As the fierce, intimidating conductor of the Chicago Symphony in the 1950s, Fritz Reiner established himself as a great maestro of his era, renowned for his relentless pursuit of perfection and modernist approach to classical music.
Born in Hungary, he started playing the piano at the age of six and by ten was studying at the Franz Liszt Academy in his home town of Budapest under the guidance of a young Bela Bartok. He grew from playing accompaniment at ballets to conducting at the Opera House in Slovenia, but really made his reputation back in Budapest at the Nepopera, where he led performances of 25 different operas from 1911-1914.
He spent eight years at the prestigious Dresden Royal Opera, where he struck up a friendship with Richard Strauss, but when post WWI political upheaval and personality clashes forced him out, he ended up moving to America to conduct the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1922. His reputation as innovator and champion of contemporary composers flourished, but after his ruthless attitude and fiery temper again bubbled over, he left Cincinnati in 1931 and later spent a decade with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with whom he made his first recordings for Columbia Records. He also led the Metropolitan Opera and helped bring Strauss, Aaron Copland and George Gershwin to new audiences, but it was as the musical director of the Chicago Symphony that he was most heralded.
Turning the orchestra into one of the finest in the world, he pioneered stereophonic recording on the album 'Strauss Waltzes' for RCA Victor and other key works included Bartok's deathbed composition 'Concerto for Orchestra' in 1956 and Antonin Dvorak's emotional, patriotic masterpiece 'New World Symphony' in 1958.
A controversial character and known for his stern, punchy, minimal use of the baton, Reiner suffered a major heart attack in 1960 but completed one final season with the Chicago Symphony before his death in 1963, aged 73.
