Steinberg

When William Steinberg was appointed music director of the Boston Symphony in 1969 as successor to Erich Leinsdorf, he attained the pinnacle of his career. No previous conductor had headed two top-ten US orchestras simultaneously. It was a condition of his Boston position that he could continue to work in Pittsburgh with the orchestra that he had headed since 1952. Born as Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne on 1 August 1899, he studied at the local conservatory with the conductor Hermann Abendroth and the pianist Lazzaro Uzielli, a Clara Schumann pupil. On graduating in 1920 he became Otto Klemperer’s assistant at the Cologne opera house.

In perusing CDs of Mozart's sonatas for piano and violin, a lot can be guessed in advance by noticing which performer is featured prominently, and who is relegated to second place. In these sonatas the violin is minimized to an obbligato accompaniment. Legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida is clearly the dominant partner, and rising violinist Mark Steinberg is only her deferential sidekick.

Steinberg was born Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne, Germany. He displayed early talent as a violinist, pianist, and composer, conducting his own choral/orchestral composition (based on texts from Ovid's Metamorphoses) at age 13. In 1914, he began studies at the Cologne Conservatory, where his piano teacher was the Clara Schumann pupil Lazzaro Uzielli and his conducting mentor was Hermann Abendroth. He graduated with distinction, winning the Wüllner Prize for conducting, in 1919.

David Abel, violin. Julie Steinberg, piano. Perhaps the most transcendent of David Wilson's brilliant recordings, this remarkable album of solo violin accompanied by piano comes as close to putting the two performers in the listening room as any ever made, writes The Absolute Sound, of Sonatas for Violin & Piano.

Perhaps the most transcendent of David Wilson's brilliant recordings, this remarkable LP of solo violin accompanied by piano comes as close to putting the two performers in the listening room as any ever made. Recorded on Wilson's Ultramaster Recorder, built by John Curl, and using a spaced-pair of Schoeps microphones driving vacuum tube electronics, the recording has a close perspective which heightens transparency and engagement as well as wonderfully capturing the beautiful tonality of Abel's Guarnerius violin and Steinberg's Hamburg Steinway without exaggerating their size. The duo performs these works as if they are one. Stereophile's "Recording of the Month" February 1984.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra collaboration with William Steinberg exemplifies what Milstein could do with material often considered less than first rate. Milstein plays the concerto beautifully, with his typically aristocratic poise and a lightness of rhythm and purity of intonation that makes the music seem to float across the bar lines. The István Kertész inscription of Dvořák’s “My Home” fills out his survey of the complete symphony cycle for Decca.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was a child prodigy whose early genius was recognized and admired by the likes of Gustav Mahler and Giacomo Puccini.

Recorded live at London’s celebrated Wigmore Hall, this captivating recital by Joyce DiDonato and the Brentano Quartet was conceived around Jake Heggie’s song cycle Camille Claudel: Into the Fire, a work written for DiDonato – she describes it as “one of most moving projects I’ve ever been part of”.

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s influence as composer and teacher was profound in Russia and beyond, yet his chamber music has been overshadowed by his operas and orchestral works. The unfinished Piano Trio in C minor was completed by his son-in-law Maximilian Steinberg to reveal a substantial work of considerable depth. César Cui’s charming and lyrical Farniente is an arrangement from a piano original, while Borodin’s Piano Trio in D major is reminiscent of Mendelssohn in its joyous agility and nostalgic beauty.

Rimsky-Korsakov described Taneyev’s best music as possessing ‘a wealth of beauty and expressiveness’, a verdict with which no one is likely to disagree after hearing the piano trio recorded here. Rimsky was (unjustly) disparaging towards his own, unfinished, trio, which emerges as a brooding, substantial work well worthy of revival.