Fritz Reiner: The Complete Columbia Album Collection

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When the 50-year-old Fritz Reiner was appointed conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1938, he was still relatively unfamiliar in his adopted American homeland. This pupil of Bartók at the Academy of Music in his native Budapest, former conductor of the Dresden Royal Opera, where he worked with Richard Strauss, and for the past 16 years music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra was still rarely mentioned in the national press and never in record reviews. Although he had actually made some discs in 1938 with the New York Philharmonic, they were issued anonymously.

Everything changed for Reiner when his move to Pittsburgh led to nearly a decade of major recordings for American Columbia. Sony Classical is now pleased to present a new 14-CD box set collecting all of Reiner’s Pittsburgh Symphony discography together with the Columbia recordings he made after moving to New York in 1948 to become a principal conductor at the Metropolitan Opera.

Reiner was already an experienced Wagner conductor when he came to Pittsburgh and, not surprisingly, his first sessions in February and March 1940 included, among other popular selections, the “Ride of the Valkyries”. This is the oldest recording in the new set and Reiner’s first credited commercial record. Electrical problems unfortunately spoiled the remaining 1940 Wagner masters, so those works had to be re-recorded in 1941, but now at the huge Syria Mosque, the orchestra’s regular venue and site of all the other Pittsburgh recordings collected here. Others dating from before the war include Strauss’s Don Juan (from January 1941) and Don Quixote, with cellist Gregor Piatigorsky (November 1941), as well as Debussy’s Ibéria (also November 1941).

Following the wartime national recording ban, Reiner and the orchestra returned to the Syria Mosque in March 1945 to set down some prime examples of the conductor’s widely varied repertoire: Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony; the premiere recording of Robert Russell Bennett’s suite from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, commissioned by Reiner; his Hungarian friend Léo Weiner’s Divertimento No. 1; the Galánta Dances by another compatriot, Zoltán Kodály; and Beethoven’s Second Symphony.

A number of his most memorable Pittsburgh recordings were made in February 1946: the first-ever studio production of the Concerto for Orchestra by his erstwhile teacher Bartók; Brahms’s Hungarian Dances and the First Piano Concerto with Rudolf Serkin; Falla’s El amor brujo, a perennial Reiner favorite, with the fine mezzo soloist Carol Brice, who also recorded Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen during those sessions; and the suite from Strauss’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, which Reiner had introduced in the US at Cincinnati. None of these except the Brahms concerto and the Strauss has ever before appeared on CD at Sony Classical.

Reiner conducted his last Pittsburgh recording, Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, in November 1947. Two years later, his first New York sessions for Columbia took place at the 30th Street Studio, producing a remarkably stylish complete set of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. Also being released by Sony Classical on CD here for the first time, it features such illustrious names as harpsichordists Sylvia Marlowe and Fernando Valente, flautist Julius Baker, trumpeter William Vacchiano, oboist Robert Bloom, violist William Lincer and cellist Leonard Rose. A few months earlier, Fritz Reiner made one his most famous recordings of all. He was at the Metropolitan conducting Strauss’s Salomé with the finest exponent of the title role, Ljuba Welitsch, making her house debut. In the midst of the run in March, at the 30th Street Studio, Columbia captured the final scene on disc, a recording that has retained its benchmark status.

In 1953, the final chapter of Fritz Reiner’s long career began when he became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and began a celebrated series of stereo recordings for RCA Victor. But any full appreciation of this legendary conductor’s legacy has to include his earlier achievements for Columbia Records in Pittsburgh and New York. For all Reiner’s countless aficionados around the world, Sony Classical’s new 14-CD box set will be essential listening.

 REVIEW:

Strauss's Don Quixote is jam-packed full of character, whether biting, lyrical or touched by gentle humour, and it is blessed by memorable solo playing from cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and violinist Henri Temianka. Reiner's first recorded treatment of Strauss's Don Juan is, like his first Chicago recording, all breathless excitement. A Wagner programme features an excellent Venusberg Music as well as orchestral snippets from The Ring and the disc’s highlights, the Overture and a ‘three-piece suite’ from Die Meistersinger. Eight Brahms Hungarian Dances are given highly charged readings.

While the sound quality of these fairly late mono recordings is, as one might expect, highly variable, the transfers themselves are extremely clean.

-- Gramophone (Rob Cowan)



Product Description:

  • Release Date: September 11, 2020


  • Catalog Number: 19075936772


  • UPC: 190759367728


  • Label: Sony Music Entertainment


  • Number of Discs: 14


  • Composer: Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss II, Maurice Ravel, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leo Weiner, Richard Wagner, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Marx, Modest Mussorgsky, Johann Sebastian Bach, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Bela Bartok, Richard Rodgers, Hector Berlioz, George Gershwin, Claude Debussy, Johannes Brahms, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Arthur Honegger, Gustav Mahler, Mikhail Glinka, Zoltan Kodaly, Gioachino Rossini


  • Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Columbia Broadcasting Concert Orchestra, Columbia String Ensemble, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Columbia Symphony Orchestra


  • Performer: Rudolf Serkin, Carol Brice, Sylvia Marlowe, Fernando Valente, Julius Baker, William Vacchiano, Robert Bloom, William Lincer, Leonard Rose, Ljuba Welitsch



Works:

  1. La Valse

    Composer: Maurice Ravel

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  2. Images: Ibéria

    Composer: Claude Debussy

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  3. La damnation de Faust: Marche hongroise

    Composer: Hector Berlioz

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  4. Danse "Tarantelle styrienne"

    Composer: Claude Debussy

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  5. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Prelude to Act I

    Composer: Richard Wagner

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  6. Siegfried: Waldweben

    Composer: Richard Wagner

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  7. Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I

    Composer: Richard Wagner

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  8. Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III

    Composer: Richard Wagner

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  9. Die Walküre: Ride of The Valkyries

    Composer: Richard Wagner

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  10. Tannhäuser, Act I: Bacchanale and Venusberg Music

    Composer: Richard Wagner

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  11. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act III: Vorspiel

    Composer: Richard Wagner

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  12. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act III: Dance of the apprentices

    Composer: Richard Wagner

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  13. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act III: Entrance of the Meistersingers

    Composer: Richard Wagner

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  14. Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36

    Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  15. A Night on Bald Mountain

    Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  16. Porgy and Bess "A Symphonic Picture"

    Composer: George Gershwin

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  17. Concerto No. 1 in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 15

    Composer: Johannes Brahms

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Rudolf Serkin (Piano)

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  18. Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116

    Composer: Béla Bartók

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  19. Kamarinskaja "Wedding Song and Dance Song"

    Composer: Mikhail Glinka

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  20. Il signor Bruschino: Overture

    Composer: Gioacchino Rossini

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  21. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

    Composer: Gustav Mahler

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Carol Brice (Contralto)

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  22. Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243, No. 2: Et exultavit

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Ensemble: Columbia Broadcasting Symphony

    Performer: Carol Brice (Contralto)

    Conductor: Daniel Saidenberg


  23. Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243, No. 9: Esurientes implevit bonis

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Ensemble: Columbia Broadcasting Symphony

    Performer: Carol Brice (Contralto)

    Conductor: Daniel Saidenberg


  24. Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, Part I, No. 10: Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  25. Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, Part IV, No. 26: Agnus Dei

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  26. El Amor Brujo

    Composer: Manuel de Falla

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Carol Brice (Contralto)

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  27. Hungarian Dances (21), WoO 1: No. 5 in G Minor

    Composer: Johannes Brahms

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  28. Hungarian Dances (21), WoO 1: No. 7 in F Major

    Composer: Johannes Brahms

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  29. Hungarian Dances (21), WoO 1: No. 12 in D Minor

    Composer: Johannes Brahms

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  30. Hungarian Dances (21), WoO 1: No. 13 in D Major

    Composer: Johannes Brahms

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  31. Hungarian Dances (21), WoO 1: No. 6 in D Major

    Composer: Johannes Brahms

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  32. Hungarian Dances (21), WoO 1: No. 21 in E Minor

    Composer: Johannes Brahms

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  33. Hungarian Dances (21), WoO 1: No. 19 in B Minor

    Composer: Johannes Brahms

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  34. Hungarian Dances (21), WoO 1: No. 1 in G Minor

    Composer: Johannes Brahms

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  35. Rosen aus dem Süden, Op. 388

    Composer: Johann Strauss II

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  36. Schatz-Walzer, Op. 418

    Composer: Johann Strauss II

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  37. Wiener Blut, Op. 354

    Composer: Johann Strauss II

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  38. Rodgers: The Carousel Waltz

    Composer: Richard Rodgers

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  39. Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40

    Composer: Richard Strauss

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  40. Le bourgeois gentilhomme, Op. 60

    Composer: Richard Strauss

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  41. Symphony No. 35 in D Major, KV. 385 "Haffner"

    Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  42. Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  43. Little Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  44. Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, KV. 550

    Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  45. Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 54

    Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  46. Colas Breugnon, Op. 24: Overture

    Composer: Dmitry Kabalevsky

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  47. Dances of Galánta

    Composer: Zoltan Kodály

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  48. Divertimento No. 1 for String Orchestra, Op. 20 "Nach alten ungarischen Tänzen"

    Composer: Leo Weiner

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  49. Suite No. 1 in D Major, Op. 43: V. Marche Miniature

    Composer: Peter Tchaikovsky

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  50. Hungarian Pictures, Sz. 97

    Composer: Béla Bartók

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  51. Brandenburg Concertos (6), BWV 1046-1051

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  52. Don Giovanni, Act I: "Don Ottavio! son morta!"..."Or sai, chi l'onore"

    Composer: Wolfgana Amadeus Mozart

    Ensemble: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano)

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  53. Don Giovanni, K. 527, Act II: "Crudele! Crudele?"..."Non mi dir, bell'idol mio"

    Composer: Wolfgana Amadeus Mozart

    Ensemble: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano)

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  54. Songs and Romances, Volume I: 36. Mne grustno

    Composer: Alexander Dargomïzhsky

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)


  55. Songs and Romances, Volume I: 46. Melnik

    Composer: Alexander Dargomïzhsky

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)


  56. Rustic Song in F Minor "Where are You Little Star"

    Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)


  57. Hat dich die Liebe berührt

    Composer: Joseph Marx

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)


  58. Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21: 5. Valse de Chopin

    Composer: Joseph Marx

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)


  59. Gedichte aus 'Letzte Blätter' (8), Op. 10: 3. Die Nacht

    Composer: Richard Strauss

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)


  60. Lieder (4), Op. 27: 2. Cäcilie

    Composer: Richard Strauss

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)


  61. Salome, Op. 54: Final Scene

    Composer: Richard Strauss

    Ensemble: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

    Performer: Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano)

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  62. Don Quixote, Op. 35

    Composer: Richard Strauss

    Ensemble: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

    Performer: Grogor Piatogorsky (Cello)

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  63. Don Juan, Op. 20

    Composer: Richard Strauss

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner


  64. Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, H. 55

    Composer: Arthur Honegger

    Conductor: Fritz Reiner