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
-
Rimsky-Korsakov: Schéhérazade, Op. 35 & Stravinsky: Le chant du rossignol - Sony Classical Originals
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 12 Jan 2015
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 2000
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, A Night on Bald Mountain...
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on 14 Mar 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvorák: New World Symphony
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on 3 Mar 2014
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Respighi: Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome by Fritz Reiner (2023 Remastered, Chicago 1960)
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on 11 Nov 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Hovhaness: Mysterious Mountain / Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé / Stravinsky: The Fairy's Kiss: Divertimento
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on 3 Mar 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart : Symphonies Nos. 39, 40 & 41 (Diapason n°556)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Fritz Reiner
Classical - Released by Les Indispensables de Diapason on 25 Feb 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 by Vladimir Horowitz (2024 Remastered, New York 1951)
Vladimir Horowitz, Fritz Reiner, RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on 14 Dec 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 by Fritz Reiner and Serge Koussevitsky
Fritz Reiner, Serge Koussevitzky, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on 9 Jun 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vienna
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on 1 Sep 1995
The Qobuz Essential Discography24-Bit 176.4 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: Overtures - Sony Classical Originals
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 1960
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss Waltzes
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 23 Oct 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Strauss In High Fidelity
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on 1 Feb 1993
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106 & Hungarian Sketches, Sz. 97
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 2001
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky; Khachaturian: Violin Concerto
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on 12 Sep 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 - Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 ((Remastered))
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 25 Nov 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 "Pathétique"
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 4 Nov 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 by Jascha Heifetz (2023 Remastered, Chicago 1957)
Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on 11 Oct 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, A Night on Bald Mountain (Remastered 2021)
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on 19 Jul 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms · Symphony No.4
Fritz Reiner, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 21 Jan 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo