GEORGE SZELL, CONDUCTOR

Now in his tenth season as musical director and conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell has brought the celebrated Cleveland Institution to a new peak in its development, so that it now ranks, in the words of Olin Downes (New York Times, February 11, 1953), "High among the half-dozen leading symphonic bodies of the nation".

Mr. Szell is of Czech Background, Hungarian birth, and Viennese training. He was born in Budapest on June 7, 1897, and was taken to Vienna at the age of three. He studied piano there with Richard Robert. He gave his first public concert as an infant prodigy at eleven, and first appeared as a conductor at sixteen, leading the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in a summer concert at Bad Kissingen when the regular conductor was indisposed. He appeared as a conductor, pianist, and composer at a concert of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra the following year. It was at this time that Richard Strauss appointed him to the conductorial staff of the Berlin State Opera after hearing him play his own piano transcription of " Till Eulenspiegel." He remained in Berlin as assistant to Strauss for two years, and on Strauss' recommendation he succeeded Otto Klemperer as principal conductor of the Strasborg Municipal Theatre.

 In 1921, at the age of 24, he became principal conductor of the Court Theatre in Darmstadt, and a similar position at the Municipal Theatre in Dusseldorf followed. From 1924 to 1929 he was chief conductor of the Berlin State opera and of the Symphony Orchestra of the Berlin Broadcasting Company. He also was a member of the faculty of the famous Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin.

In 1929 he went to Prague to become General Musical Director of the German Opera House and the Philharmonic Concerts and Professor at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. At this period of his career he began to make guest appearances as guest conductor, leading most of the great orchestras of Europe and, in 1930 and 1931, journeying to America for extensive engagements with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

 After many successful guest appearances in England, he was appointed Conductor of the Scottish Orchestra of Glasgow in 1937.During the same period he was also conductor of the Residentie Orchestra in the Hague. These engagements were interrupted by the war. In 1938 and 1939 he made trips to Australia to conduct the celebrity Concerts of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Finding himself "marooned" in New York at the outbreak of the war, he determined to remain in this country. He made his New York debut on March 1, 1941, as guest conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra at the invitation of Arturo Toscanini.

Engagements followed with the orchestras in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles Detroit and Cleveland. As a regular conductor of the Metropolitan Opera from 1942 to 1946, he has led productions of "Salome," "Der Rosenkavalier," "Tannhauser," "Die Meistersinger," the complete "Ring," "Don Giovanni," and "Otello."

During his years in Cleveland he has also made regular appearances as guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, and appeared frequently with the orchestras in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington. In the summers he has conducted at the Salzburg Festival, at Zurich, Switzerland, and in other cities, and has made regular appearances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, Holland, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and many others.

Mr. Szell is also the composer of a number of published scores. He has orchestrated works of other composers, including Smetana's String Quartet, "From My Life", which he has recorded with the Cleveland Orchestra on Columbia Records. His editions of five of Dvorak's Slavonic dances have also been recorded under the same auspices.

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