Also, Haydn:
Symphony No. 88. Fritz Reiner, Chicago
Symphony Orchestra. HDTT HQCD313.
Among the first conductors I remember liking on LP in the
early Sixties when I started collecting classical music recordings seriously
was Fritz Reiner, who in the early Fifties took over the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra just a year or so before the dawn of the home-stereo revolution. He
only made stereo recordings in Chicago from 1954 until just before his death in
1963, but they remain for me among the best recordings of all time. That’s why
it came as a surprise to find that HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers) had
transferred to disc two recordings I didn’t even know Reiner had done, let
alone had I heard, Mozart’s Symphony No. 41
and Haydn’s Symphony No. 88.
Of course, not everyone likes Reiner the way I do; he
definitely falls into the special-taste category. His insistence on strict orchestral discipline and musical
precision results for some listeners in performances that may sound too
sterile, too controlled. Not for me. I’ve always thought he brought out the
best in any score he essayed, giving it a polish and control that allowed the
music itself to bloom more fully. Such is the case with these two recordings.
The more important of the two is the crowning jewel in
Mozart’s symphonic output, Symphony No.
41 in C major, K. 551, “Jupiter,” Mozart’s final and longest symphony,
which he wrote 1788, just three years before he died. Interestingly, scholars
are unsure whether Mozart even got the chance to hear it in his lifetime, yet
it remains one of the glories of the symphonic canon.
Understand, Reiner’s is not an interpretation one might
mistake for a period-instrument or historical approach, except in one regard.
Reiner practically attacks the opening Allegro
vivace, putting the emphasis on the direction "vivace," as in
lively or brisk. This is, indeed, lively and brisk to the point where if the
Chicago players were using period instruments and there were fewer of them, it
would sound like a historical performance at least in matters of tempo.
However, with the full force of the ensemble behind the playing this is clearly
a traditional rendering of the symphony.
And so it goes throughout the work, with Reiner carefully
observing Mozart's notations and making not just a grand statement but a fully
invigorating one, too. Not that all listeners are going to respond to it,
however. The reading hasn't the monumental lines of Klemperer's rendition, the
graceful refinement of Bohm's, the classical energy of Bernstein's, or the
sheer joy of Jochum's. Instead, we get the rigidly direct phrasing for which
people have come to expect from a Reiner interpretation.
Nevertheless, the Largo
still sings beautifully, the Minuet
still dances merrily along, and the Finale
retains all the zest, spirit, and vitality one could ask for, one of the best
on record. Even though this may be a go-for-the-throat reading of the
"Jupiter," it's one of the most-exciting, most-thrilling, and yet
most-moving "Jupiters" you'll find anywhere.
Coupled with the “Jupiter” is Haydn’s Symphony No. 88, written in 1787, a year before Mozart’s
masterpiece. It’s further interesting to note that the older Haydn, one of Mozart’s
inspirations, would continue writing music for close to two decades after
Mozart’s death; yet Mozart clearly surpassed his mentor before his passing.
What could Mozart have accomplished if he hadn’t died so relatively young? One
can only wonder in frustration.
Anyway, Reiner handles the Haydn piece as he did the
Mozart, with an exactitude and authority some listeners, including me to some
degree, might resist. Given that Haydn would eventually produce 104 symphonies,
it's remarkable that he was able to infuse each of them with such originality,
keeping them all quite different from one another. Now, I'm not suggesting I
could possibly tell any of the early symphonies, especially, from one another,
but if you listen to them consecutively as I once did (on Antal Dorati's
complete set), they do sound different from one to the next. So, expect in No. 88 some surprises. Although I have
to admit that Reiner can’t quite match a Beecham or a Jochum for cheerfulness
and charm in a Haydn symphony, I do find Reiner’s slightly more analytical
approach fresh and, in its own way, maybe not entirely satisfying but
affectionate.
RCA producer Richard Mohr and engineer Lewis Layton
recorded both symphonies in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, the Mozart in 1956 and the
Haydn in 1960. HDTT remastered the music from 2-track stereo tapes and burned
it to an HQCD. You’ll remember that in the early days of home stereo it was RCA
and Mercury who were doing some of the best, most-realistic recordings, with
RCA’s team of Mohr and Layton among those in the forefront. That doesn’t mean
everybody likes what they were doing; some people find RCA’s early stereo too
wide, but I’ve never agreed. While they can sometimes have a sort of
hole-in-the-middle effect, at least on some playback systems, these occasions
have been rare in my experience. What I generally hear is wide, true, but
faithfully wide, wide as in what a person might actually hear at a live event
from a moderately close, but not too close, center row distance. That’s the way
the orchestra sounds here.
The sonics are about as good in both symphonies as
anything being recorded today. More important, the sound HDTT reproduces here
is wide in breadth and wide-ranging in frequency response and dynamic range,
perhaps a touch more transparent in the Haydn. It also displays plenty of
orchestral depth, solid bite and impact, and a fine sense of hall ambience. In
other words, it sounds real. What's more, it sounds better than any of RCA's
own remasterings of Reiner's other Chicago performances to which I compared it,
fuller, rounder, and smoother.
For further information on the various formats,
configurations, blank HQCD discs, and prices of HDTT products, you can visit
their Web site at http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/storefront.php.
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
