A Wagner Concert from Pittsburgh and Reiner

My recent post of a Brahms concerto with Rudolf Serkin, the Pittsburgh Symphony and Fritz Reiner sent me looking through my files for other early Reiner recordings. The first one that came to hand was this "Wagner concert" from the first years of the conductor's tenure in the then-Steel City.

As sometimes happens, my friend Bryan of The Shellackophile blog had the simultaneous idea of posting the same set, and did so yesterday. I would urge you to go there to take advantage of Bryan's efforts, for several reasons: he does a great job on his transfers; he worked from the 78 set while I worked from the LP; he includes the very good graphics from the 78 album, which appear to be by Alex Steinweiss; and his download includes the Venusberg music, not included here.

Reiner caricature by
Olga Koussevitzky

Here are the LP contents and dates (all recordings were made in the Syria Mosque):

Die Meistersinger - Prelude (January 9, 1941)
Siegfried - Forest Murmurs (January 9, 1941)
Lohengrin - Prelude from Act 1 (November 15, 1941)
Lohengrin - Prelude from Act 3 (January 9, 1941)
Die Walküre - Ride of the Valkyries (February 25, 1940)

Similar to the Brahms, these excerpts display fine control, balance and orchestral discipline, if little glamour, delivered in boxy sound.

Reiner's later work in Chicago has been much discussed; I'll be posting a few more examples of what he was able to accomplish in Pittsburgh. If you want to learn more about the conductor, here's a good article with some familiar anecdotes and a few I hadn't heard before.