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.
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Prokofiev: Nevsky
Klassik - Erschienen bei RCA Victor - Hits - 100 am 01.01.1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel; Death And Transfiguration
Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Fritz Reiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 07.05.1957
24-Bit 176.4 kHz - Stereo -
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35 (Album of 1960)
Sidney Harth, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner
Pop - Erschienen bei Ginkgo Classical am 30.11.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35 (Remastered 2023)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner
Klassik - Erschienen bei Artemisia am 04.09.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Les Noces de Figaro (Intégrale)
Gesamtaufnahmen von Opern - Erschienen bei Myto Historical am 01.03.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dovrak Symphony No. 9 & Carnival Overture, Smetana The Bartered Bride Overture and Winberger Schwanda Overture
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Mangora Classical am 16.07.2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann, Prokofiev: Piano Concertos
Klavierkonzerte - Erschienen bei Living Stereo am 12.09.1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt : Orchestral Works and Songs
Fritz Reiner, Herbert von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Heinrich Schlusnus, Hans Hotter
Klassik - Erschienen bei Les Indispensables de Diapason am 01.03.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Totentanz, S. 126 - Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 1
Fritz Reiner, Byron Janis, Fritz Reiner & Byron Janis
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical am 01.03.1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759 "Unfinished" & Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, D. 485
Klassik - Erschienen bei RCA Red Seal am 04.11.2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fritz Reiner: Great Conductors of the 20th Century
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 07.06.2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Op. 71
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording am 29.09.2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev, Mussorgsky & Respighi: Orchestral Works
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner, Artist Unknown
Klassik - Erschienen bei Urania Records am 22.02.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastoral"
Klassik - Erschienen bei RCA Red Seal am 27.08.2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Concerto pour piano No. 2 (Mono Version)
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Emil Gilels
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Hungarian Rhapsody No.2
Klassik - Erschienen bei RCA Classics am 16.08.1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Concerto pour piano No. 5 "L'empereur" (Mono Version)
Vladimir Horowitz, Fritz Reiner, RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tribute to Gregor Piatigorsky [Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Bloch]
Gregor Piatigorsky, Nathan Milstein, Fritz Reiner, Charles Munch
Instrumentalmusik - Erschienen bei Praga Digitals am 01.04.2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphonie Nr. 4/Das Lied Von Der Erde
Gustav Maher, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Zyx - Classic am 29.08.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 & Coriolan Overture, Op. 62
Klassik - Erschienen bei RCA Red Seal am 01.01.2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Burleske; Also sprach Zarathustra; Der Rosenkavalier: Waltzes
Klassik - Erschienen bei Living Stereo am 19.05.1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo