0:00:12 > 0:00:14This is the story of one of the greatest
0:00:14 > 0:00:16and most controversial conductors
0:00:16 > 0:00:18of the 20th century.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21The Hungarian-born Georg Solti.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25Through a 50-year career around the world,
0:00:25 > 0:00:28he scaled the peak of musical power and influence
0:00:28 > 0:00:32by his extraordinary talent combined with a blazing personality
0:00:32 > 0:00:35that never dimmed.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38He was a man with a character with a lot of fire,
0:00:38 > 0:00:43and immediately everyone is set on fire around him.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47He was driven by overpowering ambition.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49I would go anywhere,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52I would kill my grandfather,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54because I was starving for work.
0:00:55 > 0:01:00His performances thrilled audiences in opera houses and concert halls...
0:01:00 > 0:01:02Take 130.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04..and legendary recordings made him
0:01:04 > 0:01:06one of the best-selling classical artists of all.
0:01:08 > 0:01:09He was loved...
0:01:09 > 0:01:13He was a really great musician, a great friend.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15He was also loathed.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17All he did, in my opinion, was get in the way.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20But he always demanded respect.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23If you like quality, then I'm easy.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26If you don't like to work hard, I'm difficult.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30There has never been another conductor quite like him.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33He was always the Maestro.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38This...is the REAL Georg Solti.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46WOMAN SINGS OPERATIC ARIA
0:01:52 > 0:01:56This is the Hotel L'Andana, in Tuscany, near Castiglione.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11Here at the Georg Solti Academy,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15the internationally renowned soprano, Angela Gheorghiu,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18is giving the first masterclass she's ever held.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24Passing on to a new generation
0:02:24 > 0:02:27the experiences of nearly two decades
0:02:27 > 0:02:29at the top of her profession.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42The Solti Academy has enabled her students to travel here
0:02:42 > 0:02:45from across Europe to attend a three-week singers' course.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51Just one part of the rich legacy that Solti left behind
0:02:51 > 0:02:54when he died at the age of 84 in 1997.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57OK, you have that.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00- SHE SINGS A FEW NOTES - The same, yeah?
0:03:00 > 0:03:03- Listen... - SHE SINGS
0:03:05 > 0:03:09For Angela, this is repaying the debt that she owes Solti.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14His belief in her propelled her to overnight stardom.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18My life, it is very much related to Georg Solti.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22All my interviews,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26all my stories start with Georg Solti, because
0:03:26 > 0:03:31everybody discovered me at the Royal Opera House, in Traviata.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33APPLAUSE
0:03:33 > 0:03:36She made her debut under his baton
0:03:36 > 0:03:38in London, in December 1994.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43QUIET STRINGS
0:03:50 > 0:03:52And this production of Verdi's La Traviata
0:03:52 > 0:03:55was seen on television by millions.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00'The whole BBC2 schedule was swept aside,'
0:04:00 > 0:04:03so we had Verdi wall to wall for one evening,
0:04:03 > 0:04:05with the great Angela Gheorghiu.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08And she was tremendous, but so was Solti in the pit.
0:04:08 > 0:04:09The iron and the discipline
0:04:09 > 0:04:12and the power and the electricity that he generated.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20Solti was 82 when he conducted this production,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23but his legendary style was as forceful as ever.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27'He conducted almost like he was playing the piano,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30'but it would be the orchestra that he was playing.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32'Once you look at the man'
0:04:32 > 0:04:35who's had that amount of music through his body,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38you think, "I just can't let you down. I have to do the best I can."
0:04:44 > 0:04:48'He was an example. To conduct at 82'
0:04:48 > 0:04:52with such, um...
0:04:52 > 0:04:55young spirit.
0:04:55 > 0:05:01And I know that in that particular moment, I need to be...the best.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17It was Solti's typically bold decision
0:05:17 > 0:05:21to cast the little known Romanian soprano.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23All his life he had demonstrated that instinct
0:05:23 > 0:05:26for recognising musicians who shared his passion
0:05:26 > 0:05:28for excellence in performance
0:05:28 > 0:05:32and the importance of bringing it to the widest possible audience.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36'I had one rehearsal with her in my home,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38'and when she finished,'
0:05:38 > 0:05:40I just couldn't speak.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42It was so moving, so wonderful.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46So that was the beginning of the story. I cried!
0:05:48 > 0:05:50Solti's relationship with the Royal Opera House
0:05:50 > 0:05:52stretched back nearly 40 years,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56beginning with one of the pivotal appointments in his career.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58In 1961 he became music director
0:05:58 > 0:06:02of what was then known as the Covent Garden Opera Company.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05APPLAUSE
0:06:05 > 0:06:08'Covent Garden was a relatively young company.
0:06:08 > 0:06:09'It had only begun after the war
0:06:09 > 0:06:14'and was starting to brim and boom with talent.'
0:06:14 > 0:06:15But it needed the final touch.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18It needed somebody to bring it all together
0:06:18 > 0:06:20and to put it onto the world map.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22That's what Solti did.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25'And he arrived, curiously enough.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28'in the same year as Rudolf Nureyev.'
0:06:28 > 0:06:30They both appeared like meteorites.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33There was a huge explosion from both of them.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37'Both highly energetic, very clear ideas of what they wanted
0:06:37 > 0:06:40'and how they were going to achieve them.'
0:06:43 > 0:06:45'And Solti arrived in our midst.'
0:06:45 > 0:06:48"I'm coming to Covent Garden and I'm going to make the Royal Opera
0:06:48 > 0:06:52"the best opera company in the world."
0:06:52 > 0:06:54And he proclaimed that from the rooftops.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06'He had this extraordinary ability
0:07:06 > 0:07:11'to energise everything and everybody he came into contact with.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15'He dwelt a great deal on rhythmic incisiveness,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19'precision and excitement.'
0:07:19 > 0:07:21And these were qualities
0:07:21 > 0:07:25which in fact the Opera House probably needed at that point.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30In fact, I knew myself, by then, we needed someone quite different
0:07:30 > 0:07:32'from anybody we'd had in the past.'
0:07:34 > 0:07:38'I was a very different person at that point.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41'I was a sort of Prussian dictator, which was very good for them.'
0:07:41 > 0:07:45Discipline they needed. There was no discipline in this house.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57'Orchestra is, from slow start, coming in to get better.'
0:07:57 > 0:07:58They are starting always very slow,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00starting so I want to commit suicide.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04'Then it gets better and it comes to something good.'
0:08:08 > 0:08:13'I'd been interested with the whole bureaucratic procedure.'
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Not only conducting,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18but going to the stage in rehearsal, go to the lighting rigs,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21'see the sets for the first time lit.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23'That was new.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28'"What the bloody hell is he putting his nose into that? Why?"'
0:08:28 > 0:08:31Please, on the development, the main scene, the first main scene, again.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Be so kind, come a bit later on the semiquaver. Risk a bit more.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39# Eeh-ah-ta-da Tee-ah-ta-ta-ta! #
0:08:39 > 0:08:42I would like to make this marvellous difference
0:08:42 > 0:08:44between quaver and semiquaver.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47'He'd been there for about a year and a half before I joined.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49'He was like a boxer going into the ring.'
0:08:49 > 0:08:53He bounced in full of energy, jumped on the rostrum and he'd be going...
0:08:53 > 0:08:55MAKES POPPING SOUNDS
0:08:55 > 0:08:58"Yes, my dears! Yes, my dears! Come on, come on, stop the revolution!"
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Especially if it was a stage rehearsal, that was his favourite phrase -
0:09:01 > 0:09:04"Stop the revolution! Stop the revolution!"
0:09:15 > 0:09:18'You have to bear in mind, the orchestra wasn't like it is today.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20'Today it's like a well-oiled machine.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23'In those days we had an awful lot of players
0:09:23 > 0:09:25'who'd learned their trade in the silent cinemas
0:09:25 > 0:09:27'and the summer seasides.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34'He obviously had never played in an orchestra.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36'That's why he conduced a lot with his elbows.'
0:09:40 > 0:09:41In fact, it took me a while,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44but I finally worked out that the downbeat was on his right elbow.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54He also used to get very tense.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57I remember once he stabbed himself in the forehead with his baton.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01He was conducting away. The leader handed him a handkerchief
0:10:01 > 0:10:05and he was holding the handkerchief and conducting, turning the page.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13His early years at Covent Garden were always controversial.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17'Rather hard to express this,'
0:10:17 > 0:10:20but the Royal Opera House was a very English establishment.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26And English ways are not always understood by those who are not English.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29But he did come with this reputation
0:10:29 > 0:10:32of being someone who was not necessarily satisfied
0:10:32 > 0:10:34with what he discovered.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36He was often correcting
0:10:36 > 0:10:40what we would look on nowadays as basic mistakes or problems.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Like getting rhythms together.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48A classic one being the dotted rhythm.
0:10:48 > 0:10:49# Da ta-ta ta-ta. #
0:10:49 > 0:10:51Which is one, two, three, four, one ,two three.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54And so Georg would go, "No, no. BOO BOO-BOO!"
0:10:54 > 0:10:56# Pa... Pa... PAH! #
0:10:56 > 0:11:01Give the main emphasis on the last note, yes? On the last note and very late.
0:11:01 > 0:11:02'They hated me like anything!'
0:11:02 > 0:11:04# Ba... BA! #
0:11:04 > 0:11:06They called me a Prussian...
0:11:06 > 0:11:09bastard, or something like that.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12Or the Hungarian Disaster! All sorts of nice names.
0:11:12 > 0:11:18There were some complaints from some singers about his failure,
0:11:18 > 0:11:23in their view, in fact, to keep the orchestra at fortissimo down.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27And they sometimes felt they were being drowned.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30There was a terrible sort of campaign against him.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32'Remember, Covent Garden in those days,
0:11:32 > 0:11:34'was a wholesale vegetable market.'
0:11:34 > 0:11:38And one night there was a cauliflower with a "Solti Must Go"
0:11:38 > 0:11:41thing stuck on it got lobbed across the footlights.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46All around that time thrown down vegetable baskets,
0:11:46 > 0:11:48'onions and potatoes.'
0:11:48 > 0:11:51'I can remember seeing from the stage door
0:11:51 > 0:11:54'to the front of the house all along the wall and the outside,'
0:11:54 > 0:11:56"Solti must go" stickers.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02'And then it was some point somebody scratched my car.'
0:12:02 > 0:12:04I had a silver Mercedes, it was.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06MAKES SCRATCHING SOUND Very unpleasant.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09I knew that it's some nasty young boy.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Just one or two. I mean, it's not serious.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16'There were a lot of protests and I discovered who they were.
0:12:16 > 0:12:17'There was a whole band of people in the gallery
0:12:17 > 0:12:21'and I got somebody to get them all together for me'
0:12:21 > 0:12:24and we had supper one night and we talked about it.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28And I said, "Whatever else you do, stop booing. This man will go home
0:12:28 > 0:12:32"and we are not going to lose him because of you."
0:12:32 > 0:12:37In fact nothing would deter Solti from his mission.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40From provocative productions like Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron...
0:12:42 > 0:12:45..to fresh productions of loved old favourites,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48like Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50WOMAN SINGS
0:12:50 > 0:12:54His relentless energy helped to transform opera in Britain.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56In 1968, the Covent Garden Opera Company
0:12:56 > 0:12:59would be renamed the Royal Opera.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01Very sexy.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05And the '60s would become the Solti era.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07You thought, "This is history in the making."
0:13:07 > 0:13:11We were getting international singers and marvellous new works.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15And he was suddenly pushing it up into the international league.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21MAN SINGS
0:13:21 > 0:13:23SOLTI WHISTLES MELODY
0:13:25 > 0:13:28WOMAN SINGS
0:13:50 > 0:13:55He was born Georg Stern in Budapest in Hungary, in 1912.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58The son of a rather unsuccessful Jewish businessman
0:13:58 > 0:14:01and his music-loving wife.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Both he and his elder sister took music lessons,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07and the young Georg proved to be an exceptionally talented pianist.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10He'd accompany his sister's singing.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Of course it was terrible.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16We just fought, because I was much more musical than she was.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18I hated it and I made fun of her
0:14:18 > 0:14:23and she was infuriated because I always played how she was singing.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27But to learn the tricks at nine or ten, I mean, God bless her!
0:14:27 > 0:14:28It was wonderful.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32That gave me the sense to be an opera conductor, of course!
0:14:36 > 0:14:38At the age of 12, he became a student
0:14:38 > 0:14:41at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest
0:14:41 > 0:14:43and his luck was to have a piano tutor who was a genius -
0:14:43 > 0:14:46the composer, Bela Bartok.
0:14:46 > 0:14:52He knew Bartok and he was one of his best pupils
0:14:52 > 0:14:57because he learned from Bartok so much that he could share
0:14:57 > 0:15:01with thousands of other musicians,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04and it was millions of people who came
0:15:04 > 0:15:08and were able to hear how Bartok's music should be performed.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Half a century after he left Hungary,
0:15:11 > 0:15:13at Snape Maltings in Suffolk,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16he was to work with the pianist Murray Perahia
0:15:16 > 0:15:20and the percussionist Evelyn Glennie to record a piece by Bartok
0:15:20 > 0:15:23that took him right back to those early musical experiences.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27MUSIC: "Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion" by Bela Bartok
0:15:28 > 0:15:31When I had the opportunity to work with him
0:15:31 > 0:15:34on Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion,
0:15:34 > 0:15:37I was a young, up-and-coming musician
0:15:37 > 0:15:41and it was probably the biggest lesson in every respect
0:15:41 > 0:15:45as far as being a professional musician is concerned.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53- Maybe we're late.- I think so.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57'That was a lot of hard work, it was very intense.'
0:15:57 > 0:16:02It was two weeks of really almost gruelling rehearsals.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08I was literally like a sponge.
0:16:08 > 0:16:14I was taking in... I can almost smell every note of that piece,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16you know, because it meant something.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Here we go. One...
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Bartok composed the Sonata in the early '30s
0:16:23 > 0:16:27and Solti's connection with the piece was intimate.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32Bartok and his wife played the piece in the Budapest Opera.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35I went to the performance because I wanted to hear the performance.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38And shortly before they started, somebody said,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41"Would you please turn the page for Mrs Bartok?"
0:16:41 > 0:16:43I couldn't say, "I can't read music,"
0:16:43 > 0:16:46so I went and turned the page for Mrs Bartok.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48I never had before in my life.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51And it was great excitement, very difficult to turn the page,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54so if you're asking me "How did you like the piece?"
0:16:54 > 0:16:59At that point, I don't know, I was too busy turning pages.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04For Solti, now in his late 70s, these sessions were a test,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08both of his pianistic skills honed by Bartok in childhood,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12and a demonstration of his fidelity to the composer's intentions.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15I mean, that speed, just about, I can make it.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19Solti was so nervous before the first rehearsal with Murray
0:17:19 > 0:17:24that he asked me to call Murray and say, "Murray, give me another day.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26"I am still practising."
0:17:26 > 0:17:28The next day, Murray Perahia called me and said,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32"Charles, please tell Georg I need one more day."
0:17:32 > 0:17:34I can't play that bloody thing!
0:17:36 > 0:17:38I can't find any fingering for it, I just...!
0:17:40 > 0:17:44I didn't realise that it was so difficult and we were having
0:17:44 > 0:17:47a lot of problems because it's a very demanding piece technically.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52I had wanted Chinese acrobatic fingers! Chinese acrobat!
0:17:52 > 0:17:54'Lot of notes, lot of rhythm changes,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57'hard to manage and hard to play.'
0:17:57 > 0:18:01He was very attentive to tempo indications and tempo details,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04always with a metronome. I remember him always
0:18:04 > 0:18:06with this little metronome that he carried around.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08'Click, click.'
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Some of the speed is practically impossible. It's so fast.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17You can't play it, you simply cannot play it in that speed,
0:18:17 > 0:18:19but little slower it's working.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21We can't do it, neither he!
0:18:21 > 0:18:23Cos there is an old record which I checked with a metronome.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28None of the speed is what he wrote, it's all slow, which is right.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31METRONOME BEEPS
0:18:31 > 0:18:33MUSIC BEGINS
0:18:34 > 0:18:39Solti always believed that it was vital to pass on his experience
0:18:39 > 0:18:42and be a mentor for new talent.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46'I admire this boy, he's such a fantastic musician.
0:18:46 > 0:18:47'I like him immensely,'
0:18:47 > 0:18:50he's one of the most talented of the younger generation,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53a wonderful, natural musician.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56'And I think he doesn't dislike me, so therefore we're playing together.'
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Solti completed his studies in 1930
0:19:11 > 0:19:13and got work at the Hungarian State Opera House,
0:19:13 > 0:19:16coaching singers and playing for rehearsals.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Over the next few years, he'd make steady progress
0:19:19 > 0:19:22towards his gleaming goal of becoming a conductor.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27In 1937, a big break.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31The Salzburg Festival and an assistant's job with a giant,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35the Italian Arturo Toscanini.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48'I never seen him without a score, without working, without looking.
0:19:48 > 0:19:54'He just worked all the time. And that, for me, that changed my life.'
0:19:54 > 0:19:59I saw the point that without work, it wouldn't be anything and anywhere.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03And since that point, I work.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07The news of this boy working with Toscanini
0:20:07 > 0:20:10made a great impression back home.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15Particularly in the Hungarian press.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19It gave me my big break, because until then,
0:20:19 > 0:20:23no Jew had ever conducted in the Hungarian State Opera.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40My debut as an opera conductor was a performance
0:20:40 > 0:20:46of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, which I had to conduct with no rehearsal.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53I came out here, you can imagine what a heartbeat was mine.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56Double speed, I suppose.
0:20:56 > 0:21:01144 instead of 72, and started the overture.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06I don't know how it started, but it started,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09and I felt more and more inclined to feeling happy.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17It was the date of 11th of March 1938,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21and I had no idea that on that night,
0:21:21 > 0:21:26Hitler moved into Austria and the Anschluss began.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31'I had a Jewish singer that night,'
0:21:31 > 0:21:36who in the third act made one mistake after the other.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39I don't know if he would be drunk.
0:21:39 > 0:21:45And I was very upset, cos I knew him well. Lendvay was his name.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49I was very angry, "What the hell is he doing?!"
0:21:50 > 0:21:55It turned out that in the intermission he knew it,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58and he was very worried what will happen to him.
0:22:00 > 0:22:01This was a terrible night.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Now, Hungary was becoming
0:22:06 > 0:22:10a progressively more uncomfortable place.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13The Fascist government was becoming more anti-Semitic
0:22:13 > 0:22:16and the openings for Jews were shutting down one by one.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19So he goes to Lucerne Festival
0:22:19 > 0:22:22and it's 1939 and war breaks out
0:22:22 > 0:22:25and he gets a telegram from his mother saying "Don't come back,"
0:22:25 > 0:22:30and he is stranded in Switzerland without a work permit.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33He was a refugee so he didn't have the right to work,
0:22:33 > 0:22:38but he was given the chance to give piano lessons.
0:22:38 > 0:22:44But I never for a second forgotten that I'm doing temporary business
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and I don't know when,
0:22:47 > 0:22:52because in '41 and '42, by God it didn't look very well.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56God knows when I will conduct again! I never gave up that hope.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01He then married Hedi Oechsli, who was his first wife,
0:23:01 > 0:23:06who ran away from her family with him, sort of caused a great scandal.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09She was actually pregnant with her second child
0:23:09 > 0:23:12when she met Solti and fell in love with him
0:23:12 > 0:23:14and that's a pretty astonishing story,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17to actually leave your husband if you're actually pregnant
0:23:17 > 0:23:19with one of his children, but she did.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22And she turned out to be the most marvellous support for him.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27With the end of the Second World War, Solti's exile
0:23:27 > 0:23:30in Switzerland was over, and out of the blue,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33he was invited to help to rebuild German cultural life
0:23:33 > 0:23:35from the ruins of war,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39as the music director of the Bavarian Opera in Munich.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43People said, "How could he go to Germany?"
0:23:43 > 0:23:46But it was all about moving forward.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49He had to survive as a person but also as a musician.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56I would go to Hell to work.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00I would feel like Goethe's Mephistopheles, a pact with Faust.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03I would go anywhere.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06I would kill my grandfather, because I was starving for work.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11And what was wonderful, I received with open arms.
0:24:13 > 0:24:14I was afraid.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18I thought the Nazis were shooting and killing left and right. None of it.
0:24:18 > 0:24:23First of all, in Germany, '46 was no more Nazis. Nobody was ever Nazi!
0:24:23 > 0:24:25The others be Nazis!
0:24:25 > 0:24:33Secondly, the young generation until today is very much on my side
0:24:33 > 0:24:36because I was the first Jewish musician who went to Germany.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41The opera house that Solti inherited
0:24:41 > 0:24:45had been virtually destroyed in an air raid in 1943.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49They had no costume, no sets, nothing.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Everything was burnt except, I think it was
0:24:52 > 0:24:58an old Fidelio, an old Fidelio set, it was there
0:24:58 > 0:25:01and some other old opera, I think Hoffman.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04That was the repertory at first, Hoffman and Fidelio
0:25:04 > 0:25:07because that was the only two pieces which were there.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09For Georg Solti, the musician
0:25:09 > 0:25:14who'd only conducted one opera in his life,
0:25:14 > 0:25:16it was the perfect opportunity.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20If I had arrived in opera house which has a normal repertory,
0:25:20 > 0:25:21I couldn't cope with it.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24I wouldn't have had time to learn the pieces,
0:25:24 > 0:25:28but as every single opera had to be new study
0:25:28 > 0:25:33I just got as much space to jump off the one single opera.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35I was there six years, and I would think
0:25:35 > 0:25:39about 25 or 26 operas I conducted, all the first time.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41And it was here, in Munich,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44that Solti had one of the most significant encounters of his life.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48He met the composer Richard Strauss.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51In '47, he had his 85th birthday,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and for that occasion he came back to Germany.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58'I conducted my first Rosenkavalier in my life and he came to a rehearsal.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01'They made some film, it still exists, a little film,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05'in which he conducts the second act in Der Rosenkavalier.
0:26:05 > 0:26:06'I stand behind him.'
0:26:09 > 0:26:13He asked, "Where are the horns?" I said, "Dr Strauss, there." "OK."
0:26:13 > 0:26:15"Where are trumpets?" "There." "All right."
0:26:17 > 0:26:20The old fox. When it came to cues, he couldn't see,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24he couldn't hear, but the cue was there. Absolutely marvellous.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36'He asked me to come and visit his house.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40'I went up to his house, 11 o'clock, enormous palpitation.
0:26:40 > 0:26:41'He was wonderful.
0:26:41 > 0:26:47'He immediately called me a colleague and talked business, shop, you know?
0:26:47 > 0:26:50'I thought it was the greatest time of my life,'
0:26:50 > 0:26:53I enjoyed the few hours with him immensely, enormously.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57And I would stay for ever, except his wife Pauline throw me out
0:26:57 > 0:26:59and said, "Solti, you must go now.
0:26:59 > 0:27:00"He must go to sleep."
0:27:00 > 0:27:04But in very early September, the message came that he died.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08It's a really enormously great distinction,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11I played music for his funeral.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16He had one wish in his testament that said,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20the Trio from the Rosenkavalier, he wants to hear that piece of music.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25'An immense crowd, there was 100,000 people.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27'I never forget as long as I live,
0:27:27 > 0:27:31'because we started all together and finally, I finished by myself
0:27:31 > 0:27:34'because all the singers broke down, they couldn't sing.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40'The famous Pauline was broken down.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44'You barely recognised her and you know, two months later she died.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47'Without him, she couldn't live.'
0:27:50 > 0:27:54Munich was a great triumph
0:27:54 > 0:27:58and everybody thought that they'd never heard anything like me ever,
0:27:58 > 0:28:04but within two, three years, it was quite obvious that
0:28:04 > 0:28:08this young man has no experience, does everything the first time.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11I didn't make any secret about it, but still,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14it was something which began to be an irritation.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16And he managed to stick it, despite the fact
0:28:16 > 0:28:18that he was a Jew in Catholic Bavaria
0:28:18 > 0:28:20and whatever the Germans had learned, they hadn't learned
0:28:20 > 0:28:26to forget about the instinctive suspicion of outsiders of any kind.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Not just because you're a Jew, but because you're not a Catholic, you're not Bavarian,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32you can't be the right person to run the Munich Opera.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39His flair had been spotted, and early in the 1950s,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43he moved to Frankfurt to help rebuild the opera company there.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48International success was coming in spectacular fashion.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54In 1958, he started the mammoth recording project
0:28:54 > 0:28:56that would sell 100 million records
0:28:56 > 0:28:59and establish him as a true innovator.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02'If you were a young conductor of talent in those days,'
0:29:02 > 0:29:06somebody was going to come after you because they needed conductors,
0:29:06 > 0:29:09they needed to record the whole classical repertoire
0:29:09 > 0:29:10and there were a lot of record labels.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16For seven years, he made regular visits to Vienna to work with
0:29:16 > 0:29:19one of the pioneers in high fidelity recording.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21John Culshaw of Decca.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27- That's on the luxury list, I think. - It is not more than the luxury list?
0:29:27 > 0:29:28- Luxury list.- All right.
0:29:28 > 0:29:29Culshaw had been a naval officer
0:29:29 > 0:29:33and he entered Decca in the press department.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36But he had a dream and a vision,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40which was totally beyond the means of any record company at that time.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44He said, "We are going to make a Ring Cycle -
0:29:44 > 0:29:47"the whole of Wagner's Ring, all four operas.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51"We're not going to record it off stage, but create it in-studio,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54"so that the sound picture is going to be what people have in their living rooms,
0:29:54 > 0:29:58"rather than some simulacrum with all the bumps and squeaks
0:29:58 > 0:30:02"of what's going on on the stage of an opera house."
0:30:02 > 0:30:03Right, OK.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08SOLTI MIMICS HORN INTRO
0:30:08 > 0:30:10HORNS SOUND
0:30:10 > 0:30:15At the centre of it was this marvellous Solti, this athletic,
0:30:15 > 0:30:17lithe, panther-like figure.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20He was so fit - as you have to be to conduct these major works.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22Ein, zwei...!
0:30:22 > 0:30:25The elasticity... His body language was so beautiful.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Combined with an intellectual rigour which had been instilled in him
0:30:31 > 0:30:33over donkeys' years.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Enorm, orchestra! Absolute enorm!
0:30:36 > 0:30:39POWERFUL MUSICAL PASSAGE
0:30:45 > 0:30:46And it took a long time to make.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50And every single segment required board approval at Decca,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53and it was always touch and go whether they'd finish,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55and whether they'd get the right singers,
0:30:55 > 0:30:57and whether the singers would walk out on them.
0:30:57 > 0:30:58I know, I know what you mean.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01- It has a transcendent quality.- Ja. - She is very far away.
0:31:01 > 0:31:02- She is no-more here. - Right, yeah.
0:31:02 > 0:31:07SOLTI SINGS AND PLAYS NILSSON SINGS
0:31:07 > 0:31:10Here you have to make over and over again
0:31:10 > 0:31:13and have the same intensity all the time...
0:31:13 > 0:31:16Without public and with many things that bothers you,
0:31:16 > 0:31:21conductor very far away and... So, it's very difficult.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24SHE SINGS WITH THE ORCHESTRA
0:31:39 > 0:31:44Working with the Vienna Philharmonic did bring its own problems.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46He was particularly polite to the Viennese
0:31:46 > 0:31:49because he knew the Viennese were desperately anti-Semitic
0:31:49 > 0:31:52and he wasn't going to be the one to open up the hostilities.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59- INTERCOM:- "Zigarettenpause, ja?"
0:31:59 > 0:32:01He'd call them gentlemen and mein herren.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03"Zigarettenpause!" he'd say, if he wanted a break.
0:32:05 > 0:32:06Zigarettenpause.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13I am afraid we are getting now too fast. And then I will kill you,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17- because then you are guilty!- No, I promise you the tempo is right.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20And the choice of Wagner's Ring had a heavy political resonance,
0:32:20 > 0:32:27for a Hungarian Jew little more than 15 years after the end of the Second World War.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30Because Hitler misabused that music. Very much.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33First, because he liked it,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36and he went to Bayreuth. And every year went,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40and thought something very special on it. But it's not Wagner's fault.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43I do entirely believe they are great musical masterpieces,
0:32:43 > 0:32:47and nothing to do with totalitarian fascism philosophy, at all.
0:32:47 > 0:32:48At least, I don't see it.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51SOLTI SINGS ALONG WITH ORCHESTRA
0:32:51 > 0:32:56The recordings were a long struggle to approach perfection.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00In afternoon sessions, they were a bit sleepy. They'd had a big lunch.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03Who the hell want to play Gotterdammerung at two o'clock
0:33:03 > 0:33:05having had five-course lunch?
0:33:07 > 0:33:11I arrived at two o'clock full of ambition.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14So many takes and takes and being never right, never right.
0:33:14 > 0:33:19So, between four and five, they awake, and it's marvellous, but I was dead!
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Solti and Culshaw's 15-hour Ring Cycle,
0:33:30 > 0:33:34released on 20 LPs from 1959 to 1966, was a landmark.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37All right, John. Let's do it.
0:33:37 > 0:33:38And still, half a century later,
0:33:38 > 0:33:43retains its status as one of the great modern recordings.
0:33:55 > 0:34:00The public response was so enormous, because it came out in stereo,
0:34:00 > 0:34:03which was the latest thing.
0:34:10 > 0:34:15And everybody who had two speakers had to have this opera
0:34:15 > 0:34:18to demonstrate the new technology they'd just brought into their house.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22And it sold and sold and sold, and it is, to this day,
0:34:22 > 0:34:25still the best-selling classical record of all time.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35Solti was now in his early 50s.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39He was a recording star, and music director at the Royal Opera House.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42But his marriage to Heidi was coming to an end.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47He moved out of their house in Kensington
0:34:47 > 0:34:50and into a suite at the Savoy Hotel,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54and there he met his second wife, the television presenter, Valerie Pitts.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05I was doing an arts programme for the BBC.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08They said, "Oh, yes, Dr Solti is waiting for you in his room."
0:35:08 > 0:35:10I thought, "Ooh."
0:35:10 > 0:35:13Yes, that's it. This is the door. There it is.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16And I stood here and I knocked.
0:35:18 > 0:35:23No reply. So I knocked again. And a voice said, "What do you want?"
0:35:24 > 0:35:28And I said, I'm from the BBC, I've come to interview you.
0:35:28 > 0:35:29And then there was total silence.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31And shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34About 30 seconds later, the door opened
0:35:34 > 0:35:39and there was a sort of Rocky Marciano-Cassius Clay figure,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42wrapped up in a bathrobe and towels,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45opened the door and said, "Please come in, I will get dressed."
0:35:45 > 0:35:48Disappeared back into the bathroom and then turned around
0:35:48 > 0:35:51and said, "Please, could you find my socks?"
0:35:51 > 0:35:55And came this rather beautiful lady, a sort of future
0:35:55 > 0:36:00Miss America, or Miss UK, or something like that, not...BBC.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04Because the BBC, for me, always represented old ladies.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07Afterwards, we had a drink together and I dropped a clanger,
0:36:07 > 0:36:10because I said to him, "You know, I'm awfully sorry
0:36:10 > 0:36:13"but I really don't know much about opera,
0:36:13 > 0:36:15"and I really don't enjoy it very much,
0:36:15 > 0:36:22"because I once saw a terrible opera. It was Elektra in Frankfurt."
0:36:22 > 0:36:26And his nose would twitch when he was... Which I...
0:36:26 > 0:36:30And this sort of twitch of the nose... "My dear, what year was that?"
0:36:30 > 0:36:33And I said which ever year it was.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37And he said, "Thank you so very much. I was the conductor."
0:36:40 > 0:36:45They married in 1967, and Solti decided that after nearly 20 years
0:36:45 > 0:36:47as an opera conductor in Europe,
0:36:47 > 0:36:51he would go west to the United States and concentrate on the concert repertoire.
0:36:51 > 0:36:56He accepted an offer from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10He always said this was the greatest musical love relationship of my life.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15And he looked on them as a partner. To that level.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20We achieved, I think, a great thing.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22Out of this provincial orchestra
0:37:22 > 0:37:25came one of the great orchestras of the world.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31He said, "They are SO marvellous, this orchestra.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33"They are wonderful."
0:37:33 > 0:37:35And he felt the orchestra just made music
0:37:35 > 0:37:37and had the same enthusiasm as he did.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45When he arrived, Solti found the orchestra embroiled in a personality dispute.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48He took it upon himself to resolve it.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55There had been certain members of this orchestra
0:37:55 > 0:37:57who didn't talk to each other at all.
0:37:58 > 0:38:04It suddenly was real, in which the first flute stood up and loudly said,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07"I can't take that any more!"
0:38:07 > 0:38:08And out went.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13If I tolerate that, my days are numbered.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20So I asked the two gentlemen to my room and I said to them,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24very heartfelt, it was real...
0:38:25 > 0:38:28"You either make peace right now here, in my presence,
0:38:28 > 0:38:29"or I leave you immediately.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33"You can look another man. I am not staying for a day longer."
0:38:34 > 0:38:36And they knew I am not joking.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43The flautist and the oboist settled their differences
0:38:43 > 0:38:48and Solti's relationship with Chicago would last for a quarter of a century.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59I love precision. I adore dynamics. I adore clarity and texture.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01I adore rhythmical precision.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10The sound actually gleamed in your ears.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13That was the Solti hallmark.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16This big brash, but very, very clean sound.
0:39:25 > 0:39:26He was now in his 60s.
0:39:26 > 0:39:31And he and his new young family would spend six months a year in Chicago.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36Chicago is a very young city.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40There were people from all over the world, so it was a great mixing pot.
0:39:41 > 0:39:47There are many emigres. A, Hitler emigres. B, Russian emigres.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50Lithuania, Estonia, and then Czech,
0:39:50 > 0:39:52and then Hungarians.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58The amalgamation is quite amazing.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01This is now, of course, an American orchestra - very American outlook,
0:40:01 > 0:40:03very American way of life -
0:40:03 > 0:40:06but we're making, I think, very European way of music.
0:40:12 > 0:40:18Solti embraced America. They called him the Fastest Baton in the West.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21And the citizens of Chicago loved the flamboyant personality
0:40:21 > 0:40:24who brought so much status to their orchestra and the city.
0:40:24 > 0:40:30Chicago Symphony is considered as one of the finest in the world.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32And Georg Solti...
0:40:32 > 0:40:33I love all the wonderful soloists
0:40:33 > 0:40:37and the orchestra sounds really marvellous.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48When he wasn't conducting in Chicago, Solti would return regularly to the United Kingdom,
0:40:48 > 0:40:53where, in the 1980s, he became principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04He used to come across and spend about three weeks to a month with us.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08And every time he appeared, the fireworks started flying.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23And sometimes he had problems communicating exactly what he wanted, and thus,
0:41:23 > 0:41:27some people didn't get on with him.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29They found him difficult to work with.
0:41:29 > 0:41:35He encouraged me to make the sort of sound that I didn't want to make.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38He changed the whole sound of the orchestra.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46We wanted to maintain the tradition of a beautiful English sound.
0:41:47 > 0:41:52He definitely wanted us to make this terrible American type of sound.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59Solti had the Chicago orchestra.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03They played in the way that Solti wanted them to. And we didn't.
0:42:03 > 0:42:04We're English.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13He was bereft of any stick technique whatever.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18And all he did, in my opinion, was get in the way
0:42:18 > 0:42:20of what was supposed to be happening.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22He would've been the first to admit he couldn't really beat time
0:42:22 > 0:42:24straightforwardly.
0:42:24 > 0:42:26It was all passion.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29His jerking and doing this kind of thing,
0:42:29 > 0:42:35in the most flowing sort of music... And like...convulsions!
0:42:35 > 0:42:39So it was a question of heads down and you'd be fine. You didn't look.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43His technique is not particularly beautiful to watch,
0:42:43 > 0:42:45but somehow, it did get the results.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48Whether it was his left heel or his right elbow, I don't know!
0:43:05 > 0:43:10On the stage, the dynamic, the electricity that was there...
0:43:10 > 0:43:13Every single concert that he did was an event.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17Solti was a one-off. He was unique.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26This is Castiglione in Tuscany,
0:43:26 > 0:43:28in Italy.
0:43:31 > 0:43:32Here, in the early '60s,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36Solti bought a villa which, for 35 years, would be his summer home.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43It was a total symbol for him, really.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45And he once said to me,
0:43:45 > 0:43:49"You know, I just feel I've been here in another life."
0:43:49 > 0:43:51And when he first brought me down here,
0:43:51 > 0:43:52he said, "Look at this red soil.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55"The soil is like that in Hungary."
0:43:55 > 0:43:56So I think, in a way,
0:43:56 > 0:44:01it replaced his Hungarian home, emotionally, for him.
0:44:01 > 0:44:03And it was the first house he had.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05The first thing he owned.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08And the place where could really have tranquillity.
0:44:09 > 0:44:15Solti would come here every year, and stop. In this place.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19With the cicadas talking. Stop and think.
0:44:19 > 0:44:24It takes me, in the summer holidays, at least four weeks
0:44:24 > 0:44:27when music, as such, gets out of my bloodstream.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31It is a pulse which you all the time feel.
0:44:31 > 0:44:36It is a certain... Either a motif or a rhythmical microcosm,
0:44:36 > 0:44:40something all the time vibrates in your nervous system.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44And he would come down here for six weeks, sometimes for two months,
0:44:44 > 0:44:48and for the first part of it, he'd have a rest
0:44:48 > 0:44:50and then the second bit, he'd start working.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54And he might do an hour a day... and then two hours.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56And that's how he paced himself,
0:44:56 > 0:44:58till he was then working half the day.
0:44:58 > 0:45:04But, even so, he would still go down for his swim...or his walk.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07And he might play tennis in the morning as well.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11And he'd certainly go off on his bicycle to collect the newspaper.
0:45:11 > 0:45:16So, his day-to-day life was very disciplined.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19All his life was really concentrated...
0:45:19 > 0:45:22on the performance or the studying.
0:45:22 > 0:45:23And he once said,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27"You know, musicians, particularly conductors,
0:45:27 > 0:45:34"are the servants of the composer, not the other way round."
0:45:34 > 0:45:37THEY ALL SING IN ITALIAN
0:45:37 > 0:45:39And, you see, every morning,
0:45:39 > 0:45:42he woke up and was thrilled that he was making music.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44And he was very grateful for that,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47that he'd had the opportunity to make music.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50He was very, very generous
0:45:50 > 0:45:53and he wanted to share it all the time.
0:45:55 > 0:45:56Here in Castiglione,
0:45:56 > 0:46:01the Solti Foundation and the Solti Academy perpetuate Sir Georg's ideals
0:46:01 > 0:46:05by offering real support to talented young musicians.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11He never forgot what it was like to be poor and to be struggling.
0:46:11 > 0:46:19And, therefore, always gave this sometimes financial helping hand to youngsters who needed it.
0:46:46 > 0:46:52All his life, Solti had seized every opportunity to introduce new talent to wider audiences.
0:46:52 > 0:46:57And he found a powerful, natural ally in television.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06We brought him into the studio at Television Centre
0:47:06 > 0:47:10to play a piece he hadn't played for 40 years
0:47:10 > 0:47:12and make a half-hour programme about it.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14The Mozart G Minor Piano Quartet.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21It was a maestro saying, "Here are three young people. We're going to play Mozart."
0:47:21 > 0:47:24"This is how chamber music is made."
0:47:25 > 0:47:30In 1981, when I was 24, the word Solti rang all the bells.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33So to be given a call to play chamber music with Solti
0:47:33 > 0:47:36was like getting a summons from God.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38And I didn't even know he played the piano. Ha!
0:47:46 > 0:47:51He was incredibly kind. And encouraging.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53At one point, I made a mistake, I came in too late,
0:47:53 > 0:47:59and then just tweaked it and did a naughty boy, "Nobody noticed that."
0:47:59 > 0:48:05And then out of the corner of my eye, I saw Solti back off from the piano like this.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08And this big grin came over his face.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10He looked at me and I thought, "Hmm!"
0:48:10 > 0:48:12Never mind. That's OK.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15Maybe I'm too soon. Let's hear...
0:48:15 > 0:48:17Yes. Yes!
0:48:17 > 0:48:19Yes.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23- A small point...- Of course, I can do it with one.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27Two hands is better. Cos you never really enjoy yourself...
0:48:27 > 0:48:29He's in charge but not dominating.
0:48:29 > 0:48:34It's quite a different atmosphere here than when he's on the podium.
0:48:34 > 0:48:36Cos as he says,
0:48:36 > 0:48:41"In conducting, somebody has to make the decisions when you've got 120 people."
0:48:41 > 0:48:45"But in chamber music, you must throw that out of the window. Everybody has to agree."
0:48:47 > 0:48:50Solti's willingness to let the cameras into his life
0:48:50 > 0:48:53produced some classic, revealing programmes.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58In 1990, we persuaded Kiri and Solti
0:48:58 > 0:49:01to do The Maestro And The Diva, it was called.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04And in that lovely studio of his,
0:49:04 > 0:49:06we saw him rehearsing a set of Strauss songs.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:49:17 > 0:49:19He loved the human voice and he loved singers,
0:49:19 > 0:49:22particularly the soprano voice.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26And Solti and her were bouncing off each other,
0:49:26 > 0:49:27they were flirting outrageously.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30The camera, I suppose, had something to do with that,
0:49:30 > 0:49:34but I suspect they flirted outrageously even when the camera wasn't running.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37I'd swap your fingers any time for my voice.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40Oh, come on! Come on! I make a big...
0:49:40 > 0:49:45I can play! I can play till 78, instead of retiring at 50!
0:49:45 > 0:49:50I loved it that he was naughty, but that was the colour of him.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52There should be no secret about it.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55He had that incredible twinkle in his eye.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57He was always looking at the girls.
0:49:57 > 0:50:03Which ones he chose, I don't know, but he was that sort of person.
0:50:03 > 0:50:04And you loved him
0:50:04 > 0:50:08because he was such a gentleman and he treated you like a woman.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12I must say that it is the highlights of my career, truly.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14If you would know how much I curse myself.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17And so when he spoke to you, it was like his nose was right on your nose.
0:50:17 > 0:50:22Before I came to... Then you would understand why I never like anything.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24- It's the only way to improve! - Of course.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26That's the way he spoke.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30And if he spat on you, you tried to avoid spittle and stuff.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34SHE SINGS IN ITALIAN
0:50:41 > 0:50:44Kiri is not difficult, absolutely not.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47She is a good collaborator and listens to me.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Kiri is a little bit my girl.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55Oh, he was always The Maestro. Yeah.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58The man himself, Sir Georg Solti.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02- APPLAUSE - In his later years, he became a familiar face on television.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05Sir Georg Solti, welcome to Going Live.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Here with his wife, Lady Valerie, Sir Georg Solti.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13- APPLAUSE - His ease in front of the cameras, with that powerful charisma,
0:51:13 > 0:51:15turned him into something of a national treasure.
0:51:15 > 0:51:20One climax was a remarkable broadcast in 1992.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23Good evening from The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
0:51:23 > 0:51:28And welcome to a gala night. It's a celebration of the 80th birthday of Sir Georg Solti.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales
0:51:31 > 0:51:36will be here for a performance of one of Verdi's greatest operas, Otello.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41The last performance with him was Otello in Covent Garden.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45He was a really great, great musician.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55He was a very, very active and expressive conductor.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59But I like that we lived the passion of the music together.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02And there was no doubt with Sir Georg,
0:52:02 > 0:52:08there was no way that you cannot get contagious by his enthusiasm.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13HE SINGS IN ITALIAN
0:52:40 > 0:52:43It is the most musical Otello you can imagine.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48Placido is a wonderful musician. I love working with him,
0:52:48 > 0:52:50because he's as precise a musician as I am.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53And that makes life so easy.
0:52:53 > 0:52:59And the personification of Otello is really wonderful.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01THEY BOTH SING IN ITALIAN
0:53:16 > 0:53:19He really loved music.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22He was demanding, but at the same time,
0:53:22 > 0:53:27at the same time, very much happy with the results, you know.
0:53:27 > 0:53:29APPLAUSE
0:53:29 > 0:53:33Being his 80th birthday, it was a very special occasion,
0:53:33 > 0:53:36so we sang happy birthday to him.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39# Happy birthday, dear Maestro
0:53:39 > 0:53:43# Happy birthday to you... #
0:53:43 > 0:53:45To have such great colleagues there
0:53:45 > 0:53:51as Birgit Nilsson and, of course, Kiri, it was a great celebration.
0:53:51 > 0:53:52APPLAUSE
0:53:52 > 0:53:58His 80th birthday was also marked by a surprise concert at Buckingham Palace,
0:53:58 > 0:54:04which brought together 13 musicians from the 13 different orchestras that he had conducted that year.
0:54:06 > 0:54:13It would inspire Solti with the last great idea of his life.
0:54:28 > 0:54:29APPLAUSE
0:54:35 > 0:54:40For this Hungarian Jew, who had helped to reconstruct German cultural life after the war,
0:54:40 > 0:54:45had turned Covent Garden in London into a world stage,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48had conquered America,
0:54:48 > 0:54:52and raised orchestral standards to new levels across the globe,
0:54:52 > 0:54:53it was entirely fitting
0:54:53 > 0:54:57that in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations,
0:54:57 > 0:55:04he would form his first orchestra, The World Orchestra For Peace.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06It was done on a one-to-one basis.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09When he found a player who he thought was wonderful,
0:55:09 > 0:55:15he would call him or her to the dressing room and say, "I have this crazy idea!"
0:55:15 > 0:55:20"We will meet in Geneva in six months time, we will make a concert for peace!"
0:55:20 > 0:55:23"Will you come?" Of course, everybody said yes.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27And I couldn't have a most wonderful thing to say,
0:55:27 > 0:55:31except to say that all my musician friends, in that quality,
0:55:31 > 0:55:34coming without any fee, amazing!
0:55:34 > 0:55:37But, of course, that's not enough.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39We must make also amazing music.
0:55:39 > 0:55:40Let's go.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55He was a man with character, with a lot of fire.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59And this fire was immediately...
0:55:59 > 0:56:01Everything is set on fire around him.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05So he was, in a way, the keeper of the fire.
0:56:10 > 0:56:16All my life, I've grown up in wars, in revolution.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20Both Fascists and Communists...
0:56:20 > 0:56:24taught me passionately to believe in peace.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32He was passionate about international cooperation
0:56:32 > 0:56:36and people's understanding of each other to break down the barriers.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40We had world leaders from everywhere.
0:56:40 > 0:56:45And I remember the security looking into the audience and seeing
0:56:45 > 0:56:48the two sides of the Middle East conflict
0:56:48 > 0:56:50surrounded by guns.
0:56:50 > 0:56:56And then at the end of the concert...both sides smiling.
0:57:03 > 0:57:09This was the only time that Solti would conduct his World Orchestra For Peace.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13In 1997, he died suddenly of a heart attack,
0:57:13 > 0:57:16a month before his 85th birthday.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22APPLAUSE
0:57:22 > 0:57:27But Georg Solti's humanitarian ideal lives on.
0:57:27 > 0:57:33And every year, the World Orchestra For Peace reassemble under the baton of Valery Gergiev.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35It's a demonstration of the power of music.
0:57:35 > 0:57:41We musicians know how to act, we just have to bring together colleagues, friends, artists,
0:57:41 > 0:57:46hopefully from very different conflicting countries.
0:57:46 > 0:57:52It should help cement this process of making peace, peace, peace, lasting peace.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57But it was Sir Georg Solti who started here this vision.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00He didn't believe in organised religion,
0:58:00 > 0:58:05but he did believe in the pattern of life.
0:58:20 > 0:58:27You must be aware of your blessings. And if you have problems, you must never give up.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29That was his thing, never give up.
0:58:41 > 0:58:45Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd