A milestone for the maestro

Forgive me, folks, for feeling compelled to post about this, but, I must.

On this day in 1899 Maestro Eugene Ormandy was born in Hungary. Later, of course, he became the famed conductor of the unparalleled Philadelphia Orchestra, a position he held for 44 years. Ormandy propelled the orchestra to wide acclaim as the best in the world, and thus, they sold more classical music recordings than any other orchestra in history. It was said that Ormandy and the Philadelphians sold more records that all of the top orchestras in the world combined, including the New York Philharmonic during the Bernstein years, the Chicago and Boston symphonies, and the great Vienna Philharmonic in Austria.

Upon stepping down in 1980, Ormandy became the Conductor Laureate of the orchestra at the age of 81. He remained in this position until his death in 1987. But even in retirement he maintained a regular schedule of performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, in addition to the monthly performances conducted by his hand-picked successor, Ricacardo Muti.

Read more about the Philadelphia Orchestra's commemoration of Ormandy's birth here, on their Facebook page. 

Now, that wasn't so bad was it? You know how I am about my music...and "my" musicians and conductors.