George Szell with Three Young Conductors

In this excerpt from a 1966 Bell Telephone Hour TV series, George Szell works with conductors Michael Charry, Stephen Foreman, and James Levine.

[@philzmusic8098]

Szell in an affable mood; will wonders never cease!

[@choirboy88]

What a master. Clear, articulate, and ultimately responsible for the high standard of American orchestras. I will using this video to illustrate the beginnings to my conducting class.

[@robinblankenship9234]

What a marvelous look at how a genius works. Wonderful, inspiring instruction. And, with a sense of warmth and humor and passionate love for the music itself.

[@bassoskat]

A young Mr. Charry! Fabulous!

[@MorganHayes_Composer.Pianist]

Szell had a fearsome reputation among orchestral players ( almost on par with Fritz Reiner) but there's a genial side to him here. He picks his words very carefully.

[@omegamale7880]

Can you imagine NBC (currently known as Nothing But Crap) running a show like this nowadays?

[@AndreyRubtsovRU]

Times change have you heard?

[@1982violinist]

When conductors were really conducting

[@goodmanmusica]

thanks for this video!

[@TheVaughan5]

Absolutely. He made the Cleveland Orchestra one of the finest in the world which in turn inspired other orchestras to up their game. A really great conductor, all too rare today where some very mediocre talent is promoted as something special, which it is not.

[@rubengreenberg2253]

I heard Szell with Cleveland when I was a teenager. Then with the Concertgebouw and the London Symphony. Great performances with all three orchestras, but incomparable with Cleveland. He comes across in this video as articulate, erudite and...quite affable. The last characteristic was not supposed to be his great quality!

[@andrewvincenti2664]

It was one of the best and he made it

[@williamcurtin5692]

Basically the finest from 1954 (Furtwangler dies) through July 1970 (his death). I saw him and the Orchestra in Seoul in May that year, courtesy of the Army.

[@megabugginout]

“You just do this and the others sweat in out.” 😅😅😅

[@michaeldoyle6702]

Levine became an assistant conductor under Szell.

[@furdiebant]

And Charry his biographer

[@MarshallArtz007]

Great! 😎🎹

[@bivmvideo]

Masterclass with a young James Levine

[@furdiebant]

Michael Charry is his biographer

[@SergejRazinkov]

Georg Szell war ein von besten Dirigenten aller Zeiten. Man kann sich nur wundern warum es so wenig über ihn gesprochen???

[@TichmanClassCologne]

Those who know, know!

[@philzmusic8098]

I don't believe playing scores is necessary: what's important is to be able to hear them completely.

[@Twentythousandlps]

I googled "Stephen Foreman, conductor". Nothing.

[@michaeldoyle6702]

There is Levine at 2:46 Interesting that Szell is finding fault with Levine's downbeat as being excessive. I prefer Levine's recordings of Mozart, Beethoven over Szell's clipped performances, except the missa, since I have not heard Szell's apparently electrifying live stereorecording of the missa from Cleveland (hard to find, released in 1997 by the Orchestra as part of a 7 cd set). Szell also recorded a live Mahler 9th; lots of coughing from the audience, but the adagio is quite something.

[@Crusader1815]

Every great musical artist can provide some particular insight into a piece through his performance, though they might be quite different sounding.

[@anthonybouzeydane1085]

Szell, the penultimate manifestation of the articulate precise meticulous studious craftsman whose only fault is that he took technicality to an extreme and prioritized it over many other important aspects of music but that it just my opinion

[@MrYoumitube]

I would love to speak a 2nd or 3rd language as clearly and understandably as Szell.

[@MorganHayes_Composer.Pianist]

He’s quite a marvel in this respect . I liked his use of the word wager for instance . A word which isn’t so often encountered these days .

[@DavidJGillCA]

Meanwhile, a few doors down East Boulevard from the hall Jimmy Levine was conducting his own masterclass of sorts, in the evenings.

[@jimyoung9262]

I came looking for the spicy Levine comments...I figured they had to be about...

[@Sacha_Kudli]

James Levine in the very beginning of his career!!

[@culturehorse]

Any possibility of upload the full masterclass. Thanks for the excerpt.

[@chicagoman58]

@111871570907090449267 you can buy it on Amazon. the video is entitled "George Szell One Man's Triumph / The Cleveland Orchestra"

[@jasperl.5989]

Bob Kingston, do you have the full video of this? thanks

[@qudolph]

thanks for the post! do you know where i might find the whole session?

[@ManuelCerquera-bh7sb]

Dicen que tenía mal genio en los ensayos con las orquestas

[@furdiebant]

And people say he was an arrogant man….shame on them

[@andreysimeonov8356]

Бях написал нещо по адрес на Ливайн, но го махнах, защото реших, че за починали като него или лошо, или нищо...

[@HermanIngram]

Not very diverse.

[@vittoriostoraro]

Herman Ingram Give me a fucking break Social Justice Warrior. It was the 60’s. Get over it.

[@spind]

Who gives a damn ?

[@juandavidforerocaviedes1968]

Who cares? There was talented people, working very hard. It is not enough?

[@aubreyeie3962]

Szell: Hungarian Jew who actually lived in Central Europe under the Nazi’s shadow, and then was just lucky enough to escape from Holocaust, seeing his homeland razed to ground and people of his kind sent to vanishing and couldn’t do anything. Levine: Probably secretly gay at a time when homosexuality was still criminalized in most Western countries. They had probably experienced much, much more torture and cruelty from life than >99% of whoever is able to watch this video right now. None of us commenting here can judge their life experience, nor can they judged by any predetermined, superficial measure of diversity. Art needs talent, but any art talent also needs to be catalyzed by life experience. Beethoven was a white straight male, but is there any fate crueler to one who aspires to become a composer than deafness?

[@AndreyRubtsovRU]

​@@juandavidforerocaviedes1968no

[@pexxos1]

Szell to Levine: "To be a great conductor, one must not be a kid-toucher..."