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Fritz Reiner: Complete Columbia Album Collection

Complete Columbia Collection / Various (Box)
Release Date: 09/11/2020 
Label:  Sony   Catalog #: 19075936772  
Composer:  Maurice Ravel,  Claude Debussy,  Hector Berlioz,  Richard Wagner,   ... 
Performer:  Rudolf Serkin,  Carol Brice,  Hugo Kolberg,  Samuel Thaviu,   ... 
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner,  Daniel Saidenberg
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra,  Columbia Broadcasting Concert Orchestra,  Columbia String Ensemble,   ... 
Number of Discs: 14 
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Notes and Editorial Reviews

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 Read more 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. Read less

Works on This Recording

1.
La valse by Maurice Ravel
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1920; France 
2.
Images for Orchestra: no 2, Ibéria by Claude Debussy
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1905-1908; France 
3.
La damnation de Faust, Op. 24: Rákóczy March by Hector Berlioz
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1845-1846; France 
4.
Tarentelle styrienne "Danse" by Claude Debussy
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: circa 1890; France 
5.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Act 1 Prelude by Richard Wagner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1867; Germany 
6.
Siegfried: Forest Murmurs [Instrumental] by Richard Wagner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1871; Germany 
7.
Lohengrin: Act 1 Prelude by Richard Wagner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1847; Germany 
8.
Lohengrin: Act 3 Prelude by Richard Wagner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1847; Germany 
9.
Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1856; Germany 
10.
Tannhäuser: Venusberg Music by Richard Wagner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1861; Germany 
11.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Act 3 Prelude by Richard Wagner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1867; Germany 
12.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Dance of the Apprentices by Richard Wagner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1867; Germany 
13.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Entry of the Mastersingers by Richard Wagner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1867; Germany 
14.
Symphony no 2 in D major, Op. 36 by Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Classical 
Written: 1801-1802; Vienna, Austria 
15.
Night on the Bare Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1866; Russia 
16.
Symphonic Picture from "Porgy and Bess" by Robert Russell Bennett
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: by 1943; USA 
17.
Concerto for Piano no 1 in D minor, Op. 15 by Johannes Brahms
Performer:  Rudolf Serkin (Piano)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1854-1858; Germany 
18.
Concerto for Orchestra, Sz 116 by Béla Bartók
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1943; USA 
19.
Kamarinskaya by Mikhail Glinka
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1848; Russia 
20.
Il Signor Bruschino: Overture by Gioachino Rossini
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1813; Italy 
21.
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen by Gustav Mahler
Performer:  Carol Brice (Mezzo Soprano)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1883-1896; Germany 
22.
Magnificat in D major, BWV 243: Ex exultavit by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Daniel Saidenberg
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Broadcasting Concert Orchestra
Period: Baroque 
Written: circa 1728-1731; Leipzig, Germany 
23.
Magnificat in D major, BWV 243: Esurientes implevit bonis by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Daniel Saidenberg
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Broadcasting Concert Orchestra
Period: Baroque 
Written: circa 1728-1731; Leipzig, Germany 
24.
Mass in B minor, BWV 232: Qui sedes by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Daniel Saidenberg
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Broadcasting Concert Orchestra
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1747-1749; Leipzig, Germany 
25.
Mass in B minor, BWV 232: Agnus Dei by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Daniel Saidenberg
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Broadcasting Concert Orchestra
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1747-1749; Leipzig, Germany 
26.
El amor brujo: Pantomime by Manuel de Falla
Performer:  Carol Brice (Mezzo Soprano)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1914-1915; Spain 
27.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Orchestra, WoO 1: no 5 in G minor by Johannes Brahms
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1868; Austria 
28.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Orchestra, WoO 1: no 7 in A major by Johannes Brahms
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1868; Austria 
29.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Orchestra, WoO 1: no 12 in D minor by Johannes Brahms
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1868-1880; Austria 
30.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Orchestra, WoO 1: no 13 in D major by Johannes Brahms
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1868-1880; Austria 
31.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Orchestra, WoO 1: no 6 in D major by Johannes Brahms
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1868; Austria 
32.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Orchestra, WoO 1: no 21 in E minor by Johannes Brahms
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1880; Austria 
33.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Orchestra, WoO 1: no 19 in B minor by Johannes Brahms
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1880; Austria 
34.
Hungarian Dances (21) for Orchestra, WoO 1: no 1 in G minor by Johannes Brahms
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1868; Austria 
35.
Der Zigeunerbaron: Schatz-Walzer, Op. 418 by Johann Strauss Jr.
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1885; Vienna, Austria 
36.
Wiener Blut, Op. 354 by Johann Strauss Jr.
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1873; Vienna, Austria 
37.
Das Spitzentuch der Königin: Rosen aus dem Süden Waltzes, Op. 388 by Johann Strauss Jr.
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1880; Vienna, Austria 
38.
Carousel: Waltz by Richard Rodgers
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1945; USA 
39.
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 by Richard Strauss
Performer:  Hugo Kolberg (Violin)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1897-1898; Germany 
40.
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Op. 60: Suite by Richard Strauss
Performer:  Samuel Thaviu (Violin)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1918; Germany 
41.
Symphony no 35 in D major, K 385 "Haffner" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Classical 
Written: 1782; Vienna, Austria 
42.
Suite for Orchestra no 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Performer:  Sebastian Caratelli (Flute)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1738-1739; Leipzig, Germany 
43.
Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 "Little G minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Baroque 
Written: by 1706; Arnstadt, Germany 
44.
Symphony no 40 in G minor, K 550 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Classical 
Written: 1788; Vienna, Austria 
45.
Symphony no 6 in B minor, Op. 54 by Dmitri Shostakovich
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1939; USSR 
46.
Colas Breugnon, Op. 24: Overture by Dmitri Kabalevsky
Performer:  Sigurd Bockman (Clarinet)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1938/1969; USSR 
47.
Dances of Galánta by Zoltán Kodály
Performer:  Sigurd Bockman (Clarinet)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1933; Hungary 
48.
Divertimento for Strings no 1, Op. 20 "Old Hungarian Dances" by Leó Weiner
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1934; Budapest, Hungary 
49.
Suite for Orchestra no 1 in D major, Op. 43: Marche miniature by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1878-1879; Russia 
50.
Hungarian Sketches (5), Sz 97 by Béla Bartók
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1931; Budapest, Hungary 
51.
Brandenburg Concerto no 1 in F major, BWV 1046 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia String Ensemble
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1717; Germany 
52.
Brandenburg Concerto no 2 in F major, BWV 1047 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia String Ensemble
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1717-1718; Germany 
53.
Brandenburg Concerto no 3 in G major, BWV 1048 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia String Ensemble
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1711-1713; Germany 
54.
Brandenburg Concerto no 4 in G major, BWV 1049 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia String Ensemble
Period: Baroque 
Written: circa 1720; Germany 
55.
Brandenburg Concerto no 5 in D major, BWV 1050 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia String Ensemble
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1720-1721; Germany 
56.
Brandenburg Concerto no 6 in B flat major, BWV 1051 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia String Ensemble
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1708-1710; Germany 
57.
Don Giovanni, K 527: Don Ottavio, son morta! by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Alessio De Paolis (Tenor)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Period: Classical 
Written: 1787; Prague, Czech Republ 
58.
Don Giovanni, K 527: Or sai chi l'onore by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Alessio De Paolis (Tenor)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Period: Classical 
Written: 1787; Prague, Czech Republ 
59.
Don Giovanni, K 527: Crudele?...Non mi dir, bell' idol mio by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Period: Classical 
Written: 1787; Prague, Czech Republ 
60.
I am sad by Alexander Dargomizhsky
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1848; Russia 
61.
The miller by Alexander Dargomizhsky
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1850-1851; Russia 
62.
Where art thou, little star? by Modest Mussorgsky
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1857/1858; Russia 
63.
Italienisches Liederbuch: Hat dich die Liebe berüht by Joseph Marx
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1907-1911; Germany 
64.
Lieder aus dem "Pierrot Lunaire": no 1, Valse de Chopin by Joseph Marx
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1909; Germany 
65.
Lieder (8), Op. 10: no 3, Die Nacht by Richard Strauss
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1885; Germany 
66.
Lieder (4), Op. 27: no 2, Cäcilie by Richard Strauss
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano), Paul Ulanowsky (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1894; Germany 
67.
Salome, Op. 54: Final Scene by Richard Strauss
Performer:  Ljuba Welitsch (Soprano)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1903-1905; Germany 
68.
Don Quixote, Op. 35 by Richard Strauss
Performer:  Henri Temianka (Violin), Gregor Piatigorsky (Cello), Vladimir Bakaleinikoff (Viola)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1896-1897; Germany 
69.
Don Juan, Op. 20 by Richard Strauss
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1888-1889; Germany 
70.
Concertino for Piano by Arthur Honegger
Performer:  Oscar Levant (Piano)
Conductor:  Fritz Reiner
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1925; France 

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review:  ( 4 Customer Reviews )
 S'Wonderful, S'Marvelous, S'Reiner October 10, 2020 By Thomas F. (Tallahassee, FL) See All My Reviews "Whenever I listen to, for instance Richard Strauss' tone poems or the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, my comparison naturally is to the RCA Chicago Reiner issues. Well, these Columbia recordings with Pittsburgh blew me away. Despite having slightly older sound, and after all these were largely made in the 1940s, I am able to hear inner voicings that a normally are not audible in any other recordings I've ever heard. The recordings in the set are remarkable and better demonstrate Reiner's abilities to blend the various sounds throughout the orchestra than do his later RCAs, though I would not want to be without those either." Report Abuse
 Great Reiner October 10, 2020 By J. Palmer (Tucson, AZ) See All My Reviews "Although I had about ? of this material already, it was still a great purchase. The missing material alone was worth it, and some of the duplicated material had better transfers. It will surprise many to hear just how good Reiner was before his Chicago days, and how good these older mono recordings can be." Report Abuse
 Great Reiner / Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Reco October 10, 2020 By Arthur W. (Pleasant Valley, NY) See All My Reviews "The performances are generally outstanding and complement Fritz Reiner's later work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The only drawback for many will be the poor sound of some recordings. One will have to use a little imagination to overcome it. Columbia did better work with the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra during the 1940's." Report Abuse
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