This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Unique time-based media items have been reformatted and are available onsite via links in the container list. Commercial materials are not routinely digitized.
Letters, notes, programs, photographs, and printed materials. The collection is comprised primarily of handwritten correspondence between Reiner and notable music figures including Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Nikisch. Arnold Schoenberg, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, and Leo Weiner. Also of note, letters from writer and conductor Gian Francesco Milpiero and his wife Auna detailing wartime conditions in Italy (1946).
This collection is arranged into 2 series.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Unique time-based media items have been reformatted and are available onsite via links in the container list. Commercial materials are not routinely digitized.
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Fritz Reiner papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Gift of Carlotta Reiner.
Papers: Source of acquisition--Reiner, Carlotta. Method of acquisition--Gift/Transfer from Music Library; Date of acquisition--2001. Accession number--M-2001.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Papers processed JS/HR 07/27/2002.
2010-02-24 Legacy finding aid created from Pro Cite.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Reiner was born in Budapest in 1888. He graduated from the Budapest Academy of Music in 1908 where he studied with Bela Bartok. Various conducting and directing appointments followed in Budapest and in Dresden, including that of chief conductor of the Royal Opera House in Dresden for 1914-1922. An acquaintance of Richard Strauss, Reiner was influenced by conductor Arthur Nikisch and Hungarian composer Leo Weiner. In 1922 Reiner left Europe to become the appointed director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1930. In 1928 he became an American citizen. He married his second wife, Cincinnati actress Carlotta Irwin, in 1930.
From 1931-1941 Reiner served as head of the orchestra and opera departments at the Curtis Institute of Music, where Leonard Bernstein was his student. He supervised activities of the Philadelphia Academy of Music and was a frequent guest conductor at the Philadelphia Grand Opera. During that time he also participated in opera festivities at Covent Gargen in honor of King Edward VIII's coronation and Wagner performances at the San Francisco Opera from 1936-1938.
In 1938 Reiner was appointed conductor and music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, resigning in 1948 over financial disputes. He became conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where he debuted with an historic performance of Strauss' Salome on February 4 1949. Among the 113 performances conducted during that brief tenure were acclaimed performances of Tristan und Isolde and Der Rosenkavalier and the organization's premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress.
From 1953-1962 Reiner conducted the Chicago Symphony. He died in New York City on November 15 1963.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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