 1960s combined the standard operatic works with less familiar pieces. Among the most celebrated productions during Solti's time in charge was Schoenberg 's Moses and Aaron in the 1965–66 and 1966–67 seasons. In 1970, Solti led the company to Germany, where they gave Don Carlos , Falstaff , and Victory ,
12903-419: The Military Division of the order from the UK and across the Empire. Recommendations for all appointments to the Order of the British Empire were originally made on the nomination of the King's United Kingdom ministers (recommendations for overseas awards were made by the Foreign Office , the Colonial Office , the India Office and the Dominions Office ); but in the early 1940s the system was changed to enable
13090-508: The Munich appointment, Solti gained a recording contract in 1946. He signed for Decca Records , not as a conductor, but as a piano accompanist. He made his first recording in 1947, playing Brahms's First Violin Sonata with violinist Georg Kulenkampff . He was insistent that he wanted to conduct, and Decca gave him his first recording sessions as a conductor later in the same year, with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra in Beethoven's Egmont overture. Twenty years later, Solti said, "I'm sure it's
13277-439: The National Assembly of Hungary re-established the Kingdom of Hungary . It was apparent that the Allies of World War I would not accept any return of King Charles IV (the former Austro-Hungarian emperor) from exile. Instead, with National Army officers controlling the parliament building, the assembly voted to install Horthy as Regent ; he defeated Count Albert Apponyi by a vote of 131 to 7. Bishop Ottokár Prohászka then led
13464-574: The Navy in the final year of World War I . Following mutinies, Emperor-King Charles appointed him as vice admiral and commander of the Fleet, dismissing the previous admiral. During the revolutions and interventions in Hungary from Czechoslovakia , Romania , and Yugoslavia , Horthy returned to Budapest with the National Army . Subsequently, the parliament invited him to become the regent of
13651-479: The Nazi occupation of Hungary, 63,000 Jews were killed. In late 1944, 437,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau , where the majority were gassed on arrival. Serbian historian Zvonimir Golubović has claimed that not only was Horthy aware of these genocidal massacres, but had approved of them, such as those in the Novi Sad raid . In October 1944, Horthy announced that Hungary had declared an armistice with
13838-604: The Nazis, instituted anti-semitic laws , mirroring the Nuremberg Laws , restricting Hungary's Jews from engaging in professions. Solti's family urged him to move away. He went first to London, where he made his Covent Garden debut, conducting the London Philharmonic for a Russian ballet season. The reviewer in The Times was not impressed with Solti's efforts, finding them "too violent, for he lashed at
14025-436: The Order of the British Empire for Gallantry received promotion within the order, whether for gallantry or otherwise, they continued to wear also the insignia of the lower grade with the oak leaves; however, they used only the post-nominal letters of the higher grade. When the order was founded in 1917, badges, ribands and stars were appointed for wear by recipients. In 1929 mantles, hats and collars were added for recipients of
14212-568: The Order of the British Empire. In 2024 appointments to the order were made by the governments of: Most members of the order are citizens of the United Kingdom or Commonwealth realms that use the UK system of honours and awards. In addition, honorary awards may be made to citizens of nations where the monarch is not head of state ; these permit use of post-nominal letters, but not the title of Sir or Dame . Honorary appointees who later become
14399-404: The Order, however, are not assigned any special precedence. As a general rule, only wives and children of male recipients are afforded privileges. Knights and Dames Grand Cross are also entitled to be granted heraldic supporters . They may, furthermore, encircle their arms with a depiction of the circlet (a circle bearing the motto) and the collar; the former is shown either outside or on top of
14586-475: The Royal Opera House before: Bizet's Carmen , Wagner's Parsifal , Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail , Verdi's Simon Boccanegra , and a celebrated production of La traviata (1994), which propelled Angela Gheorghiu to stardom. On 14 July 1997 he conducted the last operatic music to be heard in the old house before it closed for more than two years for rebuilding. The previous day he had conducted what proved to be his last symphony concert. The work
14773-682: The Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist. After the war, Solti was appointed musical director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1946. In 1952, he moved to the Oper Frankfurt , where he remained in charge for nine years. He took West German citizenship in 1953. In 1961, he became musical director of the Covent Garden Opera Company , London. During his 10-year tenure, he introduced changes that raised standards to
14960-794: The Soviets and had withdrawn from the Axis. He was forced to resign, placed under arrest and taken to Bavaria , while the Arrow Cross Party and Germany ruled Hungary. At the end of the war, he came under the custody of American troops. After providing evidence for the Ministries Trial of war crimes in 1948, Horthy settled and lived out his remaining years in exile in Portugal . His memoir, Ein Leben für Ungarn ( A Life for Hungary ),
15147-829: The Strait of Otranto , the largest naval engagement of the war in the Adriatic Sea . A consolidated British, French, and Italian fleet met the Austro-Hungarian force. Despite the numerical superiority of the Allied fleet, the Austrian force emerged victorious from the battle. The Austrian fleet remained relatively unscathed; however, Horthy was wounded. After the Cattaro mutiny of February 1918, Emperor Charles I of Austria selected Horthy over many more senior commanders as
15334-463: The United Kingdom; those who would formerly have met the criteria for the medal were instead made eligible for the MBE. In 2004, a report entitled A Matter of Honour: Reforming Our Honours System by a Commons select committee recommended phasing out the Order of the British Empire, as its title was "now considered to be unacceptable, being thought to embody values that are no longer shared by many of
15521-410: The academy's tutors were equally distinguished; Solti remembered with little pleasure the conducting classes run by Ernő Unger, "who instructed his pupils to use rigid little wrist motions. I attended the class for only two years, but I needed five years of practical conducting experience before I managed to unlearn what he had taught me". After graduating from the academy in 1930, Solti was appointed to
15708-450: The addition of a vertical pearl grey stripe in the centre for awards in the military division). From time to time the order was expanded: there was an increase in the maximum permitted number of recipients in 1933, and a further increase in 1937. During the Second World War, as had been the case during and after World War I, the number of military awards was greatly increased; between 1939 and 1946 there were more than 33,000 appointments to
15895-482: The authentic frisson of the great Elgarian moment more vividly than ever before on record." Late in his career he became enthusiastic about the music of Shostakovich , whom he admitted he failed to appreciate fully during the composer's lifetime. He made commercial recordings of seven of Shostakovich's fifteen symphonies. His podium personality, exuberant and forceful, was clearly imprinted upon his music-making as he snarled and ferociously stabbed his baton. ... It became
16082-693: The beating of angels' wings"), remarking, "the Communists in Hungary, willing disciples of the Russian Bolshevists, had indeed let hell loose." The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in an internal report by delegate George Burnier , stated the following in April 1920: There are two distinct military organizations in Hungary: the national army and a kind of civil guard which
16269-525: The block of East Adams Street adjacent to Symphony Center as "Sir Georg Solti Place" in his memory. Record industry awards to Solti included the Grand Prix Mondial du Disque (14 times) and 31 Grammy Awards (besides a special Trustees' Grammy Award, shared with John Culshaw, for the recording of the Ring (1967) and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1996)). He held the record for most Grammy wins of all time , until Beyoncé tied and later beat
16456-490: The breach of his Los Angeles contract as a convenient pretext to abandon the philharmonic in favour of Covent Garden. In his memoirs, though, Solti wrote that he wanted the Los Angeles position very much indeed. He originally considered holding both posts in tandem, but later acknowledged that he had had a lucky escape, as he could have done justice to neither post had he attempted to hold both simultaneously. Solti took up
16643-474: The cathedral. That year, Commonwealth awards made up 40% of all OBEs and MBEs awarded (and 35% of all living recipients of the higher awards). Gradually that proportion reduced as independent states within the Commonwealth established their own systems of honours . The last Canadian recommendation for the Order of the British Empire was an MBE for gallantry gazetted in 1966, a year before the creation of
16830-418: The circlet. In 1929, to bring the order into line with the other orders of chivalry, members of the first class of the order (GBE) were provided with mantles, hats and collars. Only Knights/Dames Grand Cross wear these elaborate vestments; the hat is now rarely, if ever, worn. Use of the mantle is limited to important occasions (such as quadrennial services and coronations ). The mantle is always worn with
17017-444: The collar. Although the mantle was introduced in 1929, very few mantles would have been produced prior to the 1937 design changes, as there were few occasions for wearing them in the intervening years. On certain days designated by the sovereign, known as " collar days ", members attending formal events may wear the order's collar over their military uniform, formal day dress, evening wear or robes of office. Collars are returned upon
17204-481: The company, and matters improved, helped by changes on which Solti insisted. The chorus and orchestra were strengthened, and in the interests of musical and dramatic excellence, Solti secured the introduction of the stagione system of scheduling performances, rather than the traditional repertory system. By 1967, The Times commented that "Patrons of Covent Garden today automatically expect any new production, and indeed any revival, to be as strongly cast as anything at
17391-400: The conclusion of denazification proceedings against them. Under Solti's direction, the company rebuilt its repertoire and began to recover its prewar eminence. He benefited from the encouragement of the elderly Richard Strauss , in whose presence he conducted Der Rosenkavalier . Strauss was reluctant to discuss his own music with Solti, but gave him advice about conducting. In addition to
17578-538: The conservatism of interwar Hungary. Historian István Deák states: Two national traumas that followed the First World War profoundly shaped the spirit and future of the Hungarian nation. The first was the loss, as dictated by the Allies of World War I , of large portions of Hungarian territory that had bordered other countries. These were lands that had belonged to Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary ) but were now ceded mainly to Czechoslovakia , Romania , Austria and
17765-479: The country's population". The committee further suggested changing the name of the award to the Order of British Excellence, and changing the rank of Commander to Companion (as the former was said to have a "militaristic ring"), as well as advocating for the abolition of knighthoods and damehoods; the government, however, was not of the opinion that a case for change had been made, and the aforementioned suggestions and recommendations were not, therefore, pursued. In
17952-410: The country, because it is largely his influence that prevents any prime minister from abolishing parliament and setting up a dictatorial rule. Gömbös rescued the failing economy by securing trade guarantees from Germany – a strategy that positioned Germany as Hungary's primary trading partner and tied Hungary's future even more tightly to Hitler's. He also assured Hitler that Hungary would quickly become
18139-643: The creators of the hostile Little Entente , Masaryk and Beneš, as well as with the Austrian Social Democratic Chancellor, Karl Renner . They wanted to achieve the disarmament of the Hungarian National Army and the removal of Horthy, even with the help of foreign troops and intervention. However, the effect has remained small: Renner and Beneš sent a memorandum to the Western Allied Powers, but
18326-403: The death of their owners, but other insignia may be retained. The six office-holders of the order wear pearl-grey mantles lined with rose-pink, having on the right side a purple shield charged with the roundel from the badge. Each of these office-holders wears a unique badge of office, suspended from a gold chain worn around the neck. The British Empire Medal is made of silver. On the obverse
18513-414: The director Sir Peter Hall and designer William Dudley , he presented a Ring cycle that aimed to represent Wagner's intentions. The production was not well received by German critics, who expected radical reinterpretation of the operas. Solti's conducting was praised, but illnesses and last-minute replacements of leading performers affected the standard of singing. He was invited to return to Bayreuth for
18700-626: The distinction between ranks in military operational gallantry awards will cease'. The reforms affected the order at various levels: for example the automatic award each year of a GBE to the Lord Mayor of London ceased; the OBE replaced the Imperial Service Order as an award for civil servants and the number of MBEs awarded each year was significantly increased. As part of these reforms the British Empire Medal stopped being awarded by
18887-433: The dust, she has clothed herself in red rags. The finest of the nation she threw into dungeons or drove into exile. She laid in ruin our property and wasted our wealth. Yet the nearer we approached to this city, the more rapidly did the ice in our hearts melt. We are now ready to forgive her. Following the pressure of the Allied powers, Romanian troops finally evacuated Hungary on February 25 February 1920. On March 1, 1920,
19074-558: The end of his decade as music director at Covent Garden Solti had conducted the company in 33 operas by 13 composers. In 1964, Solti separated from his wife. He moved into the Savoy Hotel , where not long afterwards he met Valerie Pitts , a British television presenter, sent to interview him. She, too, was married, but after pursuing her for three years, Solti persuaded her to divorce her husband. Solti and Valerie Pitts married on 11 November 1967. They had two daughters. In 1967, Solti
19261-417: The end of the war, Solti's luck changed dramatically. He was appointed musical director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1946. In normal circumstances, this prestigious post would have been an unthinkable appointment for a young and inexperienced conductor, but the leading German conductors such as Wilhelm Furtwängler , Clemens Krauss , and Herbert von Karajan were prohibited from conducting pending
19448-712: The excesses of Prónay is disputed. On several occasions, Horthy reached out to stop Prónay from a particularly excessive burst of anti-Jewish cruelty, and the Jews of Pest went on record absolving Horthy of the White Terror as early as the autumn of 1919 when they released a statement disavowing the Kun revolution and blaming the terror on a few units within the National Army. Horthy has never been found to have personally engaged in White Terror atrocities. But his American biographer, Thomas L. Sakmyster concluded that he "tacitly supported
19635-458: The excesses of the White Terror is not known. Horthy himself declined to apologize for the savagery of his officer detachments, writing later, "I have no reason to gloss over deeds of injustice and atrocities committed when an iron broom alone could sweep the country clean." He endorsed Edgar von Schmidt-Pauli's poetic justification of the White reprisals ("Hell let loose on earth cannot be subdued by
19822-478: The floor of the Hungarian parliament. After serving short jail sentences, Prónay tried to convince Horthy to restore his battalion command. The Prónay Battalion lingered for a few months more under the command of a junior officer, but the government officially dissolved the unit in January 1922, and expelled its members from the army. Prónay entered politics as a member of the government's right-wing opposition. In
20009-444: The following season, but was unwell and withdrew on medical advice before the 1984 festival began. In 1991, Solti collaborated with actor and composer Dudley Moore to create an eight-part television series, Orchestra! , which was designed to introduce audiences to the symphony orchestra. In 1994, he directed the "Solti Orchestral Project" at Carnegie Hall , a training workshop for young American musicians. The following year, to mark
20196-529: The former was to be responsible for recording all proceedings connected with the order, issuing warrants under the seal of the order and making arrangements for investitures, while the latter (at that time the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury ) was responsible for collecting and tabulating the names of those who were to receive an award. The office of Dean was added in 1957. The King of Arms
20383-401: The governments of overseas dominions to make their own nominations; Canada and South Africa began doing so in 1942, followed by Australia, New Zealand and other Commonwealth realms. In May 1957, forty years after the foundation of the order, it was announced that St Paul's Cathedral was to serve as the church of the order, and in 1960 a chapel was dedicated for its use within the crypt of
20570-536: The greatest recording ever made, in polls for Gramophone magazine in 1999 and the BBC 's Music Magazine in 2012. Solti was repeatedly honoured by the recording industry with awards throughout his career. From 1963 to 1998, he won 31 Grammy Awards as a recording artist, making him the Grammy Awards' most-awarded artist until Beyoncé surpassed his record in 2023. Solti was born György Stern on Maros utca, in
20757-450: The highest class of the order (GBE). The designs of all these items underwent major changes in 1937. The badge is worn by all members of the order; the size, colour and design depends on the class of award. The badge for all classes is in the form of a cross patonce (having the arms growing broader and floriated toward the end) with a medallion in the centre, the obverse of which bears a crowned image of George V and Queen Mary within
20944-532: The highest international levels. Under his musical directorship, the status of the company was recognised with the grant of the title "the Royal Opera". He became an honorary citizen of the coastal holiday town of Castiglione della Pescaia , and a British citizen in 1972. In 1969, Solti became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 22 years. He conducted many recordings and high-profile international tours with
21131-637: The honours system, calling it "a preposterous charade". The order has attracted some criticism for its naming having connection with the idea of the now-extinct British Empire . Benjamin Zephaniah , a British poet of Jamaican and Barbadian descent, publicly rejected appointment as an Officer in 2003 because, he asserted, it reminded him of "thousands of years of brutality". He also said that "it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised". Mikl%C3%B3s Horthy Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya (18 June 1868 – 9 February 1957)
21318-446: The insignia to Buckingham Palace and by ceasing to make reference to their honour, but they still hold the honour unless and until annulled by the monarch. In 2003, The Sunday Times published a list of the people who had rejected the Order of the British Empire, including David Bowie , John Cleese , Nigella Lawson , Elgar Howarth , L. S. Lowry , George Melly , and J. G. Ballard . In addition, Ballard voiced his opposition to
21505-474: The intensity of his music making, Solti was widely considered to have mellowed as a conductor in later years. He recorded many works two or three times at various stages of his career, and was a prolific recording artist, making more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. The best-known of his recordings is probably Decca 's complete set of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen , made between 1958 and 1965. Solti's Ring has twice been voted
21692-640: The junior post-nominal letters. The British sovereign is the sovereign of the order and appoints all other officers of the order (by convention, on the advice of the governments of the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth realms ). The second-most senior officer is the Grand Master (a 'Prince of the Blood Royal, or other exalted personage' appointed by the sovereign, who, by virtue of their appointment, becomes 'the First or Principal Knight Grand Cross of
21879-531: The kingdom. Throughout the interwar period , Horthy led an administration characterized by national conservatism and antisemitism . Under his leadership, Hungary banned the Hungarian Communist Party and the far-right Arrow Cross Party led by Ferenc Szálasi , and pursued an irredentist foreign policy in response to the 1920 Treaty of Trianon . The former King of Hungary , Charles IV , attempted to return to Hungary twice before
22066-528: The latter. Knights and Dames Commander and Commanders may display the circlet, but not the collar, surrounding their arms. The badge is depicted suspended from the collar or circlet. See List of current honorary knights and dames of the Order of the British Empire Only the monarch can annul an honour. The Honours Forfeiture Committee considers cases and makes recommendations for forfeiture. An individual can renounce their honour by returning
22253-535: The leadership of Entente Powers had already decided that Horthy should remain in power. Hungarian historian Ádám Magda wrote in her study Versailles System and Central Europe (2006): "Today we know that the bane of Central Europe was the Little Entente , military alliance of Czechoslovakia , Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), created in 1921 not for Central Europe's cooperation nor to fight German expansion, but in
22440-505: The leading German singers. Solti recruited many rising young American singers such as Claire Watson and Sylvia Stahlman , to the extent that the house acquired the nickname "Amerikanische Oper am Main". In 1953, the West German government offered Solti German citizenship, which, being effectively stateless as a Hungarian exile, he gratefully accepted. He believed he could never return to Hungary, by then under communist rule. He remained
22627-516: The left breast, by Knights and Dames Grand Cross; Knights and Dames Commander wear a smaller star composed of 'four equal points and four lesser'. The star is not worn by the more junior classes. Prior to 1937 each star had in the centre a gold medallion with a figure of Britannia, surrounded by a crimson circlet inscribed with the motto of the order ('For God and the Empire'); since 1937 the effigies of King George V and Queen Mary have been shown within
22814-500: The loyalty of his ministers to the crown. Although his involvement in drafting legislation was minuscule, he nevertheless had the ability to ensure that laws passed by the Hungarian parliament conformed to his political preferences. The ex-president of the First Hungarian Republic , Count Mihály Károlyi began vigorous propaganda activities against the emerging Horthy regime. Károlyi mainly tried to negotiate with
23001-588: The medal 'for gallantry', which had come to be known as the Empire Gallantry Medal , were given permission to use the postnominal letters EGM (and at the same time to add a laurel branch emblem to the ribbon of the medal); however, in 1940, awards of the EGM ceased and all holders of the medal were instructed to exchange it for a new and more prestigious gallantry award: the George Cross . In 1941,
23188-610: The medal of the order 'for meritorious service' was renamed the British Empire Medal , and the following year its recipients were granted the right to use the postnominal letters BEM. During the war, the BEM came to be used to recognise acts of bravery which did not merit the award of a George Cross or George Medal , a use which continued until the introduction of the Queen's Gallantry Medal in 1974. The designs of insignia of
23375-449: The medal. The colour of the riband was also changed: twenty years earlier, prior to the order's establishment, Queen Mary had made it known that pink would be her preferred colour for the riband of the proposed new order, but, in the event, purple was chosen. Following her appointment as Grand Master of the order in 1936 a change was duly made and since 9 March 1937 the riband of the order has been 'rose pink edged with pearl grey’ (with
23562-520: The members of the Chicago Symphony described it to Solti as "the best provincial orchestra in the world." Many players remained from its celebrated decade under Reiner, but morale was low, and the orchestra was $ 5M in debt. Solti concluded that raising the orchestra's international profile was essential. He ensured that it was engaged for many of his Decca sessions, and Giulini and he led it in a European tour in 1971, playing in 10 countries. This
23749-438: The more prestigious Franz Liszt Academy two years later. When he was 12, he heard a performance of Beethoven 's Fifth Symphony conducted by Erich Kleiber , which gave him the ambition to become a conductor. His parents could not afford to pay for years of musical education, and his rich uncles did not consider music a suitable profession; from the age of 13, Solti paid for his education by giving piano lessons. The faculty of
23936-516: The musical directorship of Covent Garden in August 1961. The press gave him a cautious welcome, but some concern arose that under him a drift away from the company's original policy of opera in English might occur. Solti, however, was an advocate of opera in the vernacular, and he promoted the development of British and Commonwealth singers in the company, frequently casting them in his recordings and important productions in preference to overseas artists. He demonstrated his belief in vernacular opera with
24123-473: The names of the former are written out in their fullest forms. Male clergy of the Church of England or the Church of Scotland do not use the title Sir (unless they were knighted before being ordained) as they do not receive the accolade (they are not dubbed "knight" with a sword), although they do append the post-nominal letters ; dames do not receive the accolade, and therefore female clergy are free to use
24310-628: The naval academy was German , Horthy spoke Hungarian with a slight, but noticeable, Austro-German accent for the rest of his life. He also spoke Italian , Croatian , English , and French . As a young man, Horthy traveled around the world and was a diplomat for Austria-Hungary in the Ottoman Empire and other countries. Horthy married Magdolna Purgly de Jószáshely in Arad in 1901. They had four children: Magdolna (1902), Paula (1903), István (1904), and Miklós (1907). From 1911 until 1914, he
24497-480: The new Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Fleet in March 1918. In June, Horthy planned another attack on Otranto, and in a departure from the cautious strategy of his predecessors, he committed the empire's battleships to the mission. While sailing through the night, the dreadnought SMS Szent István met Italian MAS torpedo boats and was sunk, causing Horthy to abort the mission. He managed to preserve
24684-399: The numbers restricted to the order as full members do. Although the Order of the British Empire has by far the highest number of members of the British orders of chivalry, with more than 100,000 living members worldwide, there are fewer appointments to knighthoods than in other orders. From time to time, individuals may be promoted to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of
24871-517: The orchestra and flogged the music so that he endangered the delicate, evocative atmosphere." At about this time Solti dropped the name "György" in favour of "Georg". After his appearances in London, Solti went to Switzerland to seek out Toscanini, who was conducting in Lucerne . Solti hoped that Toscanini would help find him a post in the U.S. He was unable to do so, but Solti found work and security in Switzerland as vocal coach to tenor Max Hirzel, who
25058-554: The orchestra. Solti relinquished the position in 1991 and became the orchestra's music director laureate, a position he held until his death. During his time as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's eighth music director, he also served as music director of the Orchestre de Paris from 1972 until 1975 and principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1979 until 1983. Known in his early years for
25245-620: The order alongside its own honours until the establishment of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1996. Other Commonwealth realms have continued to use the Order of the British Empire alongside their own honours. In 1993 the Prime Minister, John Major , instituted a reform of the honours system with the aim 'that exceptional service or achievement will be more widely recognised; that greater importance will be given to voluntary service; that automatic honours will end; that
25432-408: The order and medal were altered in 1937, prior to the coronation of King George VI , 'in commemoration of the reign of King George V and Queen Mary, during which the Order was founded'. The figure of Britannia at the centre of the badge of the order was replaced with an image of the crowned heads of the late King and Queen Mary, and the words 'Instituted by King George V' were added to the reverse of
25619-409: The order was celebrated with a service at St Paul's Cathedral. The order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross, 845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the total number of members of the fourth and fifth classes, but no more than 858 officers and 1,464 members may be appointed per year. Foreign appointees, as honorary members, do not contribute to
25806-426: The order, to which serving personnel would in future be appointed. The classes were the same as for the Civil Division (as it was now termed), but military awards were distinguished by the addition of a central vertical red stripe to the purple riband of the civil awards. In 1920 appointment as an MBE 'for an act of gallantry' was granted for the first time, to Sydney Frank Blanck Esq, who had rescued an injured man from
25993-521: The patronage of the Church." The prerogatives he was given included the power to appoint and dismiss prime ministers, to convene and dissolve parliament, and to command the armed forces . With those sweeping powers guaranteed, Horthy took the oath of office. He was styled His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary ( Hungarian : Ő Főméltósága a Magyar Királyság Kormányzója ). In any case,
26180-465: The piano. Solti remembered, "I made so many mistakes, but it was invaluable experience for an opera conductor. I learnt to swim with her." He was not a diligent student of the piano: "My mother kept telling me to practise, but what 10-year-old wants to play the piano when he could be out playing football?" Solti enrolled at the Ernő Fodor School of Music in Budapest at the age of 10, transferring to
26367-492: The position of music director in 1991, Solti continued to conduct the orchestra, and was given the title of music director laureate. He conducted 999 concerts with the orchestra. His 1,000th concert was scheduled for October 1997, around the time of his 85th birthday, but Solti died that September. In addition to his tenure in Chicago, Solti was music director of the Orchestre de Paris from 1972 to 1975. From 1979 until 1983, he
26554-466: The post, he had declined it. After 14 years of experience at Munich and Frankfurt, he was uncertain that he wanted a third successive operatic post. Moreover, founded only 15 years earlier, the Covent Garden company was not yet the equal of the best opera houses in Europe. Bruno Walter convinced Solti that it was his duty to take on Covent Garden. Biographer Montague Haltrecht suggests that Solti seized
26741-603: The previous monarch, Charles I (Charles IV in Hungary) did try to regain his throne twice . The Hungarian state was legally a kingdom, but it had no king, as the Allied powers would not have tolerated any reinstatement of the Habsburg dynasty. The country retained its parliamentary system following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary , with a prime minister appointed as head of government. As head of state, Horthy retained significant influence through his constitutional powers and
26928-519: The reactionary battalions. Prónay managed to undermine these measures, but only for a short time. Prónay was put on trial for extorting a wealthy Jewish politician and for "insulting the President of the Parliament" by trying to cover up the extortion. Found guilty on both charges, Prónay was now a liability and an embarrassment. His command was revoked, and he was denounced as a common criminal on
27115-510: The record in 2023 . In September 2007, as a tribute on the 10th anniversary of his death, Decca published a recording of his final concert. Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry , rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside
27302-603: The recording studios, Solti's career took off after 1956, when John Culshaw was put in charge of Decca's classical recording programme. Culshaw believed Solti to be "the great Wagner conductor of our time", and was determined to record the four operas of Der Ring des Nibelungen with Solti and the finest Wagner singers available. The cast Culshaw assembled for the cycle included Kirsten Flagstad , Hans Hotter , Birgit Nilsson and Wolfgang Windgassen . Apart from Arabella in 1957, in which he substituted when Karl Böhm withdrew, Solti had made no complete recording of an opera until
27489-413: The rest of the empire's fleet until he was ordered by Emperor Charles to surrender it to the new State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (the predecessor of Yugoslavia) on 31 October. The end of the war saw Hungary turn into a landlocked nation, and with that, the new government had little need for Horthy's naval expertise. He retired with his family to his private estate at Kenderes . Historians agree on
27676-421: The right-wing officer detachments" who carried out the terror; Horthy called them "my best men." The admiral also had practical reasons for overlooking the terror his officers wrought, since he needed the dedicated officers to help stabilize the country. Nevertheless, it was at least another year before the terror died down. In the summer of 1920, Horthy's government took measures to rein in and eventually disperse
27863-654: The same Order'). The position of Grand Master has been held by the following people: In addition to the sovereign and the grand master , the order has six further officers: At its foundation the order was served by three officers: the King of Arms, the Registrar & Secretary and the Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod. In 1922 the Prelate was added, and the office of Registrar was separated from that of Secretary:
28050-467: The second reduced it to five percent the following year; 250,000 Hungarian Jews lost their jobs as a result. A "Third Jewish Law" of August 1941 prohibited Jews from marrying non-Jews and defined anyone having two Jewish grandparents as "racially Jewish". A Jewish man who had non-marital sex with a "decent non-Jewish woman resident in Hungary" could be sentenced to three years in prison. Horthy's personal views on Jews and their role in Hungarian society are
28237-486: The sessions for Das Rheingold , the first of the Ring tetralogy, in September and October 1958. In their respective memoirs, Culshaw and Solti told how Walter Legge of Decca's rival EMI predicted that Das Rheingold would be a commercial disaster ("'Very nice,' he said, 'Very interesting. But of course you won't sell any.'") The success of the recording took the record industry by surprise. It featured for weeks in
28424-547: The stabilization and consolidation of the early Horthy era in the Kingdom of Hungary. Bethlen sought to stabilize the economy while building alliances with weaker nations that could advance Hungary's cause. That cause was, primarily, reversing the losses of the Treaty of Trianon. The humiliations of the Trianon treaty continued to occupy a central place in Hungarian foreign policy and the popular imagination. The indignant anti-Trianon slogan "Nem, nem soha!" ("No, no never!") became
28611-717: The staff of the Hungarian State Opera . He found that working as a répétiteur , coaching singers in their roles and playing at rehearsals, was a more fruitful preparation than Unger's classes for his intended career as a conductor. In 1932, he went to Karlsruhe in Germany as assistant to Josef Krips , but within a year, Krips, anticipating the imminent rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis , insisted that Solti should go home to Budapest, where at that time Jews were not in danger. Other Jewish and anti-Nazi musicians also left Germany for Budapest. Among other musical exiles with whom Solti worked there were Otto Klemperer , Fritz Busch , and Kleiber. Before Austria fell under Nazi control, Solti
28798-461: The standard of the George Medal (even though, as appointments to an order of chivalry, they were listed before it on the Order of Wear . In contrast to awards for meritorious service, which usually appear without a citation, there were often citations for gallantry awards, some detailed and graphic. From 14 January 1958, these awards were designated Commander, Officer or Member of the Order of
28985-670: The status of a Nazi client state. In March 1939, when Hitler took what remained of Czechoslovakia by force, Hungary was allowed to annex the Carpathian Ruthenia . After a conflict with the First Slovak Republic during the Slovak–Hungarian War of 1939, Hungary gained further territories. In August 1940, Hitler intervened on Hungary's behalf once again. After the failed Hungarian-Romanian negotiations, Hungary annexed Northern Transylvania from Romania by
29172-600: The subject of some debate. In an October 1940 letter to Prime Minister Count Pál Teleki , Horthy echoed a widespread national sentiment: that Jews enjoyed too much success in commerce, the professions, and industry—success that needed to be curtailed: As regards the Jewish problem, I have been an anti-Semite throughout my life. I have never had contact with Jews. I have considered it intolerable that here in Hungary everything, every factory, bank, large fortune, business, theatre, press, commerce, etc. should be in Jewish hands, and that
29359-706: The summer holidays with his wife and daughters. In Castiglione, the Georg Solti Accademia and the main piazza within the town's historic hamlet are named after Solti. Furthermore, Solti received a number of honours from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and the US. He received honorary fellowships or degrees from the Royal College of Music and DePaul , Furman , Harvard , Leeds , London , Oxford , Surrey and Yale universities. In celebration of his 75th birthday in 1987,
29546-506: The title Dame . Knights and Dames Grand Cross use the post-nominal GBE; Knights Commander, KBE; Dames Commander, DBE; Commanders, CBE; Officers, OBE; and Members, MBE. The post-nominal for the British Empire Medal is BEM. Members of all classes of the order are assigned positions in the order of precedence . Wives of male members of all classes also feature on the order of precedence, as do sons, daughters and daughters-in-law of Knights Grand Cross and Knights Commander; relatives of Ladies of
29733-471: The titles Sir for men and Dame for women before their forenames, except with honorary awards. King George V founded the order to fill gaps in the British honours system : In particular, George V wished to create an order to honour the many thousands of individuals from across the Empire who had served in a variety of non-combat roles during the First World War . From its foundation the order consisted of five classes (GBE, KBE/DBE, CBE, OBE and MBE) and
29920-418: The treatment of Hungary's Jews, remain the central criteria by which his career has been judged. Horthy's relationship with Hitler was, by his own account, a tense one – largely due, he said, to his unwillingness to bend his nation's policies to the German leader's desires. Horthy's attitude to Hitler was ambivalent. On one hand, Hungary was an irredentist state that refused to accept the frontiers imposed by
30107-412: The upper chamber of the Diet of Hungary , and lord of a 610-hectare (1,500-acre) estate. He married Hungarian noblewoman Paula Halassy de Dévaványa in 1857. Miklós was the fourth of their eight children raised as Protestants. Horthy entered the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Naval Academy ( k.u.k. Marine-Akademie) at Fiume (now Rijeka , Croatia ) at age 14. Because the official language of
30294-523: The various parts of the country, especially in the Transdanubia. This, he emphasized, gave the foreign press extra ammunition against us. He told me that we should stop harassing small Jews; instead, we should kill some big (Kun government) Jews such as Somogyi or Vázsonyi – these people deserve punishment much more... in vain, I tried to convince him that the liberal papers would be against us anyway, and it did not matter that we killed only one Jew or we killed them all The degree of Horthy's responsibility for
30481-420: Was Mahler's Fifth Symphony ; the orchestra was the Zurich Tonhalle, with whom he had made his first orchestral recording 50 years earlier. Solti died suddenly, in his sleep, on 5 September 1997 while on holiday in Antibes in the south of France. He was 84. After a state ceremony in Budapest, his ashes were interred beside the remains of Bartók in Farkasréti Cemetery . Solti recorded throughout his career for
30668-445: Was Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen made in Vienna, produced by Culshaw, between 1958 and 1965. It has twice been voted the greatest recording ever made, the first poll being among readers of Gramophone magazine in 1999, and the second of professional music critics in 2011, for the BBC 's Music Magazine . This recording is heard in the film Apocalypse Now during the helicopter attack scene. Honours awarded to Solti included
30855-432: Was a Hungarian admiral and statesman who was the regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar period and most of World War II , from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy began his career as a sub-lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1896 and attained the rank of rear admiral by 1918. He participated in the Battle of the Strait of Otranto and ascended to the position of commander-in-chief of
31042-414: Was a dividend of Hitler's brinksmanship and threats of war, in which Hungary was now inextricably complicit. Hungary was now committed to the Axis agenda: on February 24, 1939, it joined the Anti-Comintern Pact , and on April 11, it withdrew from the League of Nations . American journalists began to refer to Hungary as "the jackal of Europe". This combination of menace and reward drifted Hungary closer to
31229-404: Was a naval aide-de-camp to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria , for whom he had a great respect. At the beginning of World War I, Horthy was commander of the pre-dreadnought battleship SMS Habsburg . In 1915, he earned a reputation for boldness while commanding the new light cruiser SMS Novara . He planned the 1917 attack on the Otranto Barrage , which resulted in the Battle of
31416-500: Was able to wield greater influence over Hungary than the Soviet Union could—not only as the country's major trading partner but also because he could assist with two of Horthy's key ambitions: maintaining Hungarian sovereignty and satisfying the nationwide yearning to recover former Hungarian lands. Horthy's strategy was one of cautious, sometimes even grudging, alliances. The means by which the regent granted or resisted Hitler's demands, especially with regard to Hungarian military action and
31603-467: Was also principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He continued to expand his repertoire. With the London Philharmonic, he performed many of Elgar 's major works in concert and on record. Before performing Elgar's two symphonies, Solti studied the composer's own recordings made more than 40 years earlier, and was influenced by their brisk tempi and impetuous manner. Edward Greenfield , music critic for The Guardian , wrote that Solti "conveys
31790-467: Was an outspoken anti-Semite and a budding fascist. Although he agreed to Horthy's demands that he temper his anti-Jewish rhetoric and work amicably with Hungary's large Jewish professional class, Gömbös's tenure began swinging Hungary's political mood powerfully rightward. John Gunther stated that Horthy, though reactionary as far as social or economic ideas are concerned, is in effect the guardian of constitutionalism and what vestigial democracy remains in
31977-460: Was around seventy-two years of age, it did not occur to him to ask for help; he went right ahead like a skipper with a mutiny on his hands. And yet, by the time of this episode, Horthy had allowed his government to give in to Nazi demands that the Hungarians enact laws restricting the lives of the country's Jews. The first Hungarian anti-Jewish Law , in 1938, limited the number of Jews in the professions, government, and commerce to twenty percent, and
32164-400: Was assistant to Arturo Toscanini at the 1937 Salzburg Festival : Toscanini was the first great musical impression in my life. Before I heard him live in 1936, I had never heard a great opera conductor, not in Budapest, and it was like a lightning flash. I heard his Falstaff in 1936 and the impact was unbelievable. It was the first time I heard an ensemble singing absolutely precisely. It
32351-410: Was fantastic. Then I never expected to meet Toscanini. It was a chance in a million. I had a letter of recommendation from the director of the Budapest Opera to the president of the Salzburg Festival. He received me and said: "Do you know Magic Flute , because we have an influenza epidemic and two of our repetiteurs are ill? Could you play this afternoon for the stage rehearsals?" After further work as
32538-402: Was first announced at the end of December 2006, and is available to recipients of all levels of the order, as well as to holders of the British Empire Medal . The pin design is not unique to any level. The pin features the badge of the order, enclosed in a circle of ribbon of its colours of pink and grey. Lapel pins must be purchased separately by a member of the order. The creation of such a pin
32725-416: Was first published in 1953. He has a reputation as a controversial historical figure in contemporary Hungary. Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was born at Kenderes to an untitled lower nobility, descended from István Horti, ennobled by King Ferdinand II in 1635. His father, István Horthy de Nagybánya (not to be confused with István Horthy , Horthy's eldest son) , was a member of the House of Magnates ,
32912-402: Was formed when the communist régime fell. It is the latter that has been responsible for all the reprehensible acts committed. The Government managed to regain control of these organizations only a few weeks ago. They are now well-disciplined and collaborate with the municipal police forces. This deep hostility toward Communism would be the more lasting legacy of Kun's abortive revolution. It was
33099-411: Was impressed by him. The work was Mozart's Idomeneo , which had not been given there before. In Munich, Solti achieved critical and popular success, but for political reasons, his position at the State Opera was never secure. The view persisted that a German conductor should be in charge; pressure mounted, and after five years, Solti accepted an offer to move to Frankfurt in 1952 as musical director of
33286-399: Was invited to become music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It was the second time he had been offered the post. The first had been in 1963 after the death of the orchestra's conductor, Fritz Reiner , who made its reputation in the previous decade. Solti told the representatives of the orchestra that his commitments at Covent Garden made it impossible to give Chicago the eight months
33473-445: Was learning the role of Tristan in Wagner's opera . Throughout the Second World War, Solti remained in Switzerland. He did not see his father again; Mor Stern died of diabetes in a Budapest hospital in 1943. Solti was reunited with his mother and sister after the war. In Switzerland, he could not obtain a work permit as a conductor, but earned his living as a piano teacher. After he won the 1942 Geneva International Piano Competition , he
33660-469: Was made a substantive member and subsequently styled as Sir Terry Wogan). Although initially intended to recognise meritorious service, the order began to also be awarded for gallantry. There were an increased number of cases in the Second World War for service personnel and civilians including the merchant navy, police, emergency services and civil defence, mostly MBEs but with a small number of OBEs and CBEs. Such awards were for gallantry that did not reach
33847-458: Was open to both women and men; provision was also made for conferring honorary awards on foreign recipients. At the same time, alongside the order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. The first investiture took place at Ibrox Stadium , as part of a royal visit to the Glasgow shipyards, with the appointment of Alexander Ure, 1st Baron Strathclyde as
34034-431: Was permitted to give piano recitals, but was still not allowed to conduct. During his exile, he met Hedwig (Hedi) Oeschli, daughter of a lecturer at Zürich University; they married in 1946. In his memoirs, he wrote of her, "She was very elegant and sophisticated. ... Hedi gave me a little grace and taught me good manners – although she never completely succeeded in this. She also helped me enormously in my career". With
34221-404: Was recommended in Sir Hayden Phillips ' review of the honours system in 2004. The Chapel of the Order of the British Empire is in St Paul's Cathedral . It occupies the far eastern end of the cathedral crypt and was dedicated in 1960. The only heraldic banners normally on display in the chapel are those of the Sovereign of the Order of the British Empire and of the Grand Master of the Order of
34408-444: Was repeatedly imprisoned at Horthy's command. John F. Montgomery , who served in Budapest as U.S. ambassador from 1933 to 1941, openly admired this side of Horthy's character and reported the following incident in his memoir: in March 1939, Arrow Cross supporters disrupted a performance at the Budapest opera house by chanting "Justice for Szálasi!" loud enough for the regent to hear. A fight broke out, and when Montgomery went to take
34595-446: Was the first time in its 80-year history that the orchestra had played outside of North America. The orchestra received plaudits from European critics, and was welcomed home at the end of the tour with a ticker-tape parade . The orchestra's principal flute player, Donald Peck, commented that the relationship between a conductor and an orchestra is difficult to explain: "Some conductors get along with some orchestras and not others. We had
34782-411: Was the only way to revise Trianon and his belief that war against the international order could only end in defeat. In August 1938, when Horthy, his wife, and some Hungarian politicians took a special train from Budapest to Germany, SA and other National Socialist formations ceremonially welcomed the delegation at the Passau train station. The train then continued to Kiel for the christening of
34969-526: Was to be given for services rendered in the UK and overseas. Today the majority of recipients are UK citizens, though a number of Commonwealth realms outside the UK continue to make appointments to the order. Honorary awards may be made to citizens of other nations of which the order's sovereign is not the head of state. The five classes of appointment to the Order are, from highest grade to lowest grade: The senior two ranks of Knight or Dame Grand Cross and Knight or Dame Commander entitle their members to use
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