Opera Scotland

George Széll Suggest updates

Georg Széll; György Széll.

Born Budapest, 7 June 1897.

Died Cleveland, 30 July 1970.

Hungarian (later American) conductor.

George Széll is remembered most as the conductor, for some thirty years, of the Cleveland Orchestra, raising the orchestra to a high standard of execution.

He studied in Vienna and Leipzig. initially as a pianist. He took to conducting on the advice of Richard Strauss. From 1917 he appeared at Strasbourg, Darmstadt and Düsseldorf, before moving to the Berlin Staatsoper as First Kapellmeister 1924-9. He was Music Director at the Prague German Opera 1929-37. During this period he also worked at Salzburg.

In Britain, in 1937, he succeeded John Barbirolli (who had gone to the New York Philharmonic) as chief conductor of the Scottish Orchestra, On leaving Scotland he moved to  the USA. He continued to conduct opera from time to time, including the New York Met (1942-6)and Salzburg (1949-64).