Fritz Reiner

Fritz Reiner was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1888 and studied at the Royal Hungarian Academy, the renowned Franz Liszt Academy that has produced many outstanding conductors and musicians including Reiner, Bartok, Kodaly, Dohnanyi, Szell, Ormandy, Solti and Dorati. He also graduated in law from the University in Budapest. At the age of twenty one he became the Chorusmaster of the Budapest Opera and two years later the conductor of the Budapest Volksoper. From 1914 to 1922 he was principal conductor of the Royal Opera in Dresden. At Dresden he worked with Richard Strauss on productions of his early operas and conducted the German premiere of Die Frau Ohne Schatten.

In 1922 Reiner became conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra becoming a U.S. citizen in 1928. In 1932 he went to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to head the orchestral and opera departments. After a decade (1938-48) as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he joined the Metropolitan Opera. Then in 1953 he became Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which he built into one of the world's greatest. Dr. Reiner was forced to resign his post in 1962 due to ill health, and he died the following year.

Fritz Reiner was internationally recognised as one of the foremost conductors of his time. He was an extraordinary musician, a genius orchestra builder and was noted for his unusually broad range of repertoire, both symphonic and operatic. He was a leading champion of 20th century music, but he could also give incomparably lilting performances of the waltzes of Johann Strauss.

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