Respighi; Debussy - Pines of Rome; Fountains of Rome; La Mer (Fritz Reiner)

Information

Composer: Ottorino Respighi; Claude Debussy

• Debussy - La mer (The Sea)
• Respighi - Fountains of Rome
• Respighi - Pines of Rome

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Fritz Reiner, conductor

Date: 1960; 1959

Label: RCA

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Review

These classic Living Stereo recordings will be familiar to most audio buffs and classical collectors.  The usually-paired Respighi works were recorded in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall in l959 and the Debussy the next year. BMG is to be commended for allowing us to now hear them just about as they were originally recorded, in three channels, and at a more reasonable price than the similar three-channel Golden Age series from Mercury Living Presence.  The size and clarity of the soundstage is considerably expanded with the addition of the third channel, but if you’re only set up for plain old stereo, the DSD processing will still provide a greatly enhanced sound experience over the standard CD reissues.

It’s difficult to add much to the volumes already written about these masterful Reiner recordings. The works are some of the most appealing and spectacular to be found in the orchestral repertory – magnificent tone-painting which depends for its fullest effect on the hi-res reproduction now possible with three-channel SACD playback. The widescreen spectaculars of Respighi may not equal the musical magic of Debussy’s portrait of the sea in three different moods, but there’s no denying the Roman duo makes a strong impression in every way. For my ears the only competition performance-wise are the Toscanini recordings of all three works, but those are in dull and constricted mono recorded in that awful Studio 8H in Radio City, and no match for the clarity and spatiality of these Reiner recordings.

If you don’t already own any of this Living Stereo SACD series, you’ll find the notes inside on the History of Living Stereo and the Technical Notes of great interest. And if you pick up this one you’ll likely want to have many others of the growing series of similar reissues.

— John Sunier

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Ottorino Respighi (9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. He studied at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, and also studied briefly with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral songs, chamber music, and transcriptions of Italian compositions of the 16th–18th centuries, but his best known and most performed works are his three orchestral tone poems which brought him international fame: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928).

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Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer who was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His orchestral works include Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894), Nocturnes (1897–1899), Images (1905–1912), and La mer (1903–1905). His piano works include sets of 24 Préludes and 12 Études. Throughout his career Debussy also wrote mélodies based on a wide variety of poetry, including his own. His works have strongly influenced a wide range of composers including Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen, George Benjamin, and the jazz musician Bill Evans.

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Fritz Reiner (December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was an American conductor, best known for his work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, of which he was music director from 1953 to 1962. Reiner studied piano with Béla Bartók, along with composition, conducting and percussion. He went to the United States as principal conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony (1922–31) and from 1931 to 1941 was head of the opera and orchestral departments at the Curtis Institute of Music. Before going to Chicago he was music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony (1938–48) and of the Metropolitan Opera (1948–53).

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