Kevin Sutton wrote:

>Quoting Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>>You know, fifty and sixty years ago, you got your shot with The
>>Classics when you had proven in concert that you had something to say.
>>For example, Solti wasn't picked out of the blue to conduct the first
>>integral recording of the Ring.  He showed first that he was a great
>>Wagnerian in the opera house.
>
>That's not completely true.  IIRC, John Culshaw commented in his book
>"Ring Resounding" that Solti was somewhat young and inexperienced at the
>time of the Ring recordings, and that it was a bit risky to choose him
>to do the project.  Culshaw had to go to bat with Decca to get Solti,
>if I am not mistaken.

I'd go so far as to say that Culshaw, the Vienna Philharmonic, and Wagner
"made" Solti.  I came to like Solti as time went on, but I never thought
him the same conductor with other orchestras he led that he was with the
VPO, even without Culshaw, not to mention with.

Roger Hecht