Search - Strauss, Brahms, Dvorak :: Till Eulenspielgel / Hungarian Dances / Slavonic

At last, all of the lesser Vienna works by Reiner on one CD!

Wade H. Rice, Jr. | Alexandria,, Virginia USA | 01/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While Fritz Reiner was on vacation in Europe from his duties as conductor of the Chicago Symphony, he concertized in Vienna and made a few recordings with the Philharmonic. While these pieces should have been recorded by him in Chicago to give them the spontaneity I think they deserved by his own orchestra, they are not to be ignored. Anything Reiner recorded and wherever he recorded it, it certainly was not to be ignored. Reiner's recordings of these pieces have been given heaps of praise in past forums; there is no need for me to provide additional.While in Vienna, in addition to the Verdi Requiem, Reiner recorded Richard Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration," "Till Eulenspiegel," Dvorak's "Slavonic Dances" and Brahms' "Hungarian Dances." Past CD issues of this repertory (excluding the Verdi) were apparently hard-pressed to squeeze the other material onto one CD, and this issue succeeds in getting all of it onto one disk."

Reiner's strauss with a viennese accent

R. J. Claster | Van Nuys, CA United States | 06/24/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Reiner's performances of these two major Strauss tone poems embody his typical virtues of rhythmic drive and brilliantly clear textures, but filtered through the added warmth of sound and flexibility of expression of the Vienna Philharmonic's style, as compared to both his Chicago Symphony and Szell's Cleveland Orchestra. Till Eulenspiegel is vivid and energetic, as one would expect from Reiner, but in the case of his performance of Death and Transfiguration, its dramatic power and intensity is achieved less from linear drive (as with Szell's excellent Cleveland recording) and more from a rhetorical elasticity of phrasing, particularly with regard to Reiner's shaping of the big climaxes. The Vienna brass playing is particularly distinctive in that, while sounding less rhythmically precise than Szell's, actually brings out more of the considerable polyphony in the brass writing, plus one hears more warmth of tone both in the brass and lower strings.
In addition, the selections from Brahms's Hungarian dances are performed with particular relish and affection, again as one might expect from the Viennese.
Get this recording, in excellent remastered sound, along with Szell's Don Quixote and Don Juan coupling on Sony, which I have also reviewed on this site, as well as Reiner's classic 1954 accounts of Also Sprach Zarathustra and Ein Heldenleden (coupled on an excellent sounding RCA Living Stereo CD), and you will have a first class collection of all the major Strauss tone poems."

Not up to par

Kevin Orth | 12/19/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"You would think that the combination of the great conductor Fritz Reiner, the Vienna Philharmonic and Decca's famous sound would make for a "Legendary Performance" but this disc does not live up to the billing. Granted, practically anything Reiner recorded is above average, but the Vienna Philharmonic is just not up to the impossibly high standards of Reiner's late fifties Chicago ensemble. Those Chicago/Reiner recordings of Richard Strauss (and Bartok and Mussorgsky and Brahms and others) are true benchmarks. This disc, though charming in the lighter Brahms and Dvorak, has some truly wobbly moments from the Vienna Philharmonic that make you wish for the fiery, impeccable playing of the Chicagoans."