fritz reiner conducts mahler dvorak

FRITZ REINER CONDUCTS MAHLER & DVORAK ( WS 121.147)

(2 CDs)

MAHLER

Das Lied von der Erde

Symphony No. 4

DVORAK

Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”

FRITZ REINER

Chicago Symphony Orchestra 1957-1959 RCA Original productions

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Among the classics of 20th-century recording, the period of stereophonic recordings made by RCA in Chicago with Fritz Reiner conducting the American city's orchestra is certainly not lacking. The quality of these stereo recordings is truly astonishing even today, half a century later, and highlights the rigor but also the virtuosity of the Chicago instrumentalists. As for Reiner's interpretative vision of the late Romanticism of Mahler and Dvorak, one should speak of "classicism." A vision extremely guarded by expressive rhetoric. This is especially true with the Mahler of the Fourth Symphony , here truly heavenly, far from the turgidity of the Third and of the Eighth . Mysterious and equally distributed between vocal and orchestral expressiveness is the approach to the Das Lied von der Erde ; while the interpretation of the last one is almost solemn and calm Symphony by Dvorak. In any case, it is the recorded legacy of one of the most illustrious European conductors working in America in the mid-20th century, a legacy still worthy of great attention today and a model of a mystical approach free from self-promotion and didactic pretensions.