Solti at the Ballet [Incls 'La Boutique fantasque' & 'Gaîté Parisienne']

The Hungarian-born conductor Georg Solti (1912-1997) was one of Decca's most prolific recording artists. Eloquence's survey of his recordings features, in the main, some of his earliest recordings for the company. Although recorded as far back as 1960, during his tenure with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Solti's recording of Gaîté parisienne remains one of the sonically most thrilling orchestral recordings ever to be made and a performance that is no less impactful. Both the Rossini/Respighi and the Dukas pieces were recorded with the Israel Philharmonic in the late 1950s at a time when Solti also recorded music by Mozart, Schubert Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky with this orchestra. The coupling of the Rossini/Respighi and Dukas works was the first recording Decca was to issue with the Israel Philharmonic (in September 1957).

In 1967, Solti became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1991. During his tenure there, his work as a recording artist continued unabated, including complete symphony cycles by Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Bruckner and Tchaikovsky. As music director laureate, he continued to record with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra until 1997.