Fritz Reiner conducts Handel (vaimusic.com)

[MozartIsFancylalala]

this is so bad

[brianwells456comcast]

The great Hungarian cellist Janos Starker at 2:34.And yes,there is a (young) Bela Lugosi look alike at 3:27 in violin section-uncanny similarity!Great performance.

[poopoo111222333]

fritz dracula

[kerrywoboe]

YES! That is Florian Mueller. Mr. Sirucek used to talk about him sometimes in lessons!

[Gorboduc]

Nice to see Bela Lugosi's brother at 3:27.

Who does Reiner cue at 0:54, and why?

[kerrywoboe]

Great to see my teacher, Jerry Sirucek playing 2nd oboe ( the young guy! ) Mr. Sirucek passed away in 1996 and is so wonderful to see him in video! He was a great teacher and oboist.

[OboeCanAm]

@kerrywoboe Is that Florian Mueller on principal?

[VoxArcana]

thank's for upload these videos!

[metteholm75]

Yes! You are absolutely right! The often far too high speed in todays recordings murders the majesty of a majestic piece. Wonder what it is, they´re trying to catch up with :D

[billyguns2]

For once this tempo has majesty, as befits the entrance of royalty. These "early music specialists" conducting nowadays rush tempi to the point of insanity!

[olabeethoven]

complètement dépassé mais très beau !

[fedtrooper]

Supposedly Reiner conducted with a very small beat that frustrated players who could not see the stick moving. One guy with the CSO was fired when he brought a telescope to a rehersal and yelled "I can't see the beat."

[themouseofevil]

Yeah, I think that maybe for the telecasts he didn't want people to know or something.

[Leibo07]

I find it rather unbelievable how 'modern' i.e. agile and lean this sounds!

A discovery.

[anthk]

Fritz Reiner conducted the orchestra well, he and his musicians played Arrival of the Queen of Sheba with a lot of arragements of dynamic.This is one of the best editions I have ever heard,brilliant.

[calebgreen32434345]

wcross34 you are a asshole who has no musical taste

[ThaSchwab]

You didn't get his post, did you? =/

[Wcross34]

The sound is rather too "big" for my taste. There needs to be a more delicate touch than Reiner brings to the piece.

[fiestanoob]

i agree, a quartet would be good

[nastynoff]

is i only me(?) or is th orcestra a bit out of the conductors tempo??

Probably the videos mistake:P

[unripe42]

This is one of those "weird" things about orchestra conductors that non-musicians have trouble with. Even though I'm a former musician I still don't quite understand how it works, but Reiner is a "Germanic Tradition" conductor. It's a style of conducting where the conductor is about one to two beats ahead of the orchestra. Perhaps a better student of classical music than me could explain it but that's the most I know about it.

[Leibo07]

He was actually a Hungarian and studied with Béla Bartók. But one might say that his conducting resembled, in some sense or other, Klemperer's style.

[billyguns2]

Klemperer considered Reiner to be one of the finest conductors, and Klemperer was a very harsh critic of most of the others; he was contemptuous of Mengelberg and Krauss, but also had high praise for Karajan, Boulez, Stokowski, and Mahler.

[Leibo07]

@ billy

Yes I passionately read the Heyworth's interviews too. And he appreciated Richard Strauss, Barbirolli and Szell too.

[conductus]

Being a former middle school (and high school and now elementary) orchestra teacher, yes, a middle school/junior high strings group CAN play an arrangement of this (for just strings usually). Of course, they will NOT play it with this level of subtlty and nuance.

[applekyprios]

These players are amazing... Unfortunately the recording is not... You must keep that in mind... To say that your junior highschool orchestra could play just goes to show your ignorance...

[ThaSchwab]

Also, the two oboists are fairly..well, not exactly ugly...

[ThaSchwab]

True, my orchestra could play this. It was arranged though, and violas had the backup melody, so it might've been a tad bit easier.

[ltyr2001]

A good high school group could play the notes, maybe. But that's the easy part. Listen to the dynamic contrasts, the clarity of lines, the quality of tone and balance. This is not a high school sawing away at a string of notes, not at all!

[GolumTR]

The simplicity is the whole thing with Handel. That was very rare with baroque composers. Ask Mozart, Beethoven, or his contemporary and admirer Old Bach. He writes so simply and so unpretentiously that one simply feels the piece no matter what one's mood towards it is.

[GolumTR]

feels the point feeling and nature of the pice, damn! I need to revise these before sending!

[thesalesman101]

it matters not at all whether or not a high school orchestra can play this. it is a beautiful piece of music and that is the important thing

[stratopowermetal]

la mayor obra de handel---

[sethlord11]

how can you say that your "Junoir high school" orchestra could play this piece. This piece is one of the best examples of baroque music which is one of the most difficult styles of music to play and conduct. Post in a video of a junoir high school orchestra playing it better and then i'll believe you

[praskovia13]

yes beautiful indeed

[pocoapoco2]

I get to see "the old man" in action.

I hope you guys are not implying that a junior high band could play this piece as well as this.

[reggielurve]

good work

[mrn93]

Although my jhs orchestra could play this this is the level of many high schools (sadly but true)

[jabsomdoc]

i would agree. i have great repect for reiner and the CSO, but this linear interpretation is about as good as a junior high school.

[radostsguy]

The Four Finnish Flutists do better.

This version lacks the spirit and humour.

[ThaSchwab]

...this is the original version...

[winrx]

Kind of odd this great orchestra is playing a piece that sounds like it was written for a junior high orchestra

[greatcthulu]

Baroque music is a highly organized musical form, however that doesn't mean that it's easy.

Also, any moron can mechanically plunk out a tune, but that doesn't mean he or she is a decent musician.