Fritz Reiner – Festival (LP, Analogue Productions)

Fritz Reiner spurs the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to greatness as he plays his way through a program of Russian composers, with a clear eye on the RCA recording’s marketability. The concept obviously worked, because since the first release in 1960 there have been countless new releases of the album and the title is still part of the standard repertoire of music lovers who don’t know what to do with solemn classical music.