Editing Georg Solti (section)

===Early years===
Solti was born György Stern on Maros utca, in the [[Hegyvidék]] district of the [[Buda]] side of Budapest.<ref name=pappenheim>Pappenheim, Mark. [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/classical-an-honourable-homecoming-at-last-1154127.html "Classical: An honourable homecoming – at last"], ''The Independent'', 3 April 1998, accessed 20 March 2016</ref> He was the younger of the two children of Teréz ({{née|Rosenbaum}}) and Móricz "Mor" Stern, both of whom were Jewish.<ref name=dnb>Follows, Stephen. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/68813 "Solti, Sir Georg (1912–1997)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011, accessed 22 February 2012 {{subscription}}</ref> In the aftermath of the First World War it became the accepted practice in Hungary for citizens with Germanic surnames to adopt Hungarian ones. The territorial revisionist regime of [[Miklós Horthy|Admiral Horthy]] enacted a series of [[Magyarisation|Hungarianisation]] laws, including a requirement that state employees with foreign-sounding names must change them.<ref name=fox /> Mor Stern, a self-employed merchant, felt no need to change his surname, but thought it prudent to change that of his children.<ref name=fox /> He renamed them after [[Solt]], a small town in central Hungary.{{refn| The family had no connection with Solt, and Stern appears to have selected it at random.<ref name=dnb />|group= n}} His son's given name, György, was acceptably Hungarian and was not changed.<ref name=fox>Fox, Sue. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:LTIB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F9247FFBB6DBA0F&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Georg Solti&nbsp;– A Childhood"], ''The Times'', 1 July 1995</ref>

[[File:Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem 2013-ban felújított homlokzata.JPG|thumb|left|alt=exterior shot of ornate nineteenth century building|[[Franz Liszt Academy of Music|Franz Liszt Academy]], Budapest]]
Solti described his father as "a kind, sweet man who trusted everyone. He shouldn't have, but he did. Jews in Hungary were tremendously patriotic. In 1914, when war broke out, my father invested most of his money in a war loan to help the country. By the time the bonds matured, they were worthless."<ref name=fox /> Mor Stern was a religious man, but his son was less so. Late in life, Solti recalled, "I often upset him because I never stayed in the synagogue for longer than 10 minutes."<ref name=fox /> Teréz Stern was from a musical family, and encouraged her daughter Lilly, by eight years the elder of the children, to sing, and György to accompany her on the piano. Solti remembered, "I made so many mistakes, but it was invaluable experience for an opera conductor. I learnt to swim with her."<ref name=fox /> He was not a diligent student of the piano: "My mother kept telling me to practise, but what 10-year-old wants to play the piano when he could be out playing football?"<ref name=fox />

Solti enrolled at the Ernő Fodor School of Music in Budapest at the age of 10, transferring to the more prestigious [[Franz Liszt Academy of Music|Franz Liszt Academy]] two years later.<ref name=dnb /> When he was 12, he heard a performance of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)|Fifth Symphony]] conducted by [[Erich Kleiber]], which gave him the ambition to become a conductor.<ref>[[Edward Greenfield|Greenfield, Edward]]. [http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/October%201982/22/788181/ "Sir Georg Solti"], ''Gramophone'', October 1982, p. 22</ref> His parents could not afford to pay for years of musical education, and his rich uncles did not consider music a suitable profession; from the age of 13, Solti paid for his education by giving piano lessons.<ref name=fox />

The faculty of the Franz Liszt Academy included some of the most eminent Hungarian musicians, including [[Béla Bartók]], [[Leó Weiner]], [[Ernő Dohnányi]], and [[Zoltán Kodály]]. Solti studied under the first three, for piano, chamber music, and composition, respectively. Some sources state that he also studied with Kodály,<ref name=grove>[[Arthur Jacobs|Jacobs, Arthur]] and José A. Bowen. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/26170 "Solti, Sir Georg"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 22 February 2012 {{subscription}}</ref><ref name=who>[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U182009 "Solti, Sir Georg"], ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 22 February 2012 {{subscription}}</ref> but in his memoirs, Solti recalled that Kodály, whom he would have preferred, turned him down, leaving him to study composition first with [[Albert Siklós]] and then with Dohnányi.<ref>Solti, pp. 17 and 22</ref> Not all the academy's tutors were equally distinguished; Solti remembered with little pleasure the conducting classes run by Ernő Unger, "who instructed his pupils to use rigid little wrist motions. I attended the class for only two years, but I needed five years of practical conducting experience before I managed to unlearn what he had taught me".<ref>Solti. p. 20</ref>