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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BRAHMS: Double Concerto / Violin Sonata No. 3 / BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 5 (Milstein) (1950-51)
Nathan Milstein, Artur Balsam, Vladimir Horowitz, Gregor Piatigorsky, Philadelphia Robin Hood Dell Orchestra, Fritz Reiner
Chamber Music - Lançado por Naxos em 29/08/2006
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Best of Classical - The 200 greatest works of classical music (More than 23 hours of the greatest classical music ever!)
Symphonic Music - Lançado por 200 Greatest Hits em 08/04/2016
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tristan und Isolde (Melchior, Flagstad, Reiner) (1936)
Kirsten Flagstad, Lauritz Melchior, Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Fritz Reiner
Opera - Lançado por Naxos em 17/09/2000
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Best of Klassik: Die 200 grössten Werke der Klassischen Musik
Symphonic Music - Lançado por 200 Greatest Hits em 08/04/2016
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fritz Reiner Conducts Shostakovich, Kodály, Weiner and Bartók
Classical - Lançado por Sony Classical em 24/02/2023
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Symphony No. 101 in D "The Clock"; Symphony No. 95 in C Minor
Classical - Lançado por RCA Red Seal em 25/11/2013
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 & The Nutcracker
Emil Gilels, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner
Classical - Lançado por Mangora Classic em 01/01/2014
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 "Choral" & Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
Classical - Lançado por RCA Red Seal em 11/11/2016
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30
Classical - Lançado por RCA Red Seal em 11/11/2016
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fritz Reiner conducts Bartok live
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, Yehudi Menuhin
Classical - Lançado por Archipel em 02/12/2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss : Elektra (New York, Metropolitan, 1952)
Astrid Varnay, Elisabeth Höngen, Paul Schöffler, Set Svanholm, Fritz Reiner
Full Operas - Lançado por OperaPrima-Carillon em 01/01/2003
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Concerto pour piano No. 3 (Mono Version)
Vladimir Horowitz, Fritz Reiner, RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
Miscellaneous - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1952
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Kapell) (1950-1951)
William Kapell, Philadelphia Robin Hood Dell Orchestra, William Steinberg, Fritz Reiner
Classical - Lançado por Naxos em 15/04/2002
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35 & Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33 (Remastered)
Classical - Lançado por Sony Classical em 16/11/2018
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Master of Music, Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 30, Vokalise Op. 34
Vladimir Horowitz, Fritz Reiner, Serge Rachmaninoff, RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra
Classical - Lançado por Oscardigital em 21/07/1998
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ottorino Respighi: The Pines of Rome - The Fountains of Rome (Album of 1960)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Fritz Reiner
Pop - Lançado por Ginkgo Classical em 30/11/2020
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Reiner Sound (Mono Version)
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Miscellaneous - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: La Valse - Debussy: Images - Berlioz: La damnation de Faust (Remastered)
Classical - Lançado por Sony Classical em 11/09/2020
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Scenes from Elektra & Salome
Classical - Lançado por Living Stereo em 11/11/1997
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms Piano Concerto in D Minor No.1
Arthur Rubinstein, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Classical - Lançado por In Vinyl We Trust em 12/10/2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 (Recorded 1960) (Live)
New York Philharmonic, Fritz Reiner
Classical - Lançado por New York Philharmonic em 08/12/2017
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo