FRITZ REINER Vinyl Records and CDs

... conducted The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1938 to 1948 and made a few recordings with them for Columbia Records. He then spent several years at The Metropolitan Opera, where he conducted a historic production of Strauss's Salome in 1949, and the American premiere of Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in 1951. Reiner's focus had been on American music since his arrival in Cincinnati, but after the WWII he began increasing his European activity. When he became music director of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1953 he had a completely international reputation. By common consent, the ten years that he spent in Chicago mark the pinnacle of his career, and are best-remembered today through the many recordings he made in Chicago's Orchestra Hall for RCA Victor from 1954 to 1963.