There’s still an inevitable
sliver of tape hiss but Reiner’s New
World still sounds splendid. It’s
every bit as vibrant and self assured
as one would expect but without any
sense of excessively hard-driven tension.
He draws particularly expressive playing
from wind principals and from the ravishing
Chicago string choirs (try the ecclesiastical
piety of the melody line of the slow
movement) and spices this with youthful
playfulness. His Scherzo is ebullient
and powerful and the finale sweeping
but not overdone - and with tremendous
inner rhythm. If, in the last resort,
this isn’t quite as verdant a reading
as the almost contemporaneous Paray
it lacks for nothing in individuality
and excellence of execution. It’s unfortunately
the only commercial recording of a Dvořák
symphony that he ever recorded.
Coupled with it on
this all-Czech disc is a driving and
ebullient, though super-subtle Carnival
and a good Bartered Bride overture;
not as fizzy as some but with no false
theatrics about it. The Polka and Fugue
from Schwanda the Bagpiper is more than
a mere postscript though one may have
wanted more meat from the programme.
It’s worth noting however that these
were three composers with whose works
Reiner was certainly familiar. It’s
often overlooked that he shared the
conducting duties at the Slovenian opera
house in Laibach with Talich, a near
contemporary, and one he greatly admired,
though their New World recordings
retain independence. Both revered Nikisch
and both followed in Mahler’s footsteps;
he’d conducted there about thirty years
before. It’s not hard to trace the seed
of Reiner’s enthusiasm for Czech music
to these early days around 1910 when
he was known as Friderik Reiner and
engaged on important operatic work in
the Municipal Theatre. He led Dalibor
there, his only performance of that
opera, though it’s true that his Smetana
repertoire was limited. It’s a pity
however that we have no Fall or Weiner
from his Hungarian heritage; he was
a strong advocate of the latter’s music
and examples of, say, the Serenade for
Small orchestra, the Divertimento after
Old Hungarian Dances and the Pastorale,
Fantasy and Fugue certainly showed up
often in his concert programmes; and
he did record the Divertimento in 1945
on 78, though never on LP.
That said the total
timing of this disc is perfectly acceptable.
This is a SACD to which I’ve been able
to listen only on an ordinary set up.
Jonathan Woolf
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reiner 
RCA RED SEAL LIVING STEREO SUPER AUDIO CD 82876
66376 2 [64.09] 
