The Screaming Skull

Sir Georg Solti was born today (21 October) in 1912.

The screaming skull with the over-paced tempo came from the Max Reinhardt school of conducting…

But his passion was for exactitude, and that’s what the greatest conductors exact from their orchestras.

Whether they are beloved, feared, or roundly hated, is beside the point.

They wring the great performances from their thoroughbreds – that is the point.