March 6 and March 8 1954

[Vin DiBona]

50 years ago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under Fritz Reiner, met at a recording session. The date was March 6th, 1954. They recorded, in an experimental stereo recording, Ein Heldenleben. Two days later on March 8th, Also Sprach Zarathustra, again in experimental stereo and the golden age of recordings began from those 2 or 3 microphoned sessions.
Remember, there were no stereo cutting lathes or record players yet and only a handful of people had stereo reel to reel tape decks back then.
The first stereo records came out in 1958 with RCA leading the way and remarkably, neither of these two landmark recordings were issued in stereo until after 1960. Reiner did not like some of the playing in the 1954 version of Zarathustra and re-recorded it in 1962. To most, it is not as good as the earlier one.
Personally, I think those two recordings have never been conducted or played better and never will be.
A half century ago. That is a long time and to think Bud Herseth took the stage for the last time two weeks ago and was there for so many great recordings made by that orchestra.
We were all blessed that day.

[johntpt]

That 1954 Zarathustra has also been one of my favorites for a long time. It's hard to believe that those RCA Living Stereo recordings are that old - the sound is fantastic! The old Boston Pops Fiedler recordings on RCA sound great, too.

Some of my all time favorite CSO recordings are the Mercury monos from the early 50s, especially the Ma Vlast with Kubelik. One microphone meant no producer messing with the balances!

Another Mercury CD features Antal Dorati conducting the Bartok Miraculous Mandarin Suite and the Kodaly Peacock Variations with the CSO. Those were recorded in January of 1954, just 2 months before the Zarathustra with Reiner.

JU