George Szell's Birthday Reminder: Why This Conductor Still Dominates the Conversation

June 7 marks the birthday of George Szell (1897–1970), and his absence from contemporary conducting conversations is striking. Szell was one of the most significant orchestral leaders of the 20th century, a perfectionist who built the Cleveland Orchestra into a world-class institution and left a recorded legacy that still defines how certain works are understood. The fact that he's not part of the current conducting discourse tells you something about how classical music history gets written and rewritten.