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2. Early Years in Europe
- University of Illinois Press
- Chapter
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2. early years in europe Fritz Reiner—Reiner Frigyes in Magyar—was born in Budapest on December 19, 1888, the son of upper-middle-class Hungarian Jews who took a cultivated interest in the arts. Ignácx, his father, was a prosperous textile merchant with a wide social circle. Though he was no performer , he had a keen interest in music and could sing most of Schumann’s songs from memory. His mother, Vilma (née Pollak), was an accomplished amateur pianist. With this background the young Fritz Reiner was, not surprisingly , exposed to music at an early age. Chopin’s piano music was played regularly in the home along with Schubert’s songs and excerpts from operas by Rossini and Meyerbeer arranged for piano. At family gatherings Fritz’s uncle Hermann, an amateur violinist, played the concertos of the Belgian virtuoso Charles Auguste Bériot and other pieces. There were other early musical influences while Fritz was still a child. On daily excursions with his brother and a nurse into Budapest, he became keenly interested in the military bands that played in the city’s beer gardens. Peering through the railings at the musicians, he was gripped by the motions of the conductor, with his bright uniform, and by the cymbal player, with his loud clashes. When he arrived home, he tried to imitate the players by using the bath tub as a drum and by rattling and banging pots and kettles in the kitchen. At home Reiner also became fascinated by his grandfather’s musical clock, which played excerpts from Lucia di Lamermoor , especially the sextet and the aria of the last act. In all these ways Reiner was stimulated by music in his household and surroundings before he reached the age of six.1 Fritz’s fascination with his grandfather’s musical clock and the military bands persuaded his parents to arrange piano lessons for him. He was not a 02.ch2.23-43/Morgan 7/12/05 10:37 AM Page 23 model pupil. Several teachers were hired, but none succeeded in making him practice. He was required to write out a hundred times, as a punishment, “If I am questioned, I must answer.”2 But soon the difficulties were overcome. By the age of eight he was playing piano studies by Duvernois and Czerny and, with greater interest, the piano scores of Haydn and Beethoven symphonies and of operas such as Cavalleria Rusticana. A family friend also introduced him to piano versions of Wagnerian operas. He practiced these and other scores by playing piano duets with his mother but soon became more interested in the orchestra than the piano. Reiner’s parents whetted their son’s musical appetite further by taking him to see operas, including Lucia (which he later conducted in Budapest). During performances at the opera, the six-year-old Reiner was more fascinated by the orchestra than by the characters on stage. He watched intently as the musicians moved their bows and the conductor waved his baton. Ignácx Reiner, encouraged by his son’s interest, bought seats for the family at the Budapest Royal Opera House along with musical scores. By the age of ten, Fritz regularly waited in the crowd for the cheap gallery seats at the opera. He recalled standing in the queue a long time to get a ticket and then dashing wildly to the gallery to be the first person there.3 Inside the building he sat with a score and pencil, listening carefully, and marking the parts played by various instruments . Though Reiner revealed a strong interest in the opera orchestra and displayed some talent for piano playing, he learned no other musical instrument, and there were no early signs that he would follow a musical career. But a turning point came in 1899 during a vacation at Budakesz, a village about an hour from Budapest and a favorite summer resort of the Reiner family. While there he became absorbed in the piano score of the Tannhäuser Overture, which he had memorized. One day a young man passed the farm house where the Reiners were staying, heard strains of music from the open window, and knocked on the door to introduce himself. The visitor was Leó Weiner.4 Two years older than Reiner and already a composition student at the Budapest Academy of Music, Weiner wanted a partner to play piano duets. He asked Reiner to join him; the offer was immediately accepted. After their...