Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Fritz Reiner is the darling of used record dealers. Audiophiles pay astronomical prices for his RCA "plum label" and "shaded dog" LP pressings. [hint: for ease of navigation, read the review though to the end, then come back and click on the links.] Chicago's Orchestra Hall was the venue Mercury Records used for a highly praised series of "Living Presence" LPs, 1951-1953, conducted by Raphael Kubelik: Kubelik Conducts The ultimate in orchestral sound during the monaural era. Orchestra Hall also proved to be the ideal location for RCA's "Living Stereo" LP recordings wth Fritz Reiner, produced between 1954 and 1963. A better recording studio than concert hall - the room actually sounded better empty. Produced by Richard Mohr and John Pfeiffer, engineer Lewis Layton. After Reiner's retirement, Orchestra Hall was remodeled with disastrous results, which effectively sabotaged the tenure of his successor Jean Martinon. Decca tried a number of different recording venues for Georg Solti, but none could match the old sound of Orchestra Hall. Fritz Reiner was always a conductor I respected more than loved, but respect can take you a long way. He had the strangest conducting technique I've ever seen. Captured on DVD: Chicago Symphony Orchestra Historic Telecasts 1953-1954: Fritz Reiner - and - Chicago Symphony Orchestra Historic Telecasts: Reiner/Hindemith/Stokowski He held a small baton waist-high, and moved it maybe 6 inches (15 centimeters) in any direction; a perpetual scowl on his face. Otto Klemperer conducted with a perpetual scowl on his face, but he couldn't help it. Surgery to remove a brain tumor left him partially paralyzed for the last 30 years of his life. Fritz Reiner was a mean old man. He scowled and meant it. Unlike most conductors, Fritz Reiner wasn't interested in leaving posterity with "Complete" editions of the symphonic repertoire. He recorded only those works that appealed to him: 6 Beethoven symphonies, 4 Mozart symphonies, 3 Haydn symphonies, 2 symphonies each by Brahms and Schubert, and a single symphony each from Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Mahler. He made a specialty of 20th Century orchestral showpieces: Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra (a work he commissioned), Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky (sung in English), and eight LPs of Richard Strauss (a composer with whom he was closely associated in the 19teens (?). With the advent of stereo, RCA thought of Reiner and Chicago as the Ideal Concerto Accompanists for their biggest stars: Arthur Rubinstein in Brahms and Rachmaninov; Jascha Heifetz in Brahms and Tchaikovsky. But Reiner's abrasive personality got in the way, and after some especially unpleasant sessions, Rubinstein was unwilling to record with him again. Despite all the tension, or perhaps because of it, the Rubinstein records (Brahms, Rachmaninov) are among the truly great recordings of the century. Heifetz recorded the Sibelius Concerto with Reiner's assistant Walter Hendl, but that was due to Reiner's health issues. Reiner had a much better working relationship with younger, less established musicians: soprano Leontyne Price, pianists Byron Janis and Van Cliburn. Maybe they were too intimidated to cross him. Wonderful performances nonetheless. An exception to this pattern was was the great Russian pianist Emil Gilels who collaborated happily with Reiner in a 1955 recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto. Gilels was the first Soviet pianist to record with an American orchestra. A Major Cultural Event. Reiner was on his best behavior. Perhaps he wanted to show off his new orchestra. This was the Chicago Symphony's first "best seller" on the record charts (for three years - until Van Cliburn displaced it). When Gilels returned in 1958 to record the Brahms Second Concerto, Reiner had reverted to his old abrasive self. No matter - this recording is also treasurable. Reiner mellowed a great deal following a 1960 heart attack. The "Scene by the Brook" in Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony (CD 59) is improbably tender and moving. Conclusion: Wonderful recordings by a great conductor - terrible person - with a great orchestra in remarkable sound. REMASTERINGS: Other than "Every recording in this new 63-CD set comes from the best re-mastered source", Sony is a bit coy about the sources used, but I was able to identify three sources: 1) "Living Stereo CDs" - Half the contents of this box. RCA introduced these audiophile CDs in 1993. They actually used vacuum tubes in the earliest stage of the re-mastering process. A big improvement over earlier "Red Seal", "Gold Seal" and "Silver Seal" CD incarnations. Beginning in 2004, most of Reiner's "Living Stereo" CDs were re-mastered as state-of-the art 24-bit SACDs. These were "hybrid" SACDs: in addition to the SACD layer (for which you need an SACD player), they have a standard CD layer. Note: The CDs in this box are 24-bit CDs, not SACDs, which means that the sound will not be as good as SACD, though this is the best these recordings have sounded on CD. But I think I'll keep my SACDs. * 2) Japanese XRCDs - Hiromuchi Takiguchi is identified as the tape mastering engineer for 12 titles in this collection. These are the hyper-expensive XRCDs, imported from Japan: - Beethoven Symphonies 6,7, Fidelio Overture ---- Brahms Piano Concerto 2 (Emil Gilels) - Liszt Mephisto Waltz ---- Mozart Divertimento, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik ---- Prokofiev Lt.Kije - Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra (1962) ---- Stravinsky Song of the Nightingale ---- Tchaikovsky Symphony 6, 1812 Overture. All but the Beethoven 6, Brahms and Mozart were previously issued as "Living Stereo" CDs. Sony chose XRCD over "Living Stereo". XRCDs have greater clarity, but the "Living Stereo" sound is warmer. At my age, I prefer warmth to clarity. 3) New 24-bit DSD re-masterings - A third of the recordings in this box have not been on CD since the 1980's. Andreas K. Meyer and Jeanne Montalvo are the tape mastering engineers responsible for the new 24-bit DSD re-masterings. This box would a great bargain for the sake of those 32 titles alone: - Bach: Piano Concerto 5 (Andre Tchaikovsky) - Beethoven: Symphonies 1,3,9 ---- Berlioz: Les nuits d'été (Leontyne Price) ---- Brahms Symphony 3, Tragic Overture ** - Debussy: Ibéria ---- Haydn: Symphonies 88,95,101 ---- Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture - Mozart: Symphonies 36,39,40,41, Don Giovanni Overture, Piano Concerto 25 (Andre Tchaikovsky) - Ravel: Alborada del gracioso, Valses nobles et sentimentales ---- Rossini: 6 Overtures ----- Schubert Symphonies 5,8 - J. Strauss: 2 Waltzes (Artist's Life, Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb' und Lust) ---- Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker highlights These would benefit from a bass boost - but its a clean bass, so they can take it without distortion. Rule of thumb: If the tape transfer is the work of Hiromuchi Takiguchi, its an XRCD. If its the work of Andreas K. Meyer or Jeanne Montalvo, its a new 24-bit DSD re-mastering. Any other tape transfer engineer, its a "Living Stereo" re-master. A MYSTERY: Though RCA recorded Reiner in stereo from his first Chicago session, six later sessions were issued in mono only: Beethoven's Eroica, Mozart Symphonies 36, 39, 40, Divertimento K.334 and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K.525. It looks like the 1954-55 Mozart recordings will always be mono (aside from Symphony 41, which is excellent stereo). But there is a mystery about the Eroica - On page 52 of the book: "Note: LM-1899 was recorded in stereo but has never been released on LP in this format. First stereo release on CD JMCXR-0019 in Japan." I believe that is an XRCD catalog number, so I was expecting to hear the XRCD stereo Eroica. Instead it is newly transfered in mono by Andreas K. Meyer & Jeanne Montalvo in 2013. Several correspondents have pointed out that JMCXR-0019 is in fact the XRCD catalog number for the stereo Eroica recorded by Munch and the Boston Symphony in 1957. A correspondent informs me that a light on his CD player indicates that the Eroica is stereo. My lying ears disagree. I went back and re-listened on headphones. It is mono with a little added reverberation. Perhaps this is confusing the electronics in his CD player. Using headphones, I compared the Eroica (CD 5) recorded December 4, 1954, with Don Juan (CD 4) recorded two days later. The difference is night and day. A wide, detailed stereo image for Don Juan versus an orchestra squeezed into the middle of my brain for the Eroica (it sounds better over speakers). Starting to look like Reiner never recorded the Eroica in stereo. Bummer. [see the comment dated January 13, 2014 for a breakdown of Reiner's early recording sessions.] POINTS OF INTEREST: - This set includes five Reiner /Chicago recordings never before on CD, outside of Japan: 1) Bach Keyboard Concerto 5 in F minor, BWV 1056 - Andre Tchaikovsky, piano 2) Mozart Piano Concerto 25 in C, K.503 - Andre Tchaikovsky, piano 3) Rolf Liebermann: Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra, "Long Hairs, Hepcats - Dig that crazy Combo!" (RCA publicity). 4) "The Star-Spangled Banner" - apparently intended for use in schools and at sporting events. 5) "Fritz Reiner discusses Beethoven's 7th Symphony" (59 seconds) - RCA radio promo for the LP recording. - Pianist Andre Tchaikovsky (no relation) is soloist in the Bach/Mozart Concertos. Not one of the great pianists, but his memory lives on. After retiring from music, he began a new career as a Shakespearian actor: Probably the greatest Yorick of our time. He left his fortune to the Royal Shakespeare Company on condition that they use his skull in future productions of Hamlet. Look up "Yorick" on Wikipedia for a picture of an actor holding Andre Tchaikovsky's skull ............. Wow. *** - Haydn Symphonies 95 & 101 were recorded not in Chicago, but in New York with "His Symphony Orchestra" I assume this is a reference to Fritz Reiner, not God. - Not included: Reiner's Brahms 4th Symphony was recorded in 1962 with the Royal Philharmonic, for Reader's Digest: Brahms / Beethoven Between 1956 and 1960 he made some stereo recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic for Decca: - Brahms, Dvorak, R. Strauss: Fritz Reiner-the Decca Orchestral Recordings - Verdi Requiem (with Leontyne Price and Jussi Bjoerling): Verdi: Requiem/Four Sacred Pieces - or - Verdi: Requiem PACKAGING: This is an original jacket collection with a nice hard-cover book and program notes reproduced in tiny print on the back of the jackets. There were four 2-LP sets, which are needlessly packaged here as four 2-CD sets, even though all works are complete on a single CD. Also, for some reason, these 2-CD sets get no program notes, just 3 blank pages (especially unfortunate in the case of Strauss's Elektra). These Sony 2-CD cardboard jackets are notoriously hard to open and tend to get torn at the corners. **** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * On the Amazon Search Bar, look up Music: "Reiner SACD" - most are still available at surprisingly low prices. Another good source for SACDs is arkivmusic.com - Go to their website. At the top right, click on SACDs; under BROWSE SUPER AUDIO CD click on Conductor; then click on Fritz Reiner. They also have a detailed list of the contents of the Reiner box. ** The notes indicates that movements 1 and 3 of Brahms Third are transferred by Takiguchi (XRCD), and movements 2 and 4 are the work of Meyer & Montalvo (new DSD remastering). This is probably a typo. The Tragic Overture is a new DSD remastering by Meyer & Montalvo, so I'm guessing the whole disc is their work. *** There is an Andre Tchaikovsky website. Check out andretchaikowsky.com **** Drastic solution: Get a paper cutter (not scissors). Trim 1/16 of an inch (1.5 millimeters) off the outer ends (the sealed ends). So long as you get a straight cut, it looks totally professional. The CDs will now slide out easily. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ P.S. Sony has issued a companion box devoted to Jean Martinon, Fritz Reiner's successor as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony. Highly recommended: Complete Chicago Symphony Orchestra Recordings P.P.S. After fifty years of listening to classical music: I love Otto Klemperer and Bruno Walter. I had fun with Beecham and Stokowski (still do). I respect Barbirolli, Bernstein, Karajan, Kubelik, Monteux, Munch, Reiner, Szell, and maybe two dozen others (limiting it to the stereo era). The more recent generation has had no effect on me. - I do commend Simon Rattle for including a photo of his Grandmother on the cover of every CD. I wish MY grandchildren were so considerate. P.P.P.S. I apologize for the length of this review. I have O.C.D. Not debilitating, but when I get something like this, I need to take it apart, examine it under a microscope, then re-assemble the parts in a more logical fashion. It can make life difficult.