The story of Georg Solti: the most awarded artist in the history of the Grammys

The 64th edition of the Grammy Awards is just a few days away and with it the euphoria for the most important award in the music world has generated great interest among millions of fans. On this occasion, the celebration that adorns the best of contemporary Fine Arts will take place next Sunday, April 3 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The Grammy is the most prestigious award in the music industry in the United States, awarded by the Recording Academy to recognize the best music production in the United States.

In the history of the Grammy Awards, countless stars, legends and new music talents have paraded in English, however, and to the surprise of some, there is a list headed by Sir Georg Solti, a performer who today is not as remembered by the new generations, but who holds the record as the artist most awarded in the history of the Grammy's, surpassing figures of the caliber of Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Michael Jackson or The Beatles.

Georg Solti was a British nationalized Hungarian conductor, who became one of the most renowned conductors of orchestra and opera of the 21st century, was music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he set a record by winning 32 Grammy Awards, which, to this day, makes him the top winner of medals.

Born in Budapest in 1912, Solti enrolled at the Ernö Fodor School of Music in Budapest at the age of ten and two years later he transferred to the Franz Liszt Academy, where he studied piano, composition and conducting alongside Bartók, Dohnányi, Kodály and Leo Weiner.

When he was just 12 years old, he listened to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, directed by Erich Kleiber, which gave him the motivation to become a music director. From the age of 13, Solti paid for his education by giving piano lessons and, although a few months later, he made his concert debut as a pianist, he was soon hired as a conductor by the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1937, Italian director Arturo Toscanini selected him as his assistant at the Salzburg Festival, prior to the outbreak of World War II. After that, a still young Solti went to Switzerland as a refugee, resuming his career as a pianist in order to survive.

Months after the end of the Second Great War, in 1945, he was appointed director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and moved to the Frankfurt Opera House in 1952, where he remained until 1961, when he was appointed music director of what is now known as the Royal Opera House in London.

After the great projection and talent that radiated, Solti gained fame for turning Covent Garden into a multinational-class company, which earned him the title of “Sir” Georg Solti. In 1969, he moved to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he served as music director until 1991 and where he would truly reach his full potential as a leader and musician.

In the Chicago Symphony Orchestra he would win 24 of the 31 Grammy Awards, after more than 70 nominations over more than 40 years of career.

It was until 1996 that he won the Grammy Award for Best Artistic Career. Two years later, after his death, on September 5, 1997, in 1999, during the 41st Grammy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, he would receive a posthumous tribute in the category of Best Opera Recording, Hall of Fame Award.

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