This
RCA Living Stereo release showcases the conducting talents of
Fritz Reiner. It is a compilation of universal favourites linked
to Vienna and ranging from Johann Strauss junior to Josef Strauss,
from Richard Strauss to Weber. I doubt that the music of Old
Vienna has ever sounded more entrancing than on this SACD from
‘stereo’s golden age’ performed as it is with unique style and
panache.
Reiner
is a contradictory figure, revered for his musicianship and
level of technical achievement yet widely disliked for his personal
temperament and behaviour. His live performances and substantial
recorded legacy, however, bear witness to a great artist who,
among other achievements, over his ten year tenure from 1953
shaped the Chicago Symphony into one of the world’s great orchestras.
He
was born in 1888 in Budapest, Hungary. He studied piano with
his mother and entered the famed Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest
when he was 15. Reiner was invited to conduct the Budapest People’s
Opera, where he stayed until 1914. That year, he was invited
to head the Dresden Court Opera - later known as the Dresden
State Opera - where he became devoted to the elder conductor
Artur Nikisch. Reiner came to know Richard Strauss and eventually
conducted the German premiere of his opera Die Frau ohne
Schatten cultivating a reputation as one of the foremost
Strauss interpreters. Reiner later recorded Also sprach Zarathustra,
Ein Heldenleben, Don Quixote and Don Juan, among
other Strauss works, for RCA Victor.
In
the years following the Great War, Reiner became eager to leave
Europe, correctly forecasting Europe’s economic problems and
growing anti-Semitism. He was asked to take on the position
of Music Director at the Cincinnati Symphony in 1921, and with
that appointment left for the United States, becoming a citizen
there in 1928. During his nine years in Cincinnati, he presented
the American premieres of works by Ravel, Debussy and Respighi.
Reiner introduced the music of his fellow countryman Béla Bartók
to Cincinnati, leading the United States premiere of Bartók's
Piano Concerto No. 1, with the composer as soloist. One
of Reiner’s most famous recordings is of Bartók’s Concerto
for Orchestra and the Music for Strings, Percussion
and Celesta with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a performance
which won that ensemble’s first Grammy Award.
In
1931, Reiner resigned from his Cincinnati job to become a professor
of conducting at Philadelphia’s highly prestigious Curtis Institute
of Music, where his students included Lukas Foss and Leonard
Bernstein. Seven years later heeiner became the Music Director
of the Pittsburgh Symphony, where he served for 10 years until
1948. During this time, the orchestra’s reputation was solidified
into a competitive American ensemble and Reiner’s stature as
an orchestra-builder grew. While engaged in Pittsburgh, Reiner
gave guest appearances at Covent Garden and with the San Francisco
Symphony, among others. After stepping down from Pittsburgh,
Reiner joined the conductor roster at the New York Metropolitan
Opera, staying until 1953. At the Metropolitan he was widely
acclaimed for his performances of Richard Strauss. Scenes from
Salome and Elektra with soprano Inge Borkh were
recorded for RCA Victor.
1953
was a historic year in Reiner’s life. He assumed the title of
Music Director of the Chicago Symphony in what was to become
a legendary if troubled partnership. The Chicago players despised
their tyrannical, short-tempered conductor, but it was under
his baton that the orchestra rose from the ranks of a good regional
band to become one of the world’s finest. Under his leadership,
the CSO prospered and premiered many important works, including
Copland’s Clarinet Concerto and Alan Hovhaness’s Mysterious
Mountain.
The
breadth of Reiner’s repertoire and his championing of new music
remain two of his distinguishing characteristics, in addition
to his legendary precision. His recordings with the CSO were
essential models in establishing the sonic superiority of the
stereo recording process; many of those albums remain benchmark
recordings for their musical and technical excellence. Reiner
resigned from the CSO after the 1962 season, and died in New
York in 1963.
The
Austrian capital and the waltz have long been synonymous. The
first waltzes were played at Vienna’s Imperial court balls around
1660 and ever since then the city has been best known to most
people as the world’s waltz capital, though it is justly proud
of many other achievements. For three centuries the waltz was
a dominant factor in the city’s musical, social and emotional
life. It could be said that Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube
waltz is Austria’s unofficial national anthem.
In
the nineteenth century, Viennese dance music was dominated by
the family of Johann Strauss senior (1804-1849) and his three
sons Johann junior, Josef and Eduard. Johann senior, who is
not represented on this release, composed around three hundrd
works and is chiefly remembered for the lovely waltz Loreley-Rhein-Klänge
(1843) and for the ubiquitous Radetzky-Marsch (1848).
Johann
Strauss junior (1825-1899), who became known as ‘The Waltz King’,
composed over 170 waltzes, the most popular being: Blue Danube
(1867), Tales from the Vienna Woods (1868), Perpetual
Motion (1869), Roses from the South (1880) and the
Emperor Waltz (1888). He also wrote many polkas including
the Thunder and Lightning Polka and the Trisch-Tratsch
Polka. Johann was also eminent in the world of music theatre
with enduring operettas: Die Fledermaus (The Bat)
(1874), The Queen’s Lace Handkerchief (1880) and The
Gypsy Baron (1885), all receiving their premieres in Vienna,
remaining celebrated examples of the rich Viennese operetta
tradition.
Johann
Strauss junior has seven works recorded by Reiner on this release:
Morning Papers, Emperor Waltz, On the Beautiful
Blue Danube, Vienna Blood, Roses from the
South (from The Queen's Lace Handkerchief), Treasure
Waltz (from The Gypsy Baron) and Thunder and Lightning.
Josef
Strauss (1827-1870) became a genius against his will
when his elder brother, Johann, fell dangerously ill and Josef
had to take over the family orchestra. He wrote about three
hundred dance compositions, among them the famous waltzes, Village
Swallows from Austria (1864), Transactions (1865)
and The Music of the Spheres (1868). His speciality was
the polka mazurka Woman’s Heart (1864) and The Dragonfly
(1866) being exquisite examples of the genre. Josef Strauss
is represented on this release with the Village Swallows
waltz.
Carlo
Maria von Weber’s Invitation to the Dance is best known
in an orchestral transcription by Hector Berlioz in 1841 of
his Rondo brillante in D flat major for piano (1819).
With this Rondo Weber became the first composer to write
a waltz-sequence; an integrated composition comprising several
waltz tunes.
The
waltzes from Richard Strauss’s 1910 opera Der Rosenkavalier
were arranged by Fritz Reiner himself. In Der Rosenkavalier
Strauss confided to his librettist Hofmannsthal how he wished
to combine the best qualities of Mozart and Johann Strauss.
On
this release Reiner and his orchestra are in glorious form.
The quality of these Strauss family waltzes can survive even
the most inept amateur and hand-organ grinder. In the hands
of Reiner, however, the waltzes sound marvellous and are a real
joy. Reiner was conducting in Vienna as early as 1915 and one
can clearly hear that the Viennese stamp of authenticity is
attached to these performances. The spirit of Vienna is also
perpetuated with the Chicago Symphony having several Vienna-trained
members at the time of these recordings.
Reiner
is able effortlessly to adapt to the contrasting moods and fast-changing
tempos. He manages to deliver real excitement and an anticipation
of what is to come next. He knows how to obtain the slight buoyancy
on the second beat, an almost inaudible accent after an almost
inaudible pause.
The
sound quality of this SACD - played on my standard player -
is excellent. The booklet notes contain interesting and informative
essays but do not comprehensively cover all the works.
Michael
Cookson
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Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reinerrec.
Orchestra Hall, Chicago, USA, 15-16 April 1957; 25-26 April 1960. ADD
[78.03]
