Editing Georg Solti (section)

===Later years===
In addition to his tenure in Chicago, Solti was music director of the [[Orchestre de Paris]] from 1972 to 1975.<ref name=who /> From 1979 until 1983, he was also principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.<ref name=who /> He continued to expand his repertoire. With the London Philharmonic, he performed many of [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]]'s major works in concert and on record.<ref name=d /> Before performing Elgar's two symphonies, Solti studied the composer's own recordings made more than 40 years earlier, and was influenced by their brisk tempi and impetuous manner.<ref name=eg /> [[Edward Greenfield]], music critic for ''[[The Guardian]]'', wrote that Solti "conveys the authentic frisson of the great Elgarian moment more vividly than ever before on record."<ref name=eg>Greenfield, Edward. "Echoing Elgar", ''The Guardian'', 11 July 1972, p. 10</ref> Late in his career he became enthusiastic about the music of [[Dmitri Shostakovich|Shostakovich]], whom he admitted he failed to appreciate fully during the composer's lifetime.<ref>Solti, p. 228</ref> He made commercial recordings of seven of Shostakovich's fifteen symphonies.{{refn|His commercial recordings of Shostakovich symphonies were Nos. 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13 and 15.<ref name=d />|group=n}}

{{Quote box |quoted=true |bgcolor=#F3F0FD|salign=right| quote = His podium personality, exuberant and forceful, was clearly imprinted upon his music-making as he snarled and ferociously stabbed his baton. ... It became a cliché to say he mellowed as he got older, but his performances remained thrilling right to the end.| source = ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' <ref name=grove />|align=left|width=250px}}

In 1983, Solti conducted for the only time at the [[Bayreuth Festival]]. By this stage in his career, he no longer liked abstract productions of Wagner, or modernistic reinterpretations, such as Patrice Chéreau's 1976 Bayreuth ''[[Jahrhundertring|Centenary Ring]]'', which he found grew boring on repetition.<ref>Greenfield, Edward. [http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/August%201981/25/743687/ "Sir Georg Solti"], ''Gramophone'', August 1981, p. 25</ref> Together with the director [[Peter Hall (director)|Sir Peter Hall]] and designer [[William Dudley (designer)|William Dudley]], he presented a ''Ring'' cycle that aimed to represent Wagner's intentions. The production was not well received by German critics, who expected radical reinterpretation of the operas.<ref>Heyworth, Peter. "Why ''The Ring'' went wrong", ''The Observer'', 7 August 1983</ref> Solti's conducting was praised, but illnesses and last-minute replacements of leading performers affected the standard of singing.<ref>[[Bernard Levin|Levin, Bernard]]. "A sand-blast and polish by a master", ''The Times'', 17 August 1983, p. 8</ref> He was invited to return to Bayreuth for the following season, but was unwell and withdrew on medical advice before the 1984 festival began.<ref>Hewson, David. "Solti quits 'Ring' production", ''The Times'', 26 May 1984, p. 5</ref>

In 1991, Solti collaborated with actor and composer [[Dudley Moore]] to create an eight-part television series, ''Orchestra!'', which was designed to introduce audiences to the symphony orchestra.<ref>Jenkins, Garry. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:LSTB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F9297F2EDEC3FFB&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Orchestrating a return to musical roots&nbsp;– Dudley Moore and Sir Georg Solti"], ''The Sunday Times'', 13 May 1990</ref> In 1994, he directed the "Solti Orchestral Project" at [[Carnegie Hall]], a training workshop for young American musicians.<ref>Holland, Bernard. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03EFDE163DF936A25755C0A962958260 "Georg Solti, Teacher, Leads Carnegie's Orchestral Workshop"], ''The New York Times'', 15 June 1994; and Oestreich, James R. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E0D71E3DF937A15755C0A962958260 "Master and Pupils Mesh As Solti Project Concludes"], ''The New York Times'', 24 June 1994</ref> The following year, to mark the 50th anniversary of the [[United Nations]], he formed the World Orchestra for Peace, which consisted of 81 musicians from 40 nations.<ref>[http://www.worldorchestraforpeace.com/content/WOFP_biog.pdf History], World Orchestra for Peace, accessed 28 February 2012</ref> The orchestra has continued to perform after his death, under the conductorship of [[Valery Gergiev]].<ref>[http://www.worldorchestraforpeace.com/orchestra/valery-gergiev/default.aspx "Valery Gergiev"], World Orchestra for Peace, accessed 8 March 2012</ref>

Solti regularly returned to Covent Garden as a guest conductor in the years after he relinquished the musical directorship, greeted with "an increasingly boisterous hero's welcome" (''Grove'').<ref name=grove /> From 1972 to 1997, he conducted 10 operas, some of them in several seasons. Five were operas he had not conducted at the Royal Opera House before: Bizet's ''[[Carmen]]'', Wagner's ''[[Parsifal (opera)|Parsifal]]'', Mozart's ''[[Die Entführung aus dem Serail]]'', Verdi's ''[[Simon Boccanegra (opera)|Simon Boccanegra]]'', and a celebrated production of ''[[La traviata]]'' (1994), which propelled [[Angela Gheorghiu]] to stardom.<ref name=roh /><ref>Kettle, Martin. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:GRDC&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=130E0321A78DEE48&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Quickfire revival sees hit-and-miss Gheorghui reprise star role"], ''The Guardian'', 10 July 2010</ref> On 14 July 1997 he conducted the last operatic music to be heard in the old house before it closed for more than two years for rebuilding.{{refn|Solti conducted the finale of ''Falstaff'', with the singers led by [[Bryn Terfel]], in a joint opera and ballet farewell. His successors, Sir Colin Davis and [[Bernard Haitink]] also conducted at this gala.<ref>Whitworth, Damian and Dalya Alberge. [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=0F924C5B0ED30ABA&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Opera buffs round off gala night with a takeaway"], ''The Times'', 15 July 1997</ref>|group= n}} The previous day he had conducted what proved to be his last symphony concert. The work was Mahler's [[Symphony No. 5 (Mahler)|Fifth Symphony]]; the orchestra was the Zurich Tonhalle, with whom he had made his first orchestral recording 50 years earlier.<ref name=d />

Solti died suddenly, in his sleep, on 5 September 1997 while on holiday in [[Antibes]] in the south of France.<ref>Fay, Stephen. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:TND1&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=13204891A1E2D5D0&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggdocs&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Solti dies in sleep at 84"], ''[[The Independent on Sunday]]'', 7 September 1997</ref> He was 84. After a state ceremony in Budapest, his ashes were interred beside the remains of Bartók in [[Farkasréti Cemetery]].<ref>Pappenheim, Mark. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:TND1&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=13204E2F259A28E0&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Classical: An honourable homecoming&nbsp;– at last"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 3 April 1998</ref>