Triana

Fritz Reiner was one of the foremost conductors of his time. Crowning his long career in Europe and America was the decade from 1954 to 1963 as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra an illustrious partnership that ranks along such other historical tenures as Karajan's in Berlin, Szell's in Cleveland and Bernstein's in New York.
Luckily for posterity, Reiner's legendary interpretations at the helm of the Chicago Symphony which no less than Igor Stravinsky called "the most precise and flexible orchestra in the world" were captured on record by RCA Victor. Now for the first time ever, they are being issued together in a single Sony Classical box set of 63 re-mastered CDs.

Claude Debussy wrote of Albéniz’s compositions: ‘Never has music attained such diverse impressions and colours. One closes one’s eyes and is dazzled by contemplating so many images.’ Iberia certainly fits this description beyond doubt, with its vivid evocation of Spain. Composed between 1905 and 1909, the collection is divided into four books, each containing three pieces. Book I opens with ‘Évocation’, which combines the southern Spanish fandango with jota song forms. ‘El Puerto’ was inspired by El Puerto de Santa María, in Cádiz, whilst ‘Fête-dieu à Séville’ depicts the Corpus Christi Day procession. ‘Rondeña’ and then ‘Almería’ are both depictions of Andalusian towns, and are followed by ‘Triana’, which evokes the Gypsy quarter of Seville.