Artur Rodzinski
was born into a Polish military family in Dalmatia. He spent the First
World War in Vienna, studying law and music. He made his conducting debut
in 1920 and established himself in opera and concert in Warsaw, where
Leopold Stokowski heard him and invited him to become his assistant in
Philadelphia (1926-9). Rodzinski then led four of the major American orchestras
in succession [Los Angeles (1929-33), Cleveland (1933-43), New York (1943-47)
and Chicago (1947-48)] and became known as one of the greatest orchestra
builders in the US. He also helped Toscanini form the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
Poor health interrupted his career from 1948-52 but, having settled in
Italy, he enjoyed an ‘Indian Summer’ of recordings from 1954-58.
His final performances were of Tristan und Isolde in Chicago in 1958. The
programme can roughly be divided into two halves: Russian and German repertoire
in which Rodzinski excelled. The powerful account of Rachmaninov’s
Second Symphony with the New York Philharmonic in 1945 makes its first
appearance on CD. The remaining Russian works, Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina
Prelude and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Festival Overture,
are the familiar stereo recordings from 1958. Also new to CD is the 1947
Chicago recording of the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan
und Isolde, an opera of central importance to Rodzinski, who enjoyed enormous
success with it in the US. The remaining Wagner extracts were recorded
in 1955 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and have previously appeared
on CD only in Japan. Rossini’s William Tell Overture with the Columbia
Symphony Orchestra from 1950 makes its first appearance on CD. The famous
stereo accounts of Richard Strauss’s Dance of the Seven Veils and
Tod und Verklärung from 1957-58 with the Philharmonia Orchestra are
essential to Rodzinski’s discography. All the recordings have been
newly remastered. |
