COMPOSERS: Rimsky-Korsakov/Stravinsky
LABELS: RCA Living Stereo
WORKS: Scheherazade
PERFORMER: Chicago SO/Fritz Reiner
CATALOGUE NO: 09026 68168 2 ADD (1956/60)
A feared podium martinet, Fritz Reiner (1888-1963) could galvanise and coax his players into producing kaleidoscopic orchestral sonorities. His justly famous 1960 Sheherazade illustrates the point. By turns arrestingly dramatic and beguilingly seductive, Reiner’s account gripped my imagination as a child, and the spell remains unbroken. Stravinsky’s Song of the Nightingale was taped four years earlier. This performance occasionally goes into overdrive, but remastering of the original three-track ‘Living Stereo’ masters ensures newly minted clarity throughout. Don’t miss Reiner’s glitzy Sheherazade. Michael Jameson
Rimsky-Korsakov/Stravinsky: Scheherazade
A feared podium martinet, Fritz Reiner (1888-1963) could galvanise and coax his players into producing kaleidoscopic orchestral sonorities. His justly famous 1960 Sheherazade illustrates the point. By turns arrestingly dramatic and beguilingly seductive, Reiner’s account gripped my imagination as a child, and the spell remains unbroken. Stravinsky’s Song of the Nightingale was taped four years earlier. This performance occasionally goes into overdrive, but remastering of the original three-track ‘Living Stereo’ masters ensures newly minted clarity throughout.
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:38 pm