Fritz Reiner
Fritz Reiner was a legend among conductors. Universally admired for his music-making, widely disliked for his aggressive and exacting temperament, and survived by a legacy of definitive recorded performances, he was largely responsible for the artistic ascendancy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and exerted considerable influence on generations of musicians.
Born in Budapest in 1888, he studied piano with his mother and, at the age of 15, entered the Franz Liszt Academy -- an institution that also boasts Bela Bartók, Zoltan Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Georg Solti and Antal Dorati as graduates. Reiner gained conducting experience at a number of regional opera houses before eventually returning to Budapest in 1911 to serve at the city's Volksoper, where his reputation as a conductor of special abilities finally emerged.
In 1914 Reiner accepted a position at the Dresden Court Opera, where he formed a fortuitous relationship with both the conductor Arthur Nikisch and the composer Richard Strauss; Reiner would eventually give the German premier of Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, and would remain a devoted interpreter of the composer's works throughout his career. The economic chaos and emergent anti-Semitism that followed the First World War made Reiner anxious to leave Europe, and an invitation (in 1921) to become the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra provided just the right opportunity. From that point onward, Reiner's career was firmly rooted in the United States, where he became a citizen in 1928.
After resigning his post at Cincinnati Reiner became a professor of conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his students included both the young Leonard Bernstein and Lukas Foss; Bernstein, in particular, credited Reiner with a great deal of influence in his development.
In 1938 he became the director of the Pittsburgh Symphony -- one of several positions that established Reiner as a fine builder of orchestras, with a talent for steering ensembles toward new levels of quality and success. A number of Reiner's well-known recordings stem from his tenure there. Guest appearances during his Pittsburgh years include those at Covent Garden and the San Francisco Symphony. From Pittsburgh he moved to the Metropolitan opera, where he remained on the conductor roster until 1953; his advocacy of Strauss' operas was especially strong there, and his performances of Salome and Elektra number among the most memorable evenings in the Met's history.
1953 was a watershed year for Reiner, since it was then that he assumed the directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This was to become his signature partnership, and the position that would establish his lasting legacy. His relationship with the orchestra was never a smooth one -- he was known for hostility and impatience in rehearsal, and for firing musicians for mistakes in concerts -- but he undeniably raised the ensemble from its status as a good American orchestra to that of one of the finest in the world. Unlike a number of other prominent conductors who excelled in narrow corners of the musical canon, Reiner maintained his excellent standards and clarifying precision throughout an especially broad repertory that crossed boundaries of nationality and style. He was as renowned for his performances of new works, such as Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra -- a piece that Reiner himself commissioned from the dying composer -- and Alan Hovhaness' Mysterious Mountain as he was for his Mahler, Strauss and Haydn. His tenure in Chicago also resulted in what was then an unprecedented volume of fine recordings, some of which still remain as favorites, despite the improved fidelity of modern competitors. Reiner resigned from Chicago in 1962 (after only nine seasons), and died the following year of heart failure.
© TiVo
-
Strauss: Salome
Brian Sullivan, Hans Hotter, Ljuba Welitsch, Set Svanholm, Fritz Reiner, Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera House
Opera - Released by OperaPrima on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reiner Conducts Brahms and Strauss (Remastered)
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 11 Sep 2020
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Elektra by richard strauss
Set Svanholm, Astrid Varnay, Elisabeth Höngen, Paul Schöffler, Fritz Reiner
Classical - Released by OperaPrima-Carillon on 23 Apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Falstaff
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 30 Sep 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Conductors: Fritz Reiner Conducts Rachmaninoff, Liszt & Moussorgsky (Remastered 2015)
Byron Janis, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner
Classical - Released by Jube Classic on 1 Apr 2016
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven & R. Strauss: Orchestral Works
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner
Classical - Released by Archipel on 27 Jul 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La gazza ladra: Overture (Remastered)
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 29 Dec 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35 (Album of 1941)
Gregor Piatigorsky, Vladimir Bakaleinikoff, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner
Pop - Released by Ginkgo Classics on 31 May 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen, WD 31
Coro del Teatro dell' Opera di Roma
Opera - Released by Urania Records on 24 Apr 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Conductors: Fritz Reiner Conducts Liebermann, Strauss & Schuman (Remastered 2015)
Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner
Classical - Released by Jube Classic on 4 Mar 2016
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven : Symphony No. 3 Eroica - Strauss : Also Sprach Zarathustra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner
Symphonic Poems - Released by OperaPrima-Carillon on 23 Apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
30 Great Conductors - Fritz Reiner, Vol. 24
Classical - Released by Documents 2 on 13 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 - Mussorgsky: A Night on Bald Mountain - Gershwin: Porgy and Bess "A Symphonic Picture"
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 11 Sep 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart, W.A.: Symphonies Nos. 35, 36 and 40 (Pittsburgh Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Reiner) (1946, 1947, 1954) (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Classical - Released by IDIS on 1 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
WAGNER: DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER
Opera - Released by Nar Classical on 2 Dec 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi, G.: Falstaff [Opera] (Reiner) (1949) (Giuseppe Verdi - Arrigo Boito)
Full Operas - Released by IDIS on 1 Jan 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Master of Music, Bartók - Concerto for Orchestra, Sz 116
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Classical - Released by Oscardigital on 21 Jul 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner, Arthur Rubinstein
Classical - Released by OBX Records on 19 Jan 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fritz Reiner conducts Respighi
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 22 Dec 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, vol. 20
Norbert Brainin, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Classical - Released by ArnebAudio on 21 Mar 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reiner Conducts Mozart & Bach
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 11 Sep 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo