Listen With Lewis!

This film tells the story of one of the greatest and most controversial conductors of the 20th century. The Hungarian born Georg Solti had huge drive, energy and ambition. A combination of willpower and extraordinary talent took him to the peak of musical power and prestige. It shows how Solti took music making in opera houses and orchestras to new levels, how he harnessed recording, and later television, to reach out to new audiences and how he nurtured remarkable new talent through a winning, if not always endearing, combination of ambition, technique, charm, sheer-bloody mindedness and genius. The film includes remarkably candid interviews which Solti gave just before his death, in which he talked with great honesty about his life, his challenges and achievements. It also includes new interviews with artists and musicians who worked closely with him.

Lewis Brinin

Unlike many of my colleagues, I came to music, first as a listener and audience member before I ever thought about playing an instrument myself. I attended concerts wherever I could find them in New York City and spent many happy hours listening to my late father’s extensive collection of fine performances on 78 rpm records. Two of my most powerful early inspirational experiences were attending “kiddie concerts” given at Carnegie Hall by the American Symphony Orchestra and years later performing in the same Hall as a member of the New York Youth Symphony. Born in Brooklyn, attended Manhattan School of Music, then U Texas Austin, then Ball State University, then I played in Maracaibo Symphony in Venezuela for about a year, and since 1983 have played viola with the Florida Orchestra.