Those of you who enjoy quality recordings of symphonic music are likely aware of the high regard for the RCA recordings made in the 1950’s. Many who consider these the first truly “audiophile” recordings will tell you the Chicago Symphony Orchestra versions with Fritz Reiner at Orchestra Hall are the most exciting. An exemplary recording is his Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain.

In International History of the Recording Industry, Gronow and others described the Chicago Symphony collection as “exceptionally exact and lustrous interpretations.” Erik Levi of BBC Music Magazine refers to the sound as “most gripping.” This collection of recordings begat the illustrious descriptor, “The Reiner Sound.”

Without question, the talents of the composers, Reiner, and the CSO are superb, and without their musicality, there would be no excitement. However, investigation of the recordings and a study of Orchestra Hall in that period reveal another reason for the excitement listeners experience, one that goes beyond the musical talent involved.

The Sound of Yesteryear

As you might imagine, Orchestra Hall of the 50’s was a completely different space than it is today. It hadn’t changed much since its opening days in 1904, and the hall contained abundant concave surfaces behind and above the stage. The hall did not provide ideal listening opportunities in many seating locations.

Excerpts from Leo Beranek’s 1962 edition of Music Acoustics & Architecture offer a good summary: “Roger Dettmer of the Chicago American said during an interview ‘In my opinion, the best seats are on the main floor, between rows K and N center. Others maintain that the sound is better in the front balcony and in the gallery. In the gallery, there’s a greater blending, but the sound is very intense – it travels upward from the orchestra and hits you with a terrific impact.’”

An important difference between attending live performances and listening to recordings is that there are no microphones in audience seating locations, while recording engineers will place microphones in locations they prefer, changing the listening environment. RCA’s microphones were placed above and behind the conductor, two to five rows into the audience seating, as confirmed during conversations with Dick Shorey, an arranger, producer, and percussionist with the CSO under Reiner, who was on stage during the Reiner days.

The Secret behind the Sound

While listening to recordings of this era, a robust and lively sound quality is apparent. The sound blooms to life, and the liveliness of the hall can be heard and appreciated as the music unfolds, even though the hall presented problems for some in its audience at the time. This curious condition caused us at TALASKE to investigate. What was the role of the room in creating the excitement?

Attached is a graph showing the loudness level of a full-orchestra staccato note, analyzed over time from the Night on Bald Mountain recording from 00:23 to 00:26. You can listen to the excerpt by clicking on the graph. We have included only this short excerpt to honor copyrights. We analyzed the segment of music using our room acoustics analysis equipment. The curved line shows the loudness of the sound at the microphone, as both created by the orchestra and modified by the room.

What is readily apparent is that the geometry of the hall adds an abundant room response to the recording. The concave ceiling and upstage wall work with the side walls to hold the sound in a fashion which is quite audible and pronounced. The placement of the microphones accentuates the condition.

The conditions present on the RCA recordings exhibit room qualities acousticians call “bloom” and “running liveliness.” Running liveliness is the quality that allows you to hear the hall reverberate as the music is ongoing, as we have discussed previously. We will discuss bloom in subsequent articles on this page.

Likely you own a Reiner recording–or ten! If so, give them a spin, and try listening beyond the music: Focus on the response of the hall. Note that the sound is not limited to a select microphone position: It is possible to create such an exciting sound for a full audience to enjoy during a live event.

With the coined term “The Reiner Sound,” Maestro Reiner certainly deserves his due. But there is more here than meets the ear.