Fritz Reiner, Maestro and Martinet

359 Pages·2005·5.842 MB·English

by  Kenneth Morgan

Fritz
Reiner
maestro
& martinet
Kenneth Morgan
00.front.i-xviii/Morgan 7/12/05 10:36 AM Page i
Fritz Reiner,Maestro and Martinet
00.front.i-xviii/Morgan 7/12/05 10:36 AM Page ii
music in american life
Alistofbooks in the series
appears atthe end ofthis book.
00.front.i-xviii/Morgan 7/12/05 10:36 AM Page iii
fritz reiner
Maestro and Martinet
Kenneth Morgan
university of illinois press
urbana and chicago
00.front.i-xviii/Morgan 7/12/05 10:36 AM Page iv
©2005by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
c 5 4 3 2 1
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data
Morgan, Kenneth, 1953–
Fritz Reiner, maestro and martinet /
Kenneth Morgan.
p. cm. — (Music in American life)
Includes bibliographical references (p. )
and index.
Discography: p.
isbn0-252-02935-6(cloth : alk. paper)
1. Reiner, Fritz, 1888–1963.
2. Conductors (Music)—United States—Biography.
I. Title. II. Series.
ml422.r38m6 2004
784.2′092—dc20 2003026968
00.front.i-xviii/Morgan 7/12/05 10:36 AM Page v
To the memoryofAlfred Griffin Morgan
and JanetMorgan
00.front.i-xviii/Morgan 7/12/05 10:36 AM Page vi
00.front.i-xviii/Morgan 7/12/05 10:36 AM Page vii
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1. The Man and the Musician 1
2. Early Years in Europe 23
3. Cincinnati 44
4. Teaching at Curtis 66
5. A Guest Conductor in the 1930s 84
6. Pittsburgh 106
7. At the Met 128
8. Chicago 147
9. The Recorded Legacy 175
10. Reiner the Interpreter 207
Appendix:
Timings of Recordings by Reiner 229
Notes 231
Discography:
Reiner on Compact Disc 271
Bibliography 279
Index 299
Illustrations followpage 146
00.front.i-xviii/Morgan 7/12/05 10:36 AM Page viii
00.front.i-xviii/Morgan 7/12/05 10:36 AM Page ix
Preface
This book provides a comprehensive scholarly
appraisal of the life and musical career of Fritz Reiner, the notable Hungarian
conductor whose main musical achievements occurred in the United States be-
tween the early 1920s and the early 1960s. In those four decades Reiner made
a significant contribution to the teaching of conducting at the Curtis Institute of
Music in Philadelphia; he built up the personnel and standing of the Cincinnati,
Pittsburgh, and Chicago Symphony Orchestras; and he played a leading role in
the opera house, primarily at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Reiner also
made many records of a wide repertoire that have been frequently reissued since
his death, recordings that critics esteem more now than when they were first
made. His musical impact on American orchestras was filtered through the lens
of his formative years in Hungary and Germany. A study of his musical legacy
must therefore discuss the musical training he brought with him as an immigrant
to the United States at the age of thirty-three and then trace how he adapted to
the new cultural situation across the Atlantic.
Reiner’s career has been outlined in a number of short articles, but the only
book devoted to him is Philip Hart’s Fritz Reiner:ABiography.Based on wide
reading and familiarity with the subject, Hart provides a useful sketch of Rei-
ner’s career and is helpful on two issues in particular. He portrays Reiner’s mar-
riages in detail, showing especially how his third wife, Carlotta, protected and
supported his career. He also discusses Reiner’s period as music director of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra from an informed (if one-sided) perspective
(Hart was assistant manager of the orchestra at the time). Virtually a third of
the biography concentrates on Reiner’s connection with Chicago, and these are
its best pages. Hart includes appendices listing Reiner’s repertoire and the com-
plex legal details pertaining to the custody of his personal papers after his death,
a story that leads up to the deposit of most of them at Northwestern University