# William Steinberg - will EMI's ICON set be worth buying?



## Bruce Morrison (Mar 8, 2010)

William Steinberg seems to be one of those conductors who never really had much critical recognition while he was alive, although he was quite prolific as a recording artist. EMI have now announced a 20-CD set of his recordings with the Pittsburgh SO and the Philharmonia. Among the items that could be particularly interesting are Bruckner's 4th Symphony and Mahler's 1st Symphony.

I haven't heard most of the recordings included, so I'm wondering whether the set will be worth investing in (the lowest on-line price I've seen is about £42).

Can anyone give their views on Steinberg and his recordings? Is his apparent neglect justified or unjustified?


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Well... this is welcome news... and something I'd like to explore further. Steinberg didn't get as much splashy ink as Bernstein, Szell, Koussevitzky or Stokowski-- but back in the day, Americans spoke of an Orchestral "Big Six" (New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland AND Pittsburgh) rather than simply a Big-5.


Bruce Morrison said:


> Can anyone give their views on Steinberg and his recordings? Is his apparent neglect justified or unjustified?


*B.*


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

I, for one, am really hoping for the Bruckner 4th. It was the recording I cut my Bruckner teeth on back in the 70s.

I already have four of the Beethoven and all four Brahms symphonies with the PSO and Steinberg on CDs released earlier. I would love to get the rest of the Beethoven set. They were originally released on Command Classics (from ABC records), and though the tape transfer was pretty good, the vinyl itself was noisy on most the the LPs I had. The CDs are much, much better.

Let me add that I'm old enough to have seen Steinberg conduct the PSO in person. He was a very undemonstrative conductor - absolutely nothing flashy and not an attention hog by any means. No nonsense, but not in a forbidding Szell-type way. I always got the impression that the music came first with him. He also seldom dragged anything out. Tempos were usually brisk, but execution was terrific.


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

I had the great pleasure of being present at a number of William Steinbergs concerts when he was with the Boston Symphony and was always very impressed with the results he obtained. As Vesteralen said; no fuss, no showmanship, just good music making. He conducted the merican premiere of Britten's War Requiem with Boston. The Pittsburgh is also a fine orchestra which in my opinion did not seem to get the credit it deserved. My advice, Go for it.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Vesteralen said:


> I, for one, am really hoping for the Bruckner 4th. It was the recording I cut my Bruckner teeth on back in the 70s.
> 
> I already have four of the Beethoven and all four Brahms symphonies with the PSO and Steinberg on CDs released earlier. I would love to get the rest of the Beethoven set. They were originally released on Command Classics (from ABC records), and though the tape transfer was pretty good, the vinyl itself was noisy on most the the LPs I had. The CDs are much, much better.
> 
> Let me add that I'm old enough to have seen Steinberg conduct the PSO in person. He was a very undemonstrative conductor - absolutely nothing flashy and not an attention hog by any means. No nonsense, but not in a forbidding Szell-type way. I always got the impression that the music came first with him. He also seldom dragged anything out. Tempos were usually brisk, but execution was terrific.


Those ABC Records releases of the Command Classics recordings were not made from the original 35mm film that Command Classics captured the music on. The only CDs I know of that aren't from ABC are CD-Rs transferred from the commercial open reel tapes or from the pre-ABC LPs.

The EMI recordings of Steinberg/PSO are all mono, aren't they?

Anyway, The Command Classics recordings reveal a fine conductor directing an excellent orchestra, 'bequeathed' to Steinberg by Reiner.

BTW Steinberg made a few excellent recordings with the Boston Symphony - probably not in the subject collection.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Those ABC Records releases of the Command Classics recordings were not made from the original 35mm film that Command Classics captured the music on. The only CDs I know of that aren't from ABC are CD-Rs transferred from the commercial open reel tapes or from the pre-ABC LPs.
> 
> The EMI recordings of Steinberg/PSO are all mono, aren't they?
> 
> ...


I bow to your better memory, Hilltroll. You are absolutely right. I actually had the Command Classics LPs, not the ABC re-issues, but for some reason the vinyl was still not very good on them. Or, maybe it was my low-budget stereo system that was at fault. 
At any rate, the CD reissues of the Beethoven/Brahms symphonies I have leave nothing to complain about at all.

And, I think you're right about the EMI's being mono. Weren't they originally released on Capitol in the US?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Vesteralen said:


> [...]
> And, I think you're right about the EMI's being mono. Weren't they originally released on Capitol in the US?


I think so. I have a few of those LPs around - somewhere.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

I've noticed a number of new releases with that old Capitol artwork, including Symphonie Fantastique, Carnival of the Animals, and Carmen. The only Steinberg/PSO release I've seen so far in this series is Mozart Symphonies 41 & 35(?). I'm not familiar with that particular recording.










But, this is not what the OP was referring to. I can't see any details about the Steinberg set on the EMI/Icon website, just that there is supposed to be a release this month. Where can I find more info on this?


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## Bruce Morrison (Mar 8, 2010)

This is the Amazon UK link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/William-Ste...=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1315413222&sr=1-1


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Bruce Morrison said:


> This is the Amazon UK link:
> 
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/William-Ste...=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1315413222&sr=1-1


Thanks very much. There is a lot of good material on this set. In addition to the Beethoven and Brahms symphonies, and the Bruckner 4th, I'm also somewhat familiar with recordings he made of the Schubert, Rachmaninoff and R Strauss works listed (though I'm not sure they are the same versions as the ones on this set). All highly recommendable interpretations, IMO.


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## JohnProffitt (Jun 16, 2012)

Hilltroll72 said:


> I think so. I have a few of those LPs around - somewhere.


The Bruckner 4 is an early stereo (1956) recording, described as "binaural" in that it was made with two omnidirectional microphones over the orchestra. The sound is rather good, IMO.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

JohnProffitt said:


> The Bruckner 4 is an early stereo (1956) recording, described as "binaural" in that it was made with two omnidirectional microphones over the orchestra. The sound is rather good, IMO.


No obvious reason the sound wouldn't be good with that setup. There is/was an hypothesis that the double-omnidirectional arrangement best emulated human perception; not sure about 'best placement' though.

There was a different concept of "binaural", that had microphones in the 'ears' of a dummy head, that was supposed to be great for headphone listeners. I had one LP representing that setup; didn't do much for me.


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## Conor71 (Feb 19, 2009)

This box can be bought for $42 US at the moment - even factoring in shipping I think it would be better to buy from the US rather than UK Amazon


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## gpb1999 (Mar 21, 2015)

Steinberg didn't conduct the American premiere of Britten's War Requiem with the BSO, Leinsdorf did. There is a VAI DVD available of the performance, which is pretty hair-raising.


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## gpb1999 (Mar 21, 2015)

No, several Steinberg/PSO recordings for EMI (Capitol in this country) were stereo, for example, the Dvorak/Glazunov violin concertos with Milstein, the Ravel selections, the Hindemith/Toch disc, the Brahms first symphony and many others. Most have been released on various labels, not always EMI, in CD.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

It seemed to me that by the time he made it to the BSO, he already had one foot in the grave and his repertoire was rather stodgily monumental (Mahler 7th, Bruckner 7th, Hindemith Konzertmusik) like he was trying to make up for lost time after Leinsdorf got the job first six or so years earlier. He inherited a better orchestra than he would have earlier, but it was in many ways too late.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

gpb1999 said:


> No, several Steinberg/PSO recordings for EMI (Capitol in this country) were stereo, for example, the Dvorak/Glazunov violin concertos with Milstein, the Ravel selections, the Hindemith/Toch disc, the Brahms first symphony and many others. Most have been released on various labels, not always EMI, in CD.


Yes. I have a stereo recording of Steinberg and the PSO performing Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony.


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