Georg Solti fans will already have heard most of the performances offered here -- perhaps many times (Glinka and Borodin with the
London Symphony,
Strauss and
Stravinsky with the
Chicago Symphony, Wagner with the
Wiener Philharmoniker, and
Bartók and
Kodály with the
Budapest Symphony Orchestra). All have been readily available on Decca since they were first released. But the 1947 performance of Beethoven's Egmont Overture with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich was
Solti's first recording as a conductor and is far less widely known. The Egmont has all the power and passion of his classic Chicago performance, if somewhat less polish and precision. The other rarity offered here is the 1997 performance of
Mahler's Fifth Symphony, also with the Swiss orchestra.
Solti's last live recording (perhaps there's a bookend theme going here...) lacks the strength and soulfulness of his earlier readings with the
Chicago Symphony, but it does show that
Solti was still the same fanatically driven and immensely ardent conductor who helped put
Mahler on the musical map in the '60s and '70s. Those who have never heard
Solti's recordings before are urged to try his Chicago Beethoven and
Mahler symphony cycles, but those who already love
Solti's conducting should hear at least the first and last works here.