Fritz Reiner - The Reiner Sound (1958) 24-Bit/96-kHz Vinyl Rip

Fritz Reiner includes three very interesting pieces on LSC-2183. He chose well. The pieces highlight the greatness that is Fritz Reiner and his amazing Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As represented here, the “Reiner Sound” - rich, detailed and incredibly dynamic - is married unswervingly to honest interpretations of the highest musical caliber. Reiner is rarely surpassed in his RCA repertoire.
This quality brings me directly to Rapsodie Espagnole. Even when compared to the great Ansermet recording or Monteux’s exalted version (respectively, London’s CS 6024 and CS 6248), Reiner still reigns supreme - his Rapsodie is the most luscious and overtly romantic performance I know, executed with a surgeon’s precision and a swagger worthy of Bernstein at his best. All this elevated emotion is even more amazing when considering Reiner’s glowering yet somnolent demeanor. Still waters must run very deep.
The fabulous sonics are more than a match for the musical conception(s). The Isle of the Dead is given a beautifully spacious recording allowing the tension Reiner builds to flow over the listener in wave after wave of powerful orchestral sonority. The Ravel pieces showcase real transparency; in Prélude de la Nuit of Rapsodie Espagnole, inner voices orchestrated so masterfully by Ravel are heard with x-ray clarity while retaining their texture and natural timbre. I could imagine the second clarinetist hoping (praying) for a clear beat in order to match Clark Brody’s lead in the clarinet cadenzas. The same can be said for the lower strings at the opening Malagueña - no worries, though, as the microdynamics of the recording tell the tale of amazing ensemble playing. So it goes, ad infinitum, on this great LP. Certainly, another must have in this series.
(Anthony Kershaw - Audiophilia Classics)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Fritz Reiner
Producer: Richard Mohr
Engineer: Lewis Layton
Recorded in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, 1958

Track Listing:

1. Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole
2. Ravel: Pavan for a Dead Princess
3. Rachmaninoff: Isle of the Dead, Op.29