George Szell

• Born: June 7, 1897
• Birthplace: Budapest, Hungary
• Died: July 30, 1970
• Place of death: Cleveland, Ohio

Hungarian classical conductor and pianist

With his legendary musical perfectionism and his extraordinary conducting technique, Szell is credited with establishing the Cleveland Orchestra as one of world’s premier symphony orchestras.

The Life

George Szell (zehl) was born György Széll in Budapest, Hungary, on June 7, 1897. At age two, Szell already demonstrated remarkable talent; by age three, his father moved the family to Vienna so that the boy could begin proper piano instruction. Szell thrived as a student of renowned pedagogue Richard Robert (who also taught Rudolph Serkin), and at age eleven, the prodigy gave a European concert tour, leading some to dub him “the new Mozart.” In addition to piano, Szell studied and mastered harmony, counterpoint, and form, briefly studying composition with Max Reger. At age fourteen, Szell was signed to an exclusive ten-year publishing contract with Vienna’s Universal Edition. At age seventeen, Szell appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic as composer, conductor, and pianist.

The turning point to full-time conducting probably came when Szell stepped in for a conductor, who had suddenly injured his arm, at a concert series at the summer resort where Szell and his family were on holiday. In 1946 Szell became director of the Cleveland Orchestra, and he is credited with making it the one of the greatest symphony orchestras of all time. Because they set the standard for orchestral preparation and sound, his legendary rehearsal techniques and recordings continue to be studied.

The Music

Szell is revered as one of the greatest conductors in history, and his name is synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. Under Szell’s direction, it became one of the finest in the world. In addition to insisting on rigorous, extensive rehearsals, Szell increased the number of the orchestra’s members and the length of the concert season. He also inaugurated the orchestra’s summer series with the opening of the Blossom Music Center. Szell had the orchestra’s home, Severance Hall, acoustically redesigned to make it more resonant, and he established the orchestra’s well-received international tours. In addition, he made numerous critically and commercially acclaimed recordings of orchestral standards.

Early Career. At age eighteen, Szell won an appointment to Berlin’s Royal Opera as an unpaid pianist-coach. He immediately made a great impression on the music director, Richard Strauss. In turn, Szell credited Strauss for his influence on Szell’s conducting technique. The two remained lifelong friends.

Szell gradually transitioned from opera to symphony conducting, and he held posts all over Europe, including appointments in Strasbourg (1917), Prague (1919-1921), Darmstadt (1922), and Düsseldorf (1922-1924). From 1924 to 1930, he was principal conductor of the Berlin Opera, which had replaced the Royal Opera. In 1930 Szell made his American debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Later in the decade, Szell avoided the roiling political climate on the European continent by conducting in the United Kingdom (where he eventually became conductor of the Scottish Orchestra) and in the Netherlands (where he became principal guest conductor of The Hague’s Residence Orchestra). The Australian Broadcasting Commission invited Szell to conduct its celebrity series of concerts during the summers of 1938 and 1939.

United States. Because of the tremendous political tension in Europe, Szell and his wife decided to move to the United States in August, 1939, and he began to teach at New York’s New School for Social Research and at Mannes School of Music. Szell soon received conducting invitations to the Detroit Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois. In 1941 Arturo Toscanini invited Szell to conduct some concerts with the NBC Symphony, and the following year, Szell made his conducting debut with the Metropolitan Opera, where he remained on the conducting staff until 1946. In 1943 Szell made his debut and began his lifelong association with the New York Philharmonic.

Cleveland. In 1946 Szell became a U.S. citizen and the music director of the Cleveland Orchestra. He transformed the local ensemble into a world-renowned musical powerhouse. He dismissed some musicians, and he hired exceptional replacements, subsequently expanding the orchestra to include more than one hundred musicians. His rehearsal technique remains legendary. He demanded perfection from each orchestra member, resulting in an impeccable sound that was likened to the precision of a string quartet. Szell’s efforts brought the local orchestra to international attention, placing it on par with the best in the world.

In addition to improving the orchestra’s quality, Szell extended its concert season, and he established a summer home, the Blossom Music Center. Severance Hall had acoustical problems from its inception, but they were not amended until Szell had it redesigned to include an acoustical shell, affectionately dubbed the “Szell shell.” The result was extremely successful, and Severance Hall became a wonderful venue to showcase the orchestra’s unparalleled sound.

Szell is credited with taking the orchestra on annual tours to Carnegie Hall and other East Coast venues, as well as with inaugurating international tours to Europe and Asia. He led the orchestra in numerous critically and commercially acclaimed recording projects, many of which are extant. Szell conducted numerous world premieres, several of which he and the Cleveland Orchestra commissioned. He frequently conducted and made several recordings with Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, and he regularly appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and at the Salzburg Festival. He remained with the orchestra until his death in 1970.

Musical Legacy

Szell’s musical legacy is truly remarkable, and it is readily evident in his historical recordings and in the high quality of the Cleveland Orchestra. He transformed a regional ensemble to a paramount one with his tireless devotion to perfection and musicality. Szell’s legendary rehearsals and precision brought the Cleveland Orchestra to the world’s stage, and it set the standard for subsequent music directors to maintain. The numerous recordings he left are authoritative for musicians and music lovers around the globe.

Bibliography

Henahan, Donal. “George Szell, Conductor, Is Dead.” The New York Times, July 31, 1970. A well-written and extensive tribute to New York City’s lifelong friend, Szell, published the day after he died.

Rosenberg, Donald. The Cleveland Orchestra Story. Cleveland, Ohio: Gray, 2000. In a book about the Cleveland Orchestra, Rosenberg traces its history, from its inception through its tenure with Christoph von Dohnányi.

Schonberg, Harold. The Great Conductors. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967. The former New York Times music critic’s book is simply yet elegantly written, and it places Szell in context with other conducting greats.

Slominsky, Nicholas, and Laura Diane Kuhn. Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. New York: G. Schirmer, 2001. A wonderful and extensive resource covering the lives of notable musicians throughout history, with an entry on Szell.

Principal Recordings

albums (as conductor): Bach: Concerto for Violin No. 2 in E Major, 1953; Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, 1955; Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, 1957; Dvorák: Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88, 1958; Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100, 1959; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5/Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra, 1959; Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin in E Minor, Op. 64, 1961; Mozart: Symphony No. 33 in B-flat Major, 1962; Dvorák: Carnival Overture, Op. 92, 1963; Tchaikovsky: Concerto for Violin in D Major, Op. 35, 1965; Beethoven: Concerto for Piano No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15, 1968; Beethoven: Concerto for Piano No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37, 1969; Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67, 1969.

albums (as pianist): Brahms: Quintet for Piano and Strings in F Minor, Op. 34, 1945; Mozart: Quartetfor Piano and Strings No. 1 in G Minor, 1946; Mozart: Sonata for Violin and Piano in C Major, 1946; Schubert: Quintet for Piano and Strings in A Major, Op. 114, 1946.