Most older listeners agree that
Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé Suite was ideal repertoire for
Fritz Reiner and the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra. With its big tunes, bright colors, bold harmonies, and unrelenting rhythms,
Reiner and the
Chicago -- the pre-eminent
Strauss performers in America at the time -- excelled in
Prokofiev's Kiji. In this superb 1957 RCA recording,
Reiner and the
Chicago were at the top of their form and their Kiji is witty, sassy, brave, ironic, and altogether hilarious. As sumptuously remastered by JVC,
Reiner and the
Chicago's Kiji is still the best available.
Most older listeners, however, cannot agree that
Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale was anything like the right repertoire for
Reiner and the
Chicago. With its spiky motifs, its primary colors, its hard harmonies, and its relentless rhythms,
Reiner and the
Chicago were seemingly out of their element. But although their approach is essentially Straussian,
Reiner and the
Chicago still excel at
Stravinsky's Nightingale. In this superb 1956 RCA recordings,
Reiner and the
Chicago's Nightingale is warm, lush, sweet, and even a little sexy, a sort of Salome à la
Stravinsky. As voluptuously remastered by JVC,
Reiner and the
Chicago's Nightingale may not sound like
Boulez and the
New York Philharmonic's modernist Nightingale, much less
Stravinsky and the
Columbia Symphony's mechanical Nightingale, but it is still arguably the best available, albeit from a less doctrinaire point of view. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide
