Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Plenty: Richard Laing is exhilarated but exhausted by one of the 20th century’s most feared conductors

Review of Fritz Reiner: The Complete Columbia Album Collection. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra, conducted Fritz Reiner, 1940–50 (Sony, 14 CDs).

March 2021, Volume 15, Number 1, 79–82.

The booklet accompanying Sony’s 14-CD set of Fritz Reiner’s recordings for Columbia features several moody photographs of the irascible conductor, perhaps deciding which orchestral player to fire next. An (in)famous despot on the podium, Reiner raised standards and blood pressures wherever he cast his imperious glance, which was primarily Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York between 1922 and 1963. Most of the recordings reissued in this set feature the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which Reiner directed for a decade from 1938. Reiner is often credited with bringing this now-celebrated ensemble from relative obscurity to the forefront of American music-making in a matter of months, though the full story involves some serious preparatory work done by several other maestri, including a certain Otto Klemperer.