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12 finale Cleveland, Japan, Korea, Anchorage, Cleveland (1968–70) George Szell had reached the pinnacle of his career: the Cleveland orchestra was universally acknowledged to be among the greatest, and the Blossom Music Center was a brilliant success. Szell and the orchestra continued to record for both Columbia and Angel records, and the syndicated broadcast concerts were enrolling an increasing number of stations nationwide. the international tours of 1965 and 1967 had solidified the West’s high perception of the orchestra. Szell was in demand as a guest conductor with the majority of the greatest european orchestras, and he guided the New york Philharmonic while it sought a successor for leonard Bernstein. In November 1967, the Cleveland orchestra announced a May 1970 tour to Japan. for Blossom, Szell had to change his summer routine, making sure that his sacrifice was duly appreciated. the final Severance Hall concert of the 1967–68 season took place on May 12. two weeks later, Szell arrived in Switzerland for a month of golf while Helene visited her sister in england. He picked her up en route to New york on July 12; they arrived back in Cleveland two days later. Blossom opened on the nineteenth. After his two weekends at Blossom, Szell returned to a rainy Salzburg festival for one concert each with two of the finest orchestras on the Continent. to Barksdale he wrote that the first one, with the Berlin Philharmonic early in August, “was something of a sensation (with just Haydn, Mozart + Beethoven)” (Haydn Symphony No. 93, Mozart Symphony K. 201, Beethoven eighth). two weeks later, he led Beethoven and Bruckner with the Vienna Philharmonic (“emperor ” Concerto, Curzon; Bruckner Seventh). He wrote Barksdale that on his arrival at the oesterreichischer Hof, the head concierge said: “‘you may know that both your concerts have been sold out for weeks - I need desperately some 24 tickets, could you help me?’ - I couldn’t.” After the first Vienna rehearsal, Szell found the finale · 271 musicians “remarkably cooperative and eager to rehearse properly (!)”1 the reviews were stunning, and two mentioned figurative physical effects on volatile audiences: “the public melted,” and “the public exploded.” Gottfried Kraus of the Salzburger Nachrichten was thankful that Szell put Beethoven’s eighth at the center of attention , revealing its greatness, when so often its “undeserved Cinderella-placement” puts it in the shadows of its mighty neighbors, the Seventh and Ninth.2 In Salzburg Szell privately coached pianist Christoph eschenbach, who expressly came for the sessions. Szell asked Barksdale to take a further hold on him for the season after the next one (“to be exercised after his appearances with us”).3 the Szells took two weeks of vacation at Bad ragaz, Switzerland, and a week in Paris. flying to england, there Szell conducted the opening concert of the london Symphony orchestra’s sixty-fifth season. the program noted that Szell had appeared with that orchestra as piano soloist and composer sixty years earlier, in 1908, at the age of eleven. the concert—Prometheus overture, Mozart’s A Major Piano Concerto, K.488 (which Szell had played in 1908) with Clifford Curzon, and the Eroica—was summed up by Joan Chissell in the Times of london: “It was virtuoso orchestral playing; it was certainly virtuoso conducting.” She observed: “Dr. Szell contrived to give every single note a life of its own, weighing it, colouring it, blending it—with gestures at once expressive, clear and concise.” of Szell’s Eroica, Colin Mason in the Daily Telegraph was almost put off by Szell’s forceful approach: In Beethoven’s “eroica” Symphony the conductor’s assertion of his remarkable musical personality was somewhat more controversial and the result could have been revolting if it had not been magnificent. He has shown himself a conductor who is not afraid to improve on the work of the masters. And here he amplified and adjusted Beethoven’s instrumentation to secure a sound which was euphonious and thrilling beyond the composer’s wildest dreams, at times nothing short of Mahlerian. But the true magnificence lay not in this, which could easily have been tawdry , but in the complete commitment and devotion with which it was put to the service of the music. Not an ounce of showmanship or desire for self-glorification showed in the performance, which beyond and above all its marvels of sound and execution gave an impression of complete absorption in the music and intentness on communicating all the teeming multiplicity of its genius...

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