An Artur Rodzinski Tribute 1892-1958

Artur Rodzinski 1892-1958

 

Artur Rodzinski was born in Split, the capital of Dalmatia on New Years Day - January 1, 1892. His father was an army surgeon moved his family to to Lvov in 1897, and it was there that Arthur started his musical studies. He completed a Law degree at the University of Vienna before he dedicated himself completely to music. He studied composition at the Conservatory with Josef Marx and Franz Schreker and orchestral conducting with Franz Schalk and piano with Emil von Sauer. Rodzinski returned to Lvov and found a job as choral director and conductor at the Municipal Opera in 1920. For his debut he conducted Verdi: Ernani. The following year, he conducted at the Warsaw Opera, where he gave the first performances of Strauss:Der Rosenkavalier, Wolf-Ferrari:Jewels of the Madonna and Ravel:L' Heure Espagnole. He was began to give concerts on a regular basis with the Warsaw Philharmonic. Leopold Stokowski met Rodzinski on a trip to Poland and invited him to perform his first US concert in Philadelphia in at the Curtis Institute he was placed in charge of conducting its opera and orchestral programs. By 1929, Rodzinski was in charge of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He served until 1933, garnering positive reviews for his characteristically eclectic programming. In 1933, he was asked to take over as director of the Cleveland Orchestra. During his tenure in Cleveland he turned the orchestra into a virtuoso ensemble matching the standards of the New York, Boston and Philadelphia Orchestras. In Cleveland, he recorded for Columbia a wide repertoire which reflected his broad tastes. He was an active defender of modern music with many performances of works by European and American composers. He was an early champion of the music of Shostakovitch. During 1933-1943, his decade in Cleveland Rodzinski had turned that city's orchestra into an ensemble of the first rank. Among his achievements were an ambitious recording programme and the creation of an opera series, which included the American premiere of Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in 1935. His Cleveland years gave him a world-class stature and in 1936 Rodzinski became the first American to conduct at the Salzburg Festival (he had become a naturalized citizen of the USA in 1933).

In 1936 and 1937, while conducting in Vienna and at the Salzburg, Toscanini became greatly impressed by Rodzinski's rehearsal techniques. Almost immediately, Toscanini asked Rodzinski to help form the NBC Symphony Orchestra for him. Rodzinski's acclaim was phenomenal in the United States during the 1930's and 1940's. In 1937, he was invited to spend two months giving concerts with the New York Philharmonic. In 1942, Rodzinski was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic. In 1943, Rodzinski had secured his long-held wish to become Music Director of the New York Philharmonic but during his next four years with the orchestra he had an open battle over hiring and programming with Arthur Judson the orchestras manager. Rodzinski had fired 14 musicians including first chair when he took over directorship and four his years in New York were marked by acrimony as well as musical excellence. In 1947 he asked the board to choose between him and Judson and they released Rodzinski from his contract since he could no longer tolerate Judson. Rodzinski had secretly negotiated with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to become their music director. Chicago was only too happy to hire a talent like Rodzinski, yet he was dismissed eleven months later over "programming" disputes. Unfortunately, Arthur Judson was also director of one of the most important North American artists representation agencies and his influence extended to Chicago also. Rodzinski was still paying for his refusal to disagree with Arthur Judson lower musical standards. The scandal of his secret negotiations had angered Judson and Rodzinski had only signed a one year contract with Chicago in his hurry to leave New York and Judson. Every orchestra Rodzinski touched in America had become a better ensemble .. even his one year in Chicago had improved the orchestra greatly. 1948 proved to be the darkest year of Rodzinski's life...in addition to being forced to leave Chicago, he developed a serious health problem which also had an effect on his by now frail emotional status. For the next ten years, Rodzinski returned to his career as a guest conductor, returning regularly to Europe. In Italy, he conducted many first performances of Operas (especially Russian Operas... Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, Mussorgsky etc.). During this period he made many recordings for the Westminster label as well as EMI. His recordings with the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London are still held in high regard both in terms of performance values and their fine sonics. In 1958, he gave excellent performances of Khovanshchina at the Rome Opera and Tristan and Isolde at the Chicago Lyric Opera just two weeks before his death. Artur Rodzinski died in a Boston hospital on November 27, 1958 just short of his 67th birthday. Rodzinski's conducting style was austere with slender gestures and a contained style similar to Arthur Nikisch or Fritz Reiner (his contemporary and then successor at the Chicago Symphony.

---

Click here to hear a great 75 minute Rodzinski Program:

Press Play on control bar to the left. OR You may also copy and paste that URL into your QuickTime Player if you wish to avoid viewing the web site and simply wish to listen to the program while you surf other sites or perform other duties on your computer.

The QuickTime browser plug-in, thanks to its fast-start feature, will begin playing the program in mid-download after a delay that depends on your computer and your internet downloading speed. If you're downloading on a 56Kbps at 5K per second or faster - - it should start almost immediately (give it 30 seconds before pushing the PLAY button); with a 28.8 Kbps modem, it won't start playing until a minute into the download and it may not continue to stream because the modem can't keep up with the feed of the stream. For slower computers and modems, the break-even point is small enough that it should be heard after 30 seconds (but give it 60 seconds or more before pushing the PLAY button). You should be able to just stay ahead of the stream. If that fails wait a minute or two and press PLAY again....now you should have enough of the program downloaded to keep ahead even on a 28.8 modem....Cable or DSL could begin much faster. QuickTime is great because you can save the entire concert on your hard drive and play it back again and again.

 

Click HERE or on QuickTime logo above to download player or browser plug-in if you need one.

 

 

 

---

Artur Rodzinski Compact Discs can be found on the Following Labels : Sony Masterworks Heritage (Columbia) EMI RCA/BMG Westminster/MCA -Reissue Series Lys As Disc The Radio Years Music and Arts Chicago Symphony - Historic Series Cleveland Orchestra - Historic Series New York Philharmonic - Historic Series

 

A survey of some fascinating historic Artur Rodzinki Record Covers:

Columbia 10 inch Covers

RCA and Columbia 12 inch Covers

Westminster Covers