Fritz Reiner - The Complete RCA Album Collection

In my opinion, there were only two conductors who never made a single bad record.One was Arthur Fiedler. But, due to the extremely large number of records he made, I doubt that we will ever see a "Complete Arthur Fiedler" box set. (Who could afford it?)The other conductor in this exalted group was Fritz Reiner.The Reiner box set under discussion here is an absolute treasure. I shall not discuss the music, performance, and sound quality themselves about which there have been many, many reviews and articles written over the years; these are easy enough to find if you are interested. And anyone reading this review (or who is interested in this set) almost certainly already knows the quality of the music, the quality of the performances, and the quality of the sound recording. (If you are new to Fritz Reiner and are going to hear his performances for the first time, well, I envy you: you are in store for a real treat! You'll hardly believe your own ears!)Suffice it to say that all of the above characteristics are nothing short of superb, even transcendental. There may be some recorded performances of the included works which equal Reiner's but, at least in my experience, none - NONE - which surpasses them.You will need the included book (well-printed and very informative) to see what is on the individual discs; the back of the sleeves (cardboard reproductions of the original LPs complete with original notes in minuscule-sized - yet easily readable - print) and even the face of the CD itself may not be complete (the labels on the fronts of the CDs show only Side 1 of the LPs from which the CDs derive).The box which contains the CDs itself is made of heavyweight cardboard, beautifully printed in color, and is very space-efficient. It will look nice anywhere you choose to put it.At a person's request, I have placed the list of the recordings in Amazon's Classical Music Forums section within the thread entitled "New Fritz Reiner Box."There will be some who will quibble about "faults" in the notes, "faults" in the remasterings, or "faults" in this or that. In my opinion, any "faults" in this set are trivial and really unimportant. (And when you hear the magnificence of the performance of the 'Eroica" you won't give a d--- whether it is mono or stereo!)Several of the same performances/recordings of works are repeated on two discs because they originally appeared on two separate LPs (the 1812 Overture, for example) but to my mind this is of no consequence. Also Reiner/Chicago recorded several works on two different occasions; both are included in this set. [See the fourth Comment appended to this review for more details.]The CD sides are short; one is even less than 30 minutes (as was the original LP). Again, this is of no consequence, at least to me.My only "quibble" is that I wish this set had been released in hybrid SACD/CD format (or, even better, as 24-bit 192kHz downloads). But even that is a minor point to me as I already own the 17 Reiner discs issued as SACDs (and, if you have SACD playback capability, I recommend that you buy them too even though the sound quality on the discs in this set are superior to any earlier 'Redbook' CDs of the same recordings which I myself have heard previously).I could also mention that it might have been nice had Sony included the "Carmen" which Reiner conducted in 1951 with the RCA Victor Orchestra (Risë Stevens, Jan Peerce, Licia Albanese, Robert Merrill, a "dream" cast if there ever was one!). I believe that it was his only complete opera recording.All that being said, I'll recommend that you just don't worry about any minor "quibbles."I believe that you should just sit back and enjoy the music.I STRONGLY recommend that anyone interested in classical music BUY THIS SET. I believe that it will indeed become the one of the most important sets in your collection.A Personal Note: my parents gave an "RCA Victor New Orthophonic High Fidelity Record Player" (a blonde mahogany consolette on four legs) to me in the summer of 1956. It was my first record player which could play 33 1/3 and 45, as well as 78 RPM records. I can't tell you how happy I was. I thought it was the be-all and end-all of hi-fi!Though I had little money (being only 13 years old), I started buying records when I could. And I soon discovered that I had to "sneak" them in, something at which I became quite proficient (how about you?).On Sunday, February 17, 1957, my parents had some friends over and they all went out for the afternoon, leaving me home alone.Naturally, as soon as they left, I got onto my bicycle and rode across town to Dee's Appliances of Audubon, NJ to look at their records. (They sold records at 20% off list, in other words, $3.19 for a $3.98 record, a price irresistible to me.)An album cover caught my eye. It was RCA Victor LM-1999 Red Seal (SLP-13) and it was, of course, Fritz Reiner's recording of the 1812 Overture and other works. At that time I knew very little about classical music (I had never heard the 1812 Overture) but, because of that cover, I bought it. (Over the years I bought many albums because of the cover, almost always with similar luck! This cover is reproduced on two of the CDs in this set though it loses something of its impact in the small size.)With no one else being home, I was able to easily bring it into the house and play it.I loved it.I still have it.(Plus, over the years, I have acquired several stereo issues of it, now including the one in this set. That 1812 Overture performance, without cannon-fire and slightly abridged, is still the best performance of the work I have ever heard.)That's how I was introduced to Fritz Reiner. (Actually I had heard Fritz Reiner conduct before - I had the complete "The World's Greatest Music" on 78s and he conducted several of the works included - but, as the performers were not listed anywhere, I did not know this at the time.) So this one was my first "official" Fritz Reiner record - but by no means the last!There are other important record sets out there; the Arturo Toscanini: The Complete RCA Collection is one of them and there are many, many others. You wouldn't want to have just one classical set in your collection. Of course, you will also have a great many individual discs in a good collection but these sets are a convenient way to have music with some common thread (conductor, performer, composer, etc.) available to you in one place and at a relatively low price (and who cares if we have a few duplicates? Not me!).This Fritz Reiner-The Complete RCA Recordings one is certainly the new cornerstone of my own collection and, if you have read this far, I am quite certain it will become yours too. So I'll repeat: BUY THIS SET!Thank you for reading this. I hope it has been informative to you.

This is fantastic! Reiner was one of the great conductors of the 20th Century, and here is his Chicago RCA legacy. This is like some of the Columbia or RCA "Original Jackets" collections of the past, but on steroids. That is its strength as well as its weakness. Yes, you get all the original album art, notes, etc. Major plus. The downside is that this set could have fit on far fewer CDs. For example, I have the Beethoven 5 & 7, Corolian & Fidelio overtures on a previous release all on one CD. Here they are scattered about on three. Same goes for the Strauss tone poems. So, if you are a Reiner fanatic and have many of the previous Living Stereo or DSD releases, you will notice this scattering. That being said, who cares? The old Dvorak Symphony 9 had a bunch of CD "fillers." Now those are back in their original context. So, a few nitpicks, but everything is in order here, a fantastic legacy set. All of the Living Stereo recordings recently released on DSD are here in Red Book CD mix, and they DO sound better than much of the rest. But, hey, it all sounds great for its age, and many of these recordings have NEVER been surpassed - like the Strauss, Bartok, and many of the "Pops" CDs like Vienna, Iberia and Spain. The physical box presentation is very much like the recent RCA Toscanini set - sturdy box, nice book, but about 3-4 inches shorter than that set in size.

I purchased this set when I realized how many old Reiner vinyl performances I have stored away and never listen to any more. So many old records featuring the Living Stereo banner and conducted by Reiner were in many cases, my introduction to the basic repertoire. As performance practices evolved and my interests grew and technology lured me to "greener pastures" the old favorites faded into becoming distant memories. When I discovered this set, my curiosity got the best of me. Could the remastering reveal the glories of the nostalgic past or simply confirm that modern interpretations with a digital boost and pristine sound are worthy of my time and interest? This set is phenomenal! Reiner for all of his legendary nastiness was an extraordinary artist whose monumental achievements produced musical magic that is simply timeless! So many of these disks compete with and surpass the pale efforts of too many of today's "hot" young stars. In addition to his firm and masterful command of the "warhorses" I am bowled over by the variety of repertoire from fluffy bon-bons to exotic or gut wrenching twentieth century "classics". Not every disk is a thorough success, but every one contains interest that is worth one's time to experience. There are happily so many more that are revelatory, I cannot recommend this set highly enough! If you remember Reiner as perhaps a bit stodgy old geezer from another age, this set will demonstrate what authority, commitment, nuance, brilliance of sound and complete mastery of tempi can do to passionately enliven the listener's heart. Buy it and enjoy the feast!

I still can't believe that someone at RCA came up with the brilliant idea to do a complete retrospective of all of the RCA Fritz Reiner/CSO recordings in one box set--and, even more amazing, they went ahead and published it!As someone who heard Reiner conduct the CSO while I was a high school student, I can't find the words to tell you how very, very much I enjoy every aspect of this set---the recordings, the little hard-cover book, the statistics, and the original album covers. And each CD has been designed to look like an RCA classical LP!If you are a fan of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, I cannot recommend this set highly enough. And if you are new to the CSO, what a wondeful and fantastic treat you have in store for you!!