If von Karajan was Muhammad Ali then Georg Solti was Joe Frazier. The comparison holds water.

Von Karajan had his flamboyant hair and his baton floated like a butterfly. Solti had no hair, to speak of, and his baton was quick, compact, like a quick jab to the forehead. Solti kept it tight, von Karajan let it flow.

With Solti I think beat. With von Karajan I think pulse.

This is not to say that one approach was better than the other. There are some who think Frazier was better than Ali.

The point here is that these two titans had opposite styles but were titans nonetheless.

Just in case, I should mention that Solti is pronounced Sholti.

Solti might be more familiar to a casual American patron because he conducted the Chicago Symphony for 22 years and received the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993 along with Stephen Sondheim and Johnny Carson.

Solti was unsurpassed in music with intense rhythmic requirements. I think his recordings of Mahler’s Second and Eight symphonies are among the best. His recordings of Mozart’s operas were also quite good.

With so many options, Solti falls down the list for me. For instance, he is not my favorite conductor of Beethoven.

Of course, with Beethoven it’s a symphony by symphony decision. I go with Klemperer on Beethoven’s Third, Carlos Kleiber on the Fifth and Seventh, von Karajan on the Sixth (1960’s version) and Karl Böhm on the Ninth.

All that to say that when it comes to selecting a recording to buy, I find myself choosing someone other than Solti--except for Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

You see, while Solti is not my favorite, he is the conductor of the greatest recording ever. By “ever” I mean ever--across all types of music. There is no recording project that comes close to comparing with Solti’s version of Wagner’s Ring.

I almost forgot, I also love Solti’s conducting of Bruckner’s Third.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ijPAFv_rQ&feature=related