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Fritz Reiner was a legend among conductors. Universally admired for his music-making, widely disliked for his aggressive and exacting temperament, and survived by a legacy of definitive recorded performances, he was largely responsible for the artistic ascendancy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and exerted considerable influence on generations of musicians.

Born in Budapest in 1888, he studied piano with his mother and, at the age of 15, entered the Franz Liszt Academy -- an institution that also boasts Bela Bartók, Zoltan Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Georg Solti and Antal Dorati as graduates. Reiner gained conducting experience at a number of regional opera houses before eventually returning to Budapest in 1911 to serve at the city's Volksoper, where his reputation as a conductor of special abilities finally emerged.

In 1914 Reiner accepted a position at the Dresden Court Opera, where he formed a fortuitous relationship with both the conductor Arthur Nikisch and the composer Richard Strauss; Reiner would eventually give the German premier of Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, and would remain a devoted interpreter of the composer's works throughout his career. The economic chaos and emergent anti-Semitism that followed the First World War made Reiner anxious to leave Europe, and an invitation (in 1921) to become the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra provided just the right opportunity. From that point onward, Reiner's career was firmly rooted in the United States, where he became a citizen in 1928.

After resigning his post at Cincinnati Reiner became a professor of conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his students included both the young Leonard Bernstein and Lukas Foss; Bernstein, in particular, credited Reiner with a great deal of influence in his development.

In 1938 he became the director of the Pittsburgh Symphony -- one of several positions that established Reiner as a fine builder of orchestras, with a talent for steering ensembles toward new levels of quality and success. A number of Reiner's well-known recordings stem from his tenure there. Guest appearances during his Pittsburgh years include those at Covent Garden and the San Francisco Symphony. From Pittsburgh he moved to the Metropolitan opera, where he remained on the conductor roster until 1953; his advocacy of Strauss' operas was especially strong there, and his performances of Salome and Elektra number among the most memorable evenings in the Met's history.

1953 was a watershed year for Reiner, since it was then that he assumed the directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This was to become his signature partnership, and the position that would establish his lasting legacy. His relationship with the orchestra was never a smooth one -- he was known for hostility and impatience in rehearsal, and for firing musicians for mistakes in concerts -- but he undeniably raised the ensemble from its status as a good American orchestra to that of one of the finest in the world. Unlike a number of other prominent conductors who excelled in narrow corners of the musical canon, Reiner maintained his excellent standards and clarifying precision throughout an especially broad repertory that crossed boundaries of nationality and style. He was as renowned for his performances of new works, such as Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra -- a piece that Reiner himself commissioned from the dying composer -- and Alan Hovhaness' Mysterious Mountain as he was for his Mahler, Strauss and Haydn. His tenure in Chicago also resulted in what was then an unprecedented volume of fine recordings, some of which still remain as favorites, despite the improved fidelity of modern competitors. Reiner resigned from Chicago in 1962 (after only nine seasons), and died the following year of heart failure.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is one of the three most acclaimed orchestras in America and one of the few serious rivals the New York Philharmonic has had in its long history. Curiously, the histories of the two orchestras are somewhat intermingled.

Theodore Thomas had organized and led orchestras in New York during the 1870s and 1880s, competing with the Philharmonic Society of New York for audiences, soloists, and American premieres of works. His orchestra did very well as a major rival to the group that would become the New York Philharmonic. The orchestra visited Chicago during several seasons, and it was intended that he would be music director of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in that city. However, in 1891, he abandoned New York entirely in favor of Chicago and arrived as the first conductor of what was then called the Chicago Orchestra. Thomas held that position until his death in 1905. In his honor, the Chicago Orchestra changed its name to the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in 1906. Six years later, the group was renamed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

It was under the leadership of Thomas' assistant, Frederick Stock, that the Chicago Symphony's modern reputation was formed. From 1905 until his death in 1942, Stock led the orchestra in decades of programs that featured not only the established classics but the American premieres of many post-romantic works. Additionally, Stock raised the level of performance and the financial status of his players and established the orchestra in a major teaching role for aspiring musicians in its home city. Its recordings were relatively few in number because the long-playing record -- central to the appreciation of classical music -- had not yet been invented, which means there is little evidence by which modern listeners can judge the work of the orchestra during this period, but some of the recordings from that era were among the best in the world at the time. Among the few available from the period on major labels are the Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5 on the BMG label, featuring soloist Arthur Schnabel with Stock conducting.

Stock's death in 1942 precipitated a difficult decade for the orchestra. Apart from the general complications of World War II, it had a great deal of trouble finding acceptable leadership. Désiré Defauw lasted for only four years, from 1943 until 1947, and Artur Rodzinski (best known for his leadership of the New York Philharmonic) was in the job for only one year (1947-1948). Rafael Kubelik served three years as music director from 1950 until 1953, but his gentlemanly manner and decidedly modern, European-centered taste in music proved unsuited to the players, critics, and management -- although it was under Kubelik that the orchestra made its first successful modern recordings, for the Mercury label, many of which were reissued in the mid-'90s.

Fritz Reiner became the music director of the Chicago Symphony in 1953, beginning the modern renaissance and blossoming of the orchestra. Under Reiner, the orchestra's playing sharpened and tightened, achieving a clean, precise, yet rich sound that made it one of the most popular orchestras in the United States. The Chicago Symphony under Reiner became established once and for all as an international-level orchestra of the first order, rivaling the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony. Moreover, Reiner's arrival with the orchestra coincided with its move to RCA Victor, which, in 1954, was beginning to experiment with stereo recording. With Reiner as conductor, these "Living Stereo" recordings -- characterized by vivid textures, sharp stereo separation, and microphone placement that gave the impact of a live performance -- became some of the best-selling classical albums of all time and have since been reissued numerous times on compact disc to new acclaim from critics and listeners, more than a generation removed from their original era.

Reiner's death in 1963 led to another interregnum period, during which conductor Jean Martinon led the orchestra (1963-1968). In 1969, Sir Georg Solti joined the orchestra as its music director. Under Solti, the orchestra's national and international reputations soared, as did its record sales. Reiner had begun the process of cultivating the burgeoning audience for late-romantic composers such as Mahler, but it was with Solti that the works of Mahler and Bruckner became standard fare in the orchestra's programs, right alongside those of Beethoven and Mozart. The playing standard achieved during Solti's tenure, in concert and recordings, was the highest in the history of the orchestra. Additionally, the orchestra under Solti began a quarter-century relationship with London Records that resulted in some of the best-sounding recordings of the era. Solti's approach to performance was very flamboyant yet intensely serious -- even his performances of lighter opera and concert overtures strike a perfect balance between broad gestures and finely wrought detail, attributes that have made him perhaps the most admired conductor of a major American orchestra, if not the most famous (Leonard Bernstein inevitably got more headlines during the 1960s, especially with his knack for publicity). Solti was both popular and respected, and his tenure with the Chicago Symphony coincided with his becoming the winner of the greatest number of Grammy Awards of any musician in history (he also recorded with orchestras in London and Vienna). Daniel Barenboim succeeded Solti and served as music director from 1991 until 2006, with Solti transitioning to the post of music director emeritus. Bernard Haitink was named the orchestra's first principal conductor, holding this position from 2006 through 2010. Riccardo Muti was chosen as the tenth music director in the orchestra's history in 2010.

As with other major American orchestras, the Chicago Symphony found itself competing with its own history, especially where recordings are concerned. Reissues of its work under Reiner and Solti continue to sell well and are comparable or superior to the orchestra's current recordings in sound and interpretive detail. Even the early-'50s recordings under Kubelik were reissued by Mercury in the late '90s, while RCA-BMG and some specialty collector's labels have re-released the recordings under Stock. The recordings of Solti and Reiner leading the Chicago Symphony are uniformly excellent, and virtually all of them can be recommended. The orchestra also maintains composer-in-residence and artist-in-residence partnerships; in 2023, Jessie Montgomery occupied the former, and Hilary Hahn the latter. ~ Bruce Eder

Even beyond his place among the giants of his generation of pianists, Byron Janis played a crucial role well beyond the performing world. He was involved in national and international politics, playing a major role in global relationships with the Soviet Union and Cuba, and was frequently invited by U.S. presidents to perform at the White House. He was renowned for his Chopin interpretations, including the performance of manuscripts that he discovered. Janis served as a National Ambassador to the Arts for the Arthritis Foundation; he was also the subject of a documentary, a composer, and an author.

Janis was born Byron Yanks on March 24, 1928, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. His parents shortened the family surname to Yanks when they emigrated to the U.S. before settling on Janis. Byron began piano lessons early after his parents discovered he had perfect pitch, studying initially with Abraham Litow. At eight, he moved with his mother and sister to New York to study with Josef Lhévinne, Rosina Lhévinne, and Adele Marcus, studying with the latter for six years. An accident left the little finger on his left hand numb, and though doctors told him he would never perform again, Janis persevered by adjusting the way he approached the keyboard and was heard two months later on a radio broadcast. He performed his first recital at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall in 1937, and he made his orchestral debut at age 15 with a performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, with the NBC Symphony Orchestra under its founder, Arturo Toscanini. Pianist Vladimir Horowitz was a member of the audience at that performance, and the following year, Horowitz brought Janis on as his first student. Two years later, Janis became the youngest artist ever to sign with RCA Victor, and he made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1948, launching an international performing career. In 1953, he married June Dickson, and the couple had one child, Stefan Janis; they divorced in 1965.

In 1958, Janis performed in Cuba as one of the last American musicians to perform in the country before Fidel Castro's takeover. Two years later, Janis was chosen as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador to the Soviet Union. A 1962 performance of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Kirill Kondrashin leading the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra was issued on Mercury Living Presence and was the first album recorded in Moscow by an American recording company. That recording of the Prokofiev concerto is still considered a benchmark. In 1966, Janis married Maria Cooper, daughter of movie actor Gary Cooper, and the following year, Janis made a remarkable discovery while on a European tour. In Frances's Château de Thoiry, he discovered two previously unknown waltz manuscripts from 1833 by Chopin, landing Janis on the cover of The New York Times. In 1973, while at Yale leading masterclasses, Janus chanced upon two unknown manuscripts of the same two waltzes in an earlier version with different markings. That year, he developed psoriatic arthritis in both hands and wrists but kept it a secret and continued performing and recording.

Following a performance at the White House in 1985, First Lady Nancy Reagan revealed Janis' condition and named him National Ambassador to the Arts for the Arthritis Foundation. Despite several surgeries and decreased use of his hands, he continued to perform and compose, and was a major advocate on behalf of those affected by the disease. In 1993, Janis composed the music for an off-Broadway adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and wrote music for several television shows. He also made appearances on such shows as The Tonight Show and CBS Sunday Morning. In the late '90s, Janis made a return to Cuba, becoming the first American concert pianist to perform there in 40 years. In 2009, he was the subject of the Peter Rosen documentary The Byron Janis Story, and the following year, Janis and his wife wrote the autobiography Chopin and Beyond: My Extraordinary Life in Music and the Paranormal. In later life, he continued his association with the Arthritis Foundation as a mentor for children with juvenile arthritis. In 2018, Janis issued Byron Janis Live from Leningrad 1960, a recording that Janis was unaware of but that had circulated in the Soviet Union. Janis died in Manhattan on March 14, 2024, at age 95. ~ Keith Finke