Search - Richard Strauss, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra :: Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Ein Heldenleben [Hybrid SACD]

A timely celebration of a "double" 50-year anniversary.

Bob Zeidler | Charlton, MA United States | 11/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A half century ago, I was a junior in high school. We used to have these gatherings called "assemblies," where the principal would collect the entire student body in the auditorium (no excuses allowed!) for an event of more than passing importance. At this late date, I can only remember a small handful of them: the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, President Truman relieving General MacArthur of his command. Oh, and one where two fellows from Ampex came to our high school to give a little demonstration of something called "stereophonic sound," using, needless to say, an Ampex tape recorder.



And the music for this demonstration? It was the brief opening prologue ("Sunrise") from Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra," in this very same Reiner/Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording. This was a "sneak preview to end all sneak previews," inasmuch as the monophonic LP ("New Orthophonic," I believe it was called) hadn't even been released at that early date. And, needless to say, this impressionable teenager was suitably impressed. So much so that, in the years to come, I acquired three LPs of the performance: the original monophonic LP, then the Living Stereo LP a few years later, and eventually, when the stereo LP had seen its better days, the Dynagroove rerelease (something I'd just as soon forget). I never did go the reel-to-reel route, and, when CDs eventually made their appearance, I opted for other performances of these two Strauss works rather than the earlier conventional Living Stereo CD release. But I always did have fond memories of that particular reel-to-reel tape demonstration back in '54; it was a direct copy of the 30ips master tape, and not the 7.5ips "consumer" version that came out shortly thereafter.



With BMG now releasing half-century-old Living Stereo classics as hybrid SACDs (10 at present, with surely more on the way), it was easy for me to select this recording as one of the first to sample. I was more than pleasantly surprised; just listening to the "Also Sprach Zarathustra" prologue had the effect of turning the clock back 50 years; truly a trip down Memory Lane!



In a phrase, I wasn't disappointed. Even listening to the conventional CD layer, it was easy to get the sense that there I was again, listening to the 30ips master tape. Even with headphones, I heard no evidence of tape hiss; just beautifully balanced stereo sound with a tremendous sense of not only left-to-right spatial array but depth as well. (This is particularly evident in "The hero's battlefield" segment of "Ein Heldenleben," where the initial muted trumpet fanfares sound as if they are coming from well behind the orchestra.) Throughout both massive tone poems, the music is well-served by RCA's "minimalistic" microphoning, with just two mikes picking up the sound field, and every single instrumental voice (and there are many of them) can clearly be heard. (Sir Thomas Beecham, that evergreen source of bon mots, reserved one of his best for "Ein Heldenleben" when he wrote that "I once spent a couple of days in a train with a German friend. We amused ourselves by discovering how many notes we could take out of 'Ein Heldenleben' and leave the music essentially intact. By the time we finished we had taken out fifteen thousand.")



As for Reiner's interpretations, perhaps the simplest way of putting it is that there is no time in the last half century that I can recall when these two performances were NOT included in EVERY "essential recordings" discography (even when the sound quality was not as it is here, in the hybrid SACD release). Reiner had a way of not oversentimentalizing these two works, as if they had been the products of one of the world's greatest egos, which, in fact, they were: Strauss made no bones about himself being the hero of "Ein Heldenleben." Reiner keeps things moving along, lest they bog down for the empty rhetoric that they can often be in lesser hands.



A century ago, when Strauss had been the most famous composer who was also a conductor and Gustav Mahler had been the most famous conductor who was also a composer, audiences couldn't get enough of the Strauss tone poems. (I think, in fact, that the record will show that Mahler conducted Strauss's tone poems more frequently than he did his own symphonies!)



And a half-century ago, when I had been in my musical adolescence, so to speak, I too couldn't get enough of them. But they haven't worn all that well in the intervening years. Now, considerably older and modestly wiser, I can only take them in infrequent doses. (Perhaps I've simply taken Strauss at his word when he described himself as "a first-rate second-rate composer.") And, fortunately for this now-jaded me, these Reiner performances, long perfect in everything but sound quality, have arrived with, finally, sound quality that matches the performances.



I have every expectation that future "essential recordings" discographies will continue to include these performances, now with this newly-refurbished sound quality that is the match of any.



Bob Zeidler"

SuperAudio shows off R. Strauss, Reiner, & Chicago

Dan Fee | Berkeley, CA USA | 10/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This master tape was originally made in 1954 in Symphony Hall in Chicago. RCA was experimenting with multichannel sound, in two or three channels, depending. This superaudio version encodes these master tapes directly into the new 24-bit digital format, sampling the signal and coding it digitally, over a million times per second. Both of these masterpieces for large orchestra get played to the nines, and then some, by the great Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony in one of their several golden periods.



In his era, Reiner may have never gotten his full musical credit. He was often regarded as very, very good; but too much of a standardized middle-of-the-road interpreter. Hearing these again and again over the following years, almost everybody began to realize what a true master he was, especially in repertoire that he found most congenial. His Richard Strauss tone poems are tops. The orchestra is brilliant and warm and solid in every department. The master tape captures it all, and Reiner's tempos and pacing are so exactly suited to both immediate passages and an overall conception of each work that you don't notice them at all. You are left drinking in the music. Just watch those calories.



It is only when you hear other, poorer performances that you remember that Richard Strauss was generally regarded as a genius who wrote second-tier music. He even thought he was a little below the absolute highest among the composers. Strauss himself once said that his music should be able to describe a room exactly, down to the silverware on the linen table cloth. Reiner gives his Richard Strauss the sort of attention that brushes away all the kitch, and incisively brings this late Romantic-era descriptive music to life as if there were nothing to it.



You will probably be using this disc to show off your new SACD system, if you have one. You will also be getting one of the greatest recordings ever made of these particular tone poems. What's not to like? Highly, highly recommended for both sound and for incredible performance."

Reiner, The Chicago, and the Rest of the World in Richard St

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 01/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In response to the one reviewer, Mr. Stenroos, who doesn't hear what everyone else does and much prefers Karajan in this music I thought an overview of this Reiner versus Karajan business might be enlightening.



To begin with the sound quality of the recordings, an important matter in this case. Differences in performance were accentuated (exaggerated might not be too strong a word) by the very different recording philosophies of the American RCA and German DG sound engineers.



Many American music critics of the 60's and 70's disliked Karajan DG issues, which they found mannered, while the sound to American critics was usually described in unflattering terms; cut off, or flattened by excessive filtering. These very real problems were largely ignored by the European press, in particular the writers of the highly influential Gramophone magazine, which at times waxed so loudly and consistently in praise of Karajan the magazine sounded like a DG house organ. This marked split between American and British critics on Karajan carried over into performance, something I'll discuss below; ironically some of the best sound Karajan ever received was not from DG, but Britain's EMI.



Apparently some of this has sunk into the current corporate decision-makers at DG; recent DG reissues on CD of Karajan and others appear to have gone back to the original tapes with frequently noticeable improvement on the CDs over the original slick and lifeless - read airless - DG LP recordings.

It should be noted this was a DG and Philips problem - recordings made by Telefunken, for example of the Berlin under Keilberth, are superior to the contemporaneous DG recordings. Listen to Keilberth in the Beethoven 7th, or any of the 1950's EMI recordings of Andre Cluytens leading the BPO in Beethoven. These later, in both mono and stereo, give an indication of how during the next several decades DG engineers would travel very far indeed from the fresh and airy soundstage of early analogue stereo.

Digital recordings of Karajan, though more up-to-date, have other issues. It's also enlightening that when Karajan recorded the first CD of an orchestra work he chose Strauss' Alpine Symphony, a showy but frankly banal choice to ring in such a now universal medium.





Reiner's sound by contrast was far more natural sounding, the hallmark of the magnificent recordings made by the early stereo engineers in America. These were the result of a decade and a half of careful testing and comparison. John Pfeiffer (see RCA Victor CD, the Age of Living Stereo: A Tribute to John PfeifferThe Age of Living Stereo: A Tribute to John Pfeiffer) had shown his creativity earlier, utilizing the film industry's technical resources to make remarkably advanced recordings of Pierre Monteux and the San Francisco in the 40's. RCA engineers had also taken a stab at Koussevitsky's famous reading of Also Sprach with the Boston Symphony. Sadly, although this was praised in its day for fidelity, the marvelous sounds of this queen of orchestras remain muted.



When RCA's engineers set forth to try Also Sprach again, this time with Reiner's Chicago Orchestra, RCA's engineers had several advantages.



1) The LP process, just introduced at the end of the 40's, was now largely perfected.

2) Enormous advances such as the tape recorder created by war time necessities gave RCA engineers far better equipment.

3) The friendly but intense competition between Mercury engineers, who had produced outstanding monuaral recordings of Kublik with Chicago added to the fire and served as a benchmark.

4) The Chicago symphony all but owned Also Sprach on records; of the first three tries, two were made in Chicago, the last and most recent a fine performance by Artur Rodzinski.

5) And most important, the unique genius of the RCA team, which, when added to the marvel of the new stereo process, completely opened out the soundstage, and produced new revolutionary recordings. These night and day improvements over the old '78s of just a dozen years before remain among the high points of recorded history.



However, as has been correctly pointed how by several reviewers, the Reiner recordings did have issues. The organ was one, and in certain sections where a great deal is going on the Reiner recordings fall a bit short. It is difficult to say how much of this is the conductor and how much the medium. For example, recording sound or choice of orchestra does not wholly explain Kempe's unrivalled gift for balancing the multiplicity of thematic strands Strauss backs up like so many freight cars.



The Hybrid SACD over the regular issue.

There have been many incarnations of the Reiner performances on CD. This most recent shows this Hybrid format SACD something of a bucking bronco, with even more punch and vibrancy tan the previous regular CD. This gives a rather wild quality, with certain orchestra sounds seemingly bursting the soundstage, this aspect is more noticeable when contrasted with sweeter strings than previous CD issues. The soundstage appears deeper, and a comparison with the original LP shows the reissue engineers clearly took into consideration the very 'bloomy' sounds heard on the original tapes. I can only wonder what reviewer Zeidler must have felt on experiencing his first hearing of stereo in a demonstration of this music using 30 inches per second Ampex tape machines!!! The brilliant "you were there" review he wrote is testimony to the lasting impact of Reiner's recording heard in all its pristine glory.



As analogue recording was replaced with digital, just as vacuum tubes had a decade before been replaced with transistors, the old recordings were largely considered passe and outdated. It was only through the energy and conviction of a small number of believers that they were finally revisited by a significant number of music lovers. Some people still prefer the older recordings, though I suspect a majority will never have a chance, unlike Mr. Zeidler, to hear first hand just what these issues offer. However, RCA's issuance of this and other of these special recordings in a Hybrid format is a huge boost and great opportunity. The prices are beyond fair - they are an open invitation and one which I hope will encourage far more people than ever before to hear these magical legendary performances. Too, with access to the original tapes many of the limitations imposed on the earlier LP recordings are no longer an issue in the CD format. Recordings universally disliked for harsh sound, such as many made by Szell and the Cleveland orchestra, fine Straussians, have been radically improved through release on SACD. Others such as these Hybrid SACDs of Reiner and Chicago offer features unavailable in the original releases. Qualities of performance previously assigned to conductors such as Szell, such as a disinterest in such things as color or svelte and dulcet tone, now appear partially the fault of recordings limitations. Szell Columbia recordings revisited through SACD come across with a palpable degree of gemutlichkeit, a quality utterly absent and unrecognized in the originals. Perhaps some of the criticism of Karajan, such as found in the comment of Mr. Bass, may be adjusted as we hear the newer reissues.



As for styles, Reiner was not just a feared martinet, but also a man of the theater, and like Mitropoulos brought to his conducting an active and obvious immediacy. This flair for whipping up excitement is on display in many excerpts we have of Reiner as conductor in the two early avant-garde Strauss operas, Salome and Elektra. It's impossible to hear these without falling prey to such adjectives as,"incadescent", or electrifying", or "white heat". Reiner in Salome can be quite over the top when compared to Karajan, who conducts the work in a more paced and deliberate fashion. Karajan was equally no stranger to the opera house, but in contrast to Reiner built up excitement through scale and weight. Karajan also tended to treat musical lines with less tension; Karajan was a devotee of very long almost Bellini-inspired melodies, captured with great conductorial skill in the spinning-out of long held pedal points - which he used to great effect in Bruckner. Karajan was equally at home showcasing pretty and decorative trimmings, with all the Straussian glitter, noticably in Der Rosenkavalier. In a work like Salome Karajan and Reiner both fully tapped into the the music's sinister tweaking of harmony, though I personally appreciate Karajan's more subtle reading, I'd rather hear Reiner leading Lubja Weltisch. In Heldenleben each brought out the mock-heroic without sacrifying what was genuine, but here again Reiner shows an unwillingness to slow down and enjoy the moment. In the recordings of this work I largely concur with the thoughts of reviewer vanDeSande. However, neither condcutor's performance on Cd matches an astonishing tour performance of massive power and majestic string playing I heard of Ein Helenleben under Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra - there's always room for a new hearing!



American critics, perhaps in an attempt to separate themselves from their British cousins, reacted harshly against many Karajan recordings. Indeed they fell over themselves in wonder at Haitink's Philips recording of Also Sprach - you can look it up. Karajan and Reiner were set on the shelf. Yet many of the same critics who did not like Karajan records wrote very positive reviews of Karajan concerts in New York, in his appearances either on tour, or as a guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic. The anti-Karajan writing was also a product of doubts surrounding his background during the war - a major reason Furtwangler never came to America, and Chicago in particular. Further, matters were not helped by a general contempt by many American critics for the music of Bruckner, who Karajan championed instead of the then newly popular Mahler. Bernstein's identification with Mahler and Karajan's apparent distaste for Mahler - as he obviously had the clout to record whatever he wished - added fuel to such fires. As witnessed in the comments we are still settling some of these old scores.



The mention of Kempe also must be addressed, for he brought different attributes to Strauss. Unlike Clemens Krauss, who did not live long enough to build up a library of stereo recordings, Kempe made many fine recordings in stereo. Like Karajan he found a way to bring out the inner lines, but did so by covering the music in a sort of reverential hush, rather than more usual bawdy overstatements of most conductors. Listening to Kempe in Strauss I often wonder if this is how Richard Strauss would sound at Bayreuth, with its covered orchestra pit, the sound floating and enveloping rather than aggressively directed. Kempe preferred to win you over in Strauss by forcing you to listen more carefully - possible when the decibels were kept down. These qualities certainly were not what one found in recordings of Strauss by the dynamic Solti or even Bohm. Bohm in particular must be singled out for his unequalled magic in bringing out the various orchestra colors of a Strauss tone poem or opera. I heard him several times and this was true as well in concert.



In regard to the comments about the orchestra playing of the Chicago Symphony.

Having heard the Chicago play Strauss on several occasions under different conductors, including one of the most memorable concerts of my life, Don Quixote under Solti heard from the front seat of a center box, I don't know where to start with the negative comments of Mr. Stenroos. On records and in person this orchestra defines the word distinquished. What orchestra(s) in America does Mr. Stenroos consider first rate? Over my lifetime I've been privileged to hear them all, and quite often, and frankly find his comments about Chicago mystifying. Indeed, when Richard Strauss visited Chicago and led the orchestra as quest conductor in his own music at the turn of the 20th century, he had nothing but the most effusive praise for the band. Nothing I have heard in person or on record suggests their modern counterparts deserve anything less.



IMPORTANT NOTE: After writing this review I went to the Chicago Symphony program archives - there you can find a wealth of historical details about Also Sprach and the Chicago Symphony. Earliest American performance - recordings, etc. A must read! Just search - "Chicago Symphony Orchestra Program Notes Strauss Also Sprach".







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