title role. Kertész's interpretation of Bartók's difficult, brooding work is considered by many to be the benchmark performance of the opera; "the playing of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Kertész's instinctive shaping of the drama ... has never been surpassed." Kertész was a frequent guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and numerous other orchestras. He was appointed principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony in 1973. The Cleveland Orchestra unsuccessfully bid for his appointment as musical director the year before. In a poll, the Cleveland musicians had given 96 "first-choice" votes to Kertész as the replacement for George Szell, and only two for Lorin Maazel, Cleveland's eventual choice. In Chicago, Kertész conducted his first performance at the Ravinia Festival in July 1967; he was the Festival's principal conductor from 1970 to 1972. Death On 16 April 1973, while on a concert tour, Kertész drowned while swimming off the coast of Israel at Herzliya. He had been recording Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn, as well as the complete Brahms symphonies. After his death, and in tribute to him, the Vienna Philharmonic finished recording the Haydn Variations without a conductor. Kertész was survived by his wife, operatic soprano Edith Kertész-Gabry, his children, Gábor, Péter, and Kathrin, his mother, Margit Muresian Kertész Halmos, and his sister, the graphic artist Vera Kertész. International orchestras István Kertész served as principal and or guest conductor with the following orchestras: Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra (Cologne), Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra (Tokyo), London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, New Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Munich), Orquesta Nacional (Madrid), Orchestre Radio-Télévision (Paris), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva), Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), Opera Orchestra of Santa Cecila (Rome), San Francisco Symphony, Symphonie Orchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks (Hamburg), Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester (Zürich), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Discography His many recordings include the first complete recording of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. He was also the first to record the complete Dvořák symphonies and his interpretations of them are still considered classics of their kind. Pianists Clifford Curzon, Hans Richter-Haaser, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Julius Katchen each made records with Kertész. He recorded Kodály's Psalmus Hungaricus and Peacock