The Solti Pull

For a solid year now, Billboard's chart of bestselling classical LPs has been topped by Scott Joplin rags. Last week there was a surprising change: Stravinsky's Rite of Spring led the list. Though revolutionary when first performed in 1913, the work is now a cliche of concert programming; 28 stereo versions are currently available. It seems likely that ragtime fell not to Stravinsky but to Georg Solti, who leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Solti (TIME cover, May 7, 1973) has quietly become the most popular conductor since Toscanini. A Solti appearance is sold out at once anywhere in the world. His records are all top sellers; the Mahler: Symphony No. 5, released in 1970, has made the charts ever since. Solti lives in a fury of industry and seems able to handle anything back to Bach with distinction--or to send Rite of Spring up the charts.

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