Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Hungarian Sketches

Bela Bartok (Composer), Fritz Reiner (Conductor), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)

Product Details

• Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Fritz Reiner
• Composer: Bela Bartok
• Audio CD (August 10, 1993)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000003FEJ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,831 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Since its release on LP in the mid-1950s, Fritz Reiner's rendition of the Concerto for Orchestra has stood as the standard against which all other recordings of the work are measured. Even after all these years, the recording remains just as convincing and authoritative. Reiner's superb control of his orchestra and of Bartók's rhythms and textures is still unsurpassed, even by dozens of subsequent conductors in the digital age. Likewise, the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta shows just what an incredible ensemble the Chicago Symphony was under Reiner's direction. This umpteenth reissue, in RCA's Living Stereo series, promises to be the one to have, its sonics noticeably improved over the earlier CD release in 1989. --David Vernier

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Sound, Outstanding Performance, February 14, 2001

By	Ed Luhrs (Long Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I adore this CD, and I greatly admire Bartok as a composer of music and a music scholar. I first heard a recording of Charles Dutoit conducting the Concerto for Orchestra with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. That performance was also great, but at the time I really only enjoyed the finale. When I got this recording, I was ready for the other movements. This Fritz Reiner recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is from quite a long time ago, yet it sounds like it was made yesterday. It's presence and atmosphere keep you immersed in the music. Reiner has an unbelievable knack for conducting Bartok. Reiner was also a tremendous supporter of Bartok and one of the first conductors to champion his works. Both the Concerto for Orchestra and the Music for Percussion, Strings, and Celesta contain all that is best in Bartok's work. (Also check out his three piano concertos, which are equally remarkable!) Bartok's compositional style alternates between extraterrestrial melodic beauty and flashes of angular, barbaric rhythms. The climactic moments frequently jump at the listener like a crack of thunder, yet underlying it all is a supreme logic and a sense of balance. The Hungarian Sketches are lively examples of Bartok's dedication to bringing folk traditions to orchestral music. Since Reiner ranks among the 20th century's greatest conductors, and since Bartok brings a supreme scholastic energy to his music, I recommend this recording highly.

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unsurpassed Musically and Sonically, June 5, 2001

By	George Grella "Urbane citizen" (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are plenty of enthusiastic reviews that attest to the quality of this performance, so I can only add, emphatically, that this is the greatest recorded performance of one of two of the greatest pieces by one of the greatest Modern composers. That being said, CD buyers are often wary of the sound quality of early stereo recordings remastered on CD. To them I would say that this is also one of the very best sounding CDs you will ever own of any music, recorded in digital or analog. Absolutely full, rich and clear sound, simply beautiful to the ear. One of the great classical recordings ever made.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Concerto recording is as authoritative as you can get!, April 20, 1999

By A Customer

Most people do not know the circumstances that made the Concerto possible. Bartok had just come to this country, an impoverished musician and composer from his native war-torn Hungary in 1944. Years earlier, a close friendship had developed between his student, Fritz Reiner, while Reiner was still at the Budapest Academy. After graduation and a brief European stint, Reiner came to the U.S. to further his career as a conductor. In the intervening years, Reiner and Bartok maintained a close and regular correspondence with each other. It was during Reiner's tenure at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that Bartok came to the U.S., financially ruined, ill, and devoid of the desire to compose. Reiner, by now well-off financially and successful, took his former teacher under his wing and helped him financially as well as spiritually. During Bartok's convalescence, Reiner and other U.S.-based musicians arranged for Bartok to receive a commission for a composition from the Boston Symphony. This was the creative spark needed to fire Bartok's compositional talents once again, and resulted in the Concerto for Orchestra. The first performance was by Kousssevitzky and the Boston Symphony in 1945; the first recording was by Reiner and Pittsburgh by Columbia Masterworks that same year.

But improvements in recording technology and music directorship of an ensemble much superior to that of Pittsburgh resulted in Reiner again committing the Concerto to tape for RCA in Chicago in 1955. The result is a performance and recording much superior to the earlier Pittsburgh one. This recording gives the Chicago first chair musicians opportunity to "strut their stuff." The later recording of "Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta" is nonpareil in its own right.

Despite the Concerto having the so-called "hole-in-the-middle" that afflicted early stereo recordings, this problem had been solved by the time of the Music for Strings recording in 1958. Nevertheless, both recordings sound great for their age, and authority of performance is no way in doubt here. Buy this recording with absolute confidence and need to look no further.