# What do you think of Solti's Verdi ?



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Like it? Not?
What do you think?
Thanks


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Not my cup of tea. Don't have any of his Verdi recordings even when the cast is tempting.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

(In general) Rubbish!

I find Solti a really interesting conductor. His _nozze _recording is superbly Mozartian and I've never noticed his Mozart being anything other than suitably, classically stylish. However, in romantic music (in general) he goes for the dramatic jugular and too often resorts to bombast. This works wonderfully in some Strauss, his Elektra and FROSCH are among my favourites of his conducting. I don't like his Wagner recordings and most controversially really don't like his Ring. One of the most overrated opera recordings of all time IMO. Is Solti's Ring really that great, or was it just the first (and one of the few) studio recordings of the cycle?

The cut and thrust bombast may seem like a good approach in Verdi when looking at the two lines of music in a vocal score with their oom pah pah rhythms, deceptively simple 'tunes' and moments of concentrated drama, but Verdi wasn't Balfe or Wallace and there's far more to his music than that.

Where Solti was lucky, was in the casting. His sets are often luxuriously cast (the already mentioned _Figaro _is a total plum!) and his Verdi sets are very strong in that regard too. Ballo with Pavarotti, Price, Ludwig, Battle and Nucci, Aida with Price, Vickers, Merrill and Gorr, Don Carlo with Tebaldi, Bergonzi and Ghiaurov. He often managed to get singers in their signature roles, (Aida = Price, Pavarotti = Ballo, Gheorghiu = Violetta).

My overall verdict is that Solti was good in Strauss and Mozart, but it's only the quality of his casts make some of his Wagner and Verdi sets worth having. (Although the only Wagner recording of his I have is the Parsifal.) Of his Verdi I like the Aida, Ballo and Traviata, but am happy to leave the others.

So, not a great Verdi conductor, but the singers on some of the sets give them their value.

N.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Not my cup of tea. Don't have any of his Verdi recordings even when the cast is tempting.


Brutal! (Also I'm extremely envious that you managed to say in two lines what I said in a mini essay!)

N.


----------



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Not great, I'm generally not the biggest fan of Solti, very brash and with a superficial sense of drama.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Anybody who discovers a Violetta who sparkles in the opera and plays a noble death scene has got my vote.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Anybody who discovers a Violetta who sparkles in the opera and plays a noble death scene has got my vote.


I'm not sure he "discovered" her. Prior to singing Violetta with him she had sung Mimi, Liu, Zerlina, Nina in *Chérubin *(which I saw) and Micaëla at Covent Garden. She had also sung at the Vienna State Opera (Adina and Nanetta). Solti just happened to conduct her first Violetta, which I also saw. She was wonderful, but even then Solti's un-musical, un-lyrical, oom-pah-pah conducting irritated me no end.


----------



## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

I love his Aida, Otello and Falstaff. I think he was terrific in the few that he recorded.


----------



## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Lucky enough to have seen him several times. There was always an electricity about him as he came to the podium and seeing that Traviata at the second or third performance remains one of the highlights of my theatre going days.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Belowpar said:


> Lucky enough to have seen him several times. There was always an electricity about him as he came to the podium and seeing that Traviata at the second or third performance remains one of the highlights of my theatre going days.


Mine too, but only because of Gheorghiu. Not because of Lopardo or Nucci and certainly not because of Solti, whose conducting had no lyrical flow. I've never heard Verdi's oom-pah-pah accompaniments sound more, well, oom-pah-pah. Listen to recordings featuring the likes of Serafin, Kleiber, Giulini or Muti and the difference is immediately apparent.

I don't like his *Aida* either, despite the presence of Price and Vickers in the cast. I find it overloud and bombastic. In fact I don't like any of his Verdi recordings for the same reason.


----------



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Mine too, but only because of Gheorghiu. Not because of Lopardo or Nucci and certainly not because of Solti, whose conducting had no lyrical flow. I've never heard Verdi's oom-pah-pah accompaniments sound more, well, oom-pah-pah. Listen to recordings featuring the likes of Serafin, Kleiber, Giulini or Muti and the difference is immediately apparent.
> 
> I don't like his *Aida* either, despite the presence of Price and Vickers in the cast. I find it overloud and bombastic. In fact I don't like any of his Verdi recordings for the same reason.


Never understood the appeal of that Aida - the brass is too heavy, Price too light, Vickers not particularly Italiante and Gorr's lower voice not strong enough.


----------



## Agamenon (Apr 22, 2019)

Too bombastic. But...I like his Ballo with Pavarotti and M.Price. 

Also, Don Carlo.


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I admire Solti a lot not only in Verdi but with so many other composers Wagner, Richard Strauss ,Mozart to name only a few . I've never found his conducting to be "bombastic " , whatever that means . His Verdi is also vastly preferable to the humdrum performances by your average, run of the mill routine Italian conductors , who shall remain unnamed here . Nor is it. stiff, mechanical and rigidly controlled as some of. the late Toscanini recordings , even though I am risking being. blasted by. Toscanini fans here and elsewhere . 
Solti brings out the vivid orchestral colors in Verdi which routine conductors miss .


----------

