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Fritz Reiner
Oscar Chicago
The years immediately following the death of Frederick Stock in 1942 were an unsettled period in the history of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Désiré Defauw, Artur Rodziński and Rafael Kubelík enjoying only short tenures as music director and with many guest conductors sharing the podium in the interim seasons. With the arrival of Fritz Reiner, the Orchestra regained its stability and direction once again.
Born in Budapest in 1888, Reiner held a strict mastery of the Orchestra; his sometimes-acid temper caused some to fear and criticize the maestro. Leonard Bernstein, a conducting student of Reiner’s, explained it this way: “Reiner is not usually remembered as a generous, warm and loving man — which he was. Rather, he’s remembered for being mean, cruel, and tyrannical with the orchestra and, certainly, with his students . . . I can vouch for that. But the meanness was an act. What was really true about the man was a fierce love of music and a fierce set of standards about one’s right as a conductor to ascend the podium in the first place.”
Fritz Reiner and the Orchestra in the WGN studios, preparing for a concert recording for television.
These images from the Reiner photo archives reveal the maestro in a more relaxed setting, at Rambleside, his Connecticut home.
Reiner and his musicians onstage, casually dressed for a matinee performance in Orchestra Hall.
Carlotta Reiner often accompanied the Orchestra on tours and run-out concerts. This photo suggests that in the 1950s travel by rail was a relaxed and comfortable experience.
Beer appears to be the most popular beverage at this gathering of musicians. Reiner chats with Concertmaster John Weicher and Carlotta Reiner.
The maestro is engaged in conversation with fellow Hungarian and Assistant Concertmaster Victor Aitay.
Judy Garland appeared in a series of six sold-out concerts at Orchestra Hall in 1958, under the auspices of Allied Arts.
The technology of television clearly fascinated Reiner, perhaps because of its kinship to his favorite hobby, photography. WGN’s Great Music from Chicago was a weekly, live one-hour program featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by a number of distinguished conductors.
The chair on which Reiner “perched” during rehearsals was described as absurdly too tall for him. The long iron legs were connected by crossbars upon which the maestro rested the balls of his feet. As described in High Fidelity magazine by Martin Mayer in 1960, “From the rear he seems a slumped gnome, but from the front his appearance is very different. The bright, sharp eyes dart everywhere in the orchestra; the skin is taut on the forehead as though to help the ears pull in the sound; the right arm, elbow suspended, beats precisely, economically, with the smallest visible gestures. Reiner’s famous vest-pocket beat is not something he reserves for concerts. Its purpose is to make sure the men are watching the conductor rather than counting their own measures, and Reiner wants his men to watch the conductor at rehearsals too.”
Fritz Reiner first heard Margaret Hillis’s New York Concert Choir in 1954 and engaged the ensemble to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra twice over the next three years. In 1957, he invited Hillis to establish and lead the Chicago Symphony Chorus. She rose to the challenge and also became the first woman to conduct the Orchestra, first on a special concert in November 1957 and later on subscription concerts in December 1958.
Chorus Director Margaret Hillis, Fritz Reiner, and Associate Conductor Walter Hendl onstage with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in March 1959, prior to a performance of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky.
Oscar Chicago
As the Borg-Warner Corporation prepared to erect their new building on the southwest corner at Adams and Michigan (the former site of the Pullman Building) in 1956, there was concern that Orchestra Hall had suffered damage. As a precautionary measure, concerts were temporarily moved to the Civic Opera House.
Chicago Sun-Times
The maestro joined the newest members of the Orchestra for an informal photo in 1953. The new musicians are (left to right): Nathan Snader, violin; Juan Cuneo, violin; Joseph Golan, violin; Alan Fuchs, horn; Sheppard Lehnhoff, viola; Ray Still, oboe; and János Starker, cello
Orchestra members Donald Peck, principal flute, and Edward Druzinsky, principal harp, were soloists in Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in April 1963. As they take their bows, Reiner joins the audience in applause.
Russian pianist Emil Gilels recorded Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto with the Orchestra and Reiner in February 1958 for RCA Victor.
During his years in Chicago, Reiner performed works by Béla Bartók on numerous programs. He greatly admired his fellow Hungarian’s innovative music and began playing Bartók’s work long before it was recognized for its greatness. This photo of the two Hungarian masters was taken by Reiner, using the camera’s self-timing function, just a few short months before Bartók’s death in 1945.
Two years after winning the prestigious 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Van Cliburn made his first appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Reiner conducting. Before rehearsing with the Orchestra, conductor and pianist met for a pre-rehearsal at Reiner’s home. Cliburn would perform four more times during Reiner’s tenure, and their performances of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto in April 1963 were Reiner’s last public appearances.
In this charming photo of Reiner and his wife, Carlotta, taken at their Connecticut home Rambleside, barely detectable is a moustache on the famous stiff upper lip of the maestro.
All images from the collections of the Rosenthal Archives of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association unless otherwise noted.
