Michael Charry’s biography “George Szell: A Life of Music” appraises a difficult man:
George Szell (1897-1970) was clearly among the most capable and influential orchestral conductors of the 20th century; he may also have been the most difficult. It was once suggested to Rudolf Bing, the longtime general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, that Szell was his “own worst enemy.” Bing replied: “Not while I’m alive.”
“Szell stories”—tales of his irascibility, hauteur and genius—are still popular when musicians gather to drink and dish after concerts. Pianist Glenn Gould referred to Szell’s “Dr. Cyclops” reputation and nearly walked out of his one and only collaboration with the conductor. (“That nut’s a genius” was Szell’s personal appraisal of Gould.) In 1946, his first year as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, Szell fired 22 of the 94 musicians in the group, and he later dismissed his brilliant principal oboist of almost two decades for a single insubordinate comment at a rehearsal. Most of his players were terrified of him; some frankly despised him. After Szell’s death, one Cleveland violinist refused to cut his hair, letting it grow down to his waist in posthumous rebuke to the martinet who could no longer object.
And yet Szell’s accomplishments in Cleveland cannot be overstated. He summed up his approach succinctly three years before his death. “My aim in developing the Cleveland Orchestra has been to combine the finest virtues of the great European orchestras of pre-World War II times with the most distinguished qualities of our leading American orchestras,” Szell wrote. “We put the American orchestra’s technical perfection, beauty of sound, and adaptability to the styles of various national schools of composers into the service of warmhearted, spontaneous music-making in the best European tradition.” And indeed, such was his legacy.
Quite frankly, when one reads interviews with Szell, the last thing that would occur to the reader was that Szell would ever be unreasonable. As they say, not without reason. And that’s the problem with many of the stories about Szell — they often attempt to portray him
as an unthinking authoritarian by citing the story of how he told the cleaning crew what kind of toilet paper to provide the customers. Yeah, another Attilla the Hun, all right.
I think he had the customers in mind. Or the dismissal of a long time player who objected to something he wanted, as if there was nothing more behind the story — quite an impossibility. Szell clearly not only knew his stuff, he also knew his weaknesses, minor though they were. You know conductors are supposed to be authority figures — that’s their job and their position.