Eugene Ormandy

Eugene Ormandy, born Jenő Blau-Ormándy (Budapest (Hungary), 18 november 1899 – Philadelphia (United States), 12 March 1985), was an American conductor and violinist.



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[hide] *1 Biography  ==Biography[ Edit] == Eugene Ormandy began his violin studies at the National Hungarian Royal Academy of music (now the Franz Liszt Academy of music) when he was five years old. He gave his first concerts when he was seven and graduated when he was fourteen. In 1920, he obtained a university degree in philosophy. In 1921 he emigrated to the United States and changed his name by Jenő Blau Ormándy-to "Eugene Ormandy". He began as a violinist in the Major Bowes Capitol Theater Orchestra in New York, where he was concertmaster within five days. This Orchestra, of which he was also conductor, then accompanied silent films. As a violinist between 1923 and 1929 Ormandy made sixteen recordings.
 * 2 Career
 * 2.1 Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
 * 2.2 the Philadelphia Orchestra
 * 2.3 Guest conducting with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
 * 2.4 prizes and awards
 * 3 Recordings
 * 3.1 first shots
 * 3.2 Other important recordings
 * 4 external links

Arthur Judson, the most powerful manager in the field of American classical music during the 1930s, helped Ormandy with his career. When Arturo Toscanini was too ill to conduct thePhiladelphia Orchestra in 1931, Judson asked Ormandy to take its place. This led to his first important appointment as conductor, in Minneapolis. ==Career[ Edit] == ===Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra[ Edit] === Ormandy was In 1931 as conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (now the Minnesota Orchestra) appointed. He remained there until 1936. During the dark days of the great depression , RCA Victor contracted Ormandy took and made many recordings with the Minneapolis Symphony. Here are also a number of first shots at, among others, John Alden's Adventures in a Perambulatorcarpenters; Zoltán Kodálys Hary Janos Suite; Arnold Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht and Roy Harris' American Overture (based on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"). ===The Philadelphia Orchestra<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">Ormandy's 44-year stay with the Philadelphia Orchestra began in 1936, and is the main cause of his reputation. Two years after he was appointed as a conductor in addition to Leopold Stokowski, he became principal conductor and remained so until his "retirement" in 1980. (Stokowski continued to give concerts in Philadelphia in 1941). As first conductor gave Ormandy between 100 and 180 performances a year.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">Ormandy had often conducted without a score quickly under control and score or baton. He had a formal and reserved style of conducting, as his idol and friend Arturo Toscanini. One of the musicians from the Orchestra once said, "he's trying not to conduct each note, as some conductors do that". The Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy's direction had a "rank" legato style, which was characterized by the ironing technique that Stokowski had introduced and with which he has become known. This style was appreciated, though there was also criticism, namely that Ormandy showed a lack of originality. ===Guest conducting with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra<span class="mw-editsection" len="374" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p lang="en" len="792" style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">After his "retirement" Ormandy came a number of seasons with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a guest conductor to the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he, inter alia, the Mahler 'sfirst Symphony performed with great success. ===Awards and honours<span class="mw-editsection" len="343" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === ==Recordings<span class="mw-editsection" len="328" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">From 1936 until his death, Ormandy made hundreds of recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra in any music genre. Richard Freed wrote: "Ormandy is most of all conductors come close when recording the" Complete works of anyone ", where he a fair number of compositions also took up another three or four times to meet and take advantage of the new recording techniques or to present a new soloist." ===First shots<span class="mw-editsection" len="335" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p lang="en" len="246" style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">World premieres of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ormandy:
 * The Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard m. Nixon, in 1970;
 * The Conductor's Ditson Award for the promotion of American music, in 1977;
 * Knight of the British Empire, in 1976;

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:20.3636360168457px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302948px;">Ormandy has also made a number of recordings, which for the first time in America are made Paul Hindemith's Mathis der Maler Symphony, Carl Orff's Catulli Carmina (which won the Grammy Award in 1968 for best choral performance), Shostakovich's Symphonies Nos. 4, 13, 14 and 15, Carl Nielsen symphonies 1 & 6, Anton Webern's Im Sommer wind, Krzysztof Penderecki'sUtrenja, and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 10. ===Other important recordings<span class="mw-editsection" len="347" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] ===
 * Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 10. CBS, november 1965;
 * Sergei Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky, Jennie Tourel (mezzo-soprano), Westminster Choir. RCA, May 1945;
 * Prokofiev, Symphony No. 6. CBS, January 1950;
 * Prokofiev, Symphony No. 7. CBS, april 1953;
 * Dmitri Shostakovich, Cello Concerto No. 1, Mstislav Rostropovich (cello). CBS, november 1959.
 * Béla Bartók – Piano Concerto No. 3 (with György Sándor, 1946, Columbia Masterworks, reissued on CD in 2002 by Pearl)
 * La damoiselle élue ( Claude Debussy – 1947, Bidú Sayão,/Masterworks Heritage with Sonyand Rosalind Nadell
 * Frederick Delius -Orchestral works (1961–1962, Sony, on this CD is also Brigg Fair, A Dance Rhapsody No. 2, and On hearing the first cuckoo in spring
 * Gustav Holst - The Planets (1975, RCA)
 * Franz Liszt – Piano Concerto No. 1 (1952, Sony/Grand Répertoire, with Claudio Arrau) (single take at once)
 * Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 10 arr. by Deryck Cooke (1965, Sony/Masterworks Portrait)
 * Carl Orff - Carmina Burana (1960, [ony)
 * Sergei Prokofiev - Symphony No. 5 (1957, Sony)
 * Sergei Prokofiev- Symphony No. 6 (1961, Columbia Masterworks, not on CD)
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff - Symphonic Dances (1960, Sony)
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff- Symphony No. 2 (1973, RCA)
 * Maurice Ravel - Piano Concerto for the left hand (with Robert Casadesus, 1947, Sony/Masterworks Heritage)
 * Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 4 (1954, Sony)
 * Jean Sibelius – four symphonic poems from Kalevala (also known under the name Lemminkäinen Suite (1978, EMI)
 * Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 4 (1963, Sony)
 * Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 13, "Babi Yar" (with Tom Krause and the Mendelssohn Choir of Philadelphia, * 1970, RCA, CD available only in Japan)
 * Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 14 (with Phyllis Curtin and Simon Estes, 1971, RCA, CD available only in Japan)
 * Dmitri Shostakovich – Symphony No. 15 (1972, RCA)
 * Richard Strauss - Ein Heldenleben (1960, Sony)
 * Richard Strauss – Don Quixote with Lorne Munroe (cello) and Carleton Cooley (violin) (1961, Sony)
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto in D (with Itzhak Perlman, 1978, EMI)
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4 (1963, Sony)
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5, (1959, Sony)
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique" (1960, Sony)
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky- the Nutcracker (parts of), (1963, Sony)