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Who Was Eugene Ormandy?
Eugene Ormandy was a world-class conductor of classical music. He was born in Budapest, Hungary on November 18, 1899 as Jeno Blau. He changed his name when he arrived in the United States in 1921. The ship that carried him to the U.S. was the S.S. Normandie. A little alteration and Eugene Ormandy was now the new American name of this Hungarian violin virtuoso. He is most known as being the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra for a span of 42 years. Yet, he did not start his career as such.
He began his musical education from his father. When he was only five years old he studied music at the Budapest Music Academy. At the age of seven he gave his first concert. Four years later, at the age of nine, he studied in the master class of the well-known Hungarian violinist, Jeno Hubay. He graduated from the Academy in 1913 with a Bachelor of Music diploma. He was fourteen years old. In 1916 he started to teach violin. In 1917, at the age of 18, he became the concertmaster for the Bluthner Orchestra from Berlin. He taught a master class for violin at the Budapest Music Academy when his teacher, Jeno Hubay retired. He discontinued teaching at the Academy after two years, partly because the students were not comfortable with studying with a professor of such a young age.
In 1921, Eugene Ormandy came to America based on promises of a concert series for him. Two Hungarian agents had promised an appealing U.S. tour. The concerts never were realized. So, he joined and later conducted the orchestra in a silent movie house, the Capitol Theater, in New York City. The music director at the theater was an acquaintance from Budapest. There he became concertmaster and then did his first conducting in 1924. He also made his first radio broadcast as a conductor in 1924. He was made Associate Music Director of the theater in 1926. In 1927, Ormandy became a U.S. citizen. It was at the Capitol Theater, at a recital, where an impresario, Arthur Judson, was astounded by Ormandy's style of conducting. So, in 1930, Ormandy was introduced to the Philadelphia Orchestra to fill in for Arturo Toscanini, who was ill. Ormandy did several of these guest conducting appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He also conducted the New York Philharmonic Symphony as a guest conductor. Ormandy did so well in these instances that he was offered the position of being conductor for the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Ormandy worked with the Minneapolis Symphony for five years from 1931 through 1936. Then, in 1936 Ormandy was proffered the job of associate conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Musical Director Leopold Stokowski. In only two years, Ormandy was promoted to Musical Director at Philadelphia upon the retirement of Stokowski. He was the Musical Director for the Philadelphia Orchestra until 1979. He was then named as Conductor Laureate, a position that he held until he died in 1985. In 1968, Ormandy also taught at the Curtis Institute. This was located in Philadelphia. He taught there until 1977. In 1973, Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra went on an unprecedented tour of China. Ormandy thought the China tour to be the highlight of his tours. Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra toured extensively throughout the United States and the world. They toured Austria in 1944. In 1949 they toured England. In 1968 they toured the Soviet Union. They toured Latin American and the Orient. The orchestra under Eugene Ormandy were also very busy as recording artists. Under the direction of Eugene Ormandy, the Philadelphia Orchestra produced more than 300 recordings. In 1967, the Orchestra received a Grammy award for their recording of Carl Orff's "Catulli Catmina."
Ormandy's style of conducting was not what one would call flamboyant. He was labeled as a conservative, non-flashy conductor. Some dismissed him and his talent because of his quiet presentation of music, his non-explosive manner of conducting. This underrating of his ability was also influenced by the styles of music he generally directed. He was associated mainly with composers of the Romantic, post-Romantic and French Impressionistic genres. As a violinist, he was prone to use the orchestra's string sections in a more prominent role. Ormandy was not so concerned with the rigid interpretation of a score of music. He was more concerned with how the music sounded. He was a friend of Rachmaninov and had two of Rachmaninov's works, the Symphonic Dances and the Third Symphony dedicated to him by Rachmaninov.
He was honored many times during his professional life. He was named a commander in the French Foreign Legion of Honor in 1958. He was given the United States Presidential Freedom Medal in 1970. He was made an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1976. He made his last appearance as a conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra on January 10, 1984 at Carnegie Hall. He died on March 12, 1985 from pneumonia. He was 85 years old.
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