William Steinberg

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William Steinberg (August 1, 1899 – May 16, 1978) was a German-American conductor.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Steinberg was born Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne, Germany. He was an early protégé of Otto Klemperer. Steinberg left Germany in 1936 for the British Mandate of Palestine, which is now Israel, because the Nazis had removed him from the Frankfurt Opera in 1933 and had limited him to conducting all-Jewish orchestras.[1] Eventually, with founder Bronislaw Huberman, Steinberg became the first conductor of the Palestine Symphony orchestra, which would later be known as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Steinberg was conducting the orchestra when Arturo Toscanini visited there in 1936. So delighted was Toscanini with Steinberg's preliminary groundwork for his concerts that he chose him as his assistant in preparing for the NBC broadcasts.[2] In 1930, in Frankfurt, he conducted the world premiere of Schönberg's Von heute auf morgen.

Steinberg left for the United States in 1938. He conducted a number of concerts with the NBC Symphony from 1938 to 1940. He became music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1945 to 1952. He is best known for his tenure as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1952 to 1976. From 1958 to 1960 he conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1969 to 1972 he conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was also principal guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 1966 to 1968. Steinberg guest-conducted most of the major US orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestra. Abroad he conducted the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, and WDR Symphony of Cologne. He recorded for Capitol Records, Command Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, Everest Records, Musicraft with the Buffalo Philharmonic - the premiere recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7, and RCA Victor. William Steinberg was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was also a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music.[citation needed] He died in New York City.

William Steinberg was noted throughout his career for his straightforward yet expressive musical style, leading familiar works with integrity and authority such that they sounded fresh and vital. Despite the dynamic drive of his interpretations, his podium manner was a model of restraint. Referring to some of his more acrobatic colleagues, Steinberg remarked, "The more they move around, the quieter I get."

Steinberg had a wide range of repertoire, including a surprising sympathy for the English music of Elgar and Vaughan Williams. He led several important premieres, including the US premiere of Anton Webern's Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6. During his first Pittsburgh season, Steinberg conducted works by Bartok, Berg, Bloch, Britten, Copland, Harris, Honegger, Milhaud, Schuman, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, and Villa Lobos at the Pittsburgh International Contemporary Music Festival. He was also admired as an interpreter of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler. Steinberg was an able accompanist and made notable concerto recordings with violinist Nathan Milstein, pianist Arthur Rubinstein, and pianist Rudolf Firkusny.

Although sometimes criticized for his unusual programming, Steinberg was a champion of certain lesser known works including Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony, Reger's Variations on a Theme of Mozart, and his own orchestral transcription of Verdi's String Quartet. Steinberg possessed a wry humor, once remarking that he had conceived the perfect program for the "New York snobs:" an all-Mendelssohn concert. To an interviewer who said he had heard that the conductor did not care for interviews, Steinberg replied that it was fine as long as the subject was one that interested him - "such as myself."

[edit] Conductor and music director

[edit] Selected discography

Recordings made with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for RCA Victor:

Recordings made with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for DGG:

[edit] References

  1. ^ William Steinberg: Biography. MauriceAbravanel.Com (17 Nov 2003). Retrieved on 2007-08-07.
  2. ^ Relief Men. Time magazine (13 March 1939). Retrieved on 2007-10-27.

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Directors

Frederic Archer (1896) · Victor Herbert (1898) · Emil Paur (1904) · Antonio Modarelli (1930) · Otto Klemperer (1937) · Fritz Reiner (1938) · William Steinberg (1952) · André Previn (1976) · Lorin Maazel (1988) · Mariss Jansons (1996) · Andrew Davis (2005)
v • d • e
London Philharmonic Orchestra Principal Conductors

Thomas Beecham (1932) · Eduard van Beinum (1947) · Adrian Boult (1950) · William Steinberg (1958) · John Pritchard (1962) · Bernard Haitink (1967) · Georg Solti (1979) · Klaus Tennstedt (1983) · Franz Welser-Möst (1990) · Kurt Masur (2000) · Vladimir Jurowski (2007)
v • d • e
Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Directors

George Henschel (1881) · Wilhelm Gericke (1884) · Arthur Nikisch (1889) · Emil Paur (1893) · Wilhelm Gericke (1898) · Karl Muck (1906) · Max Fiedler (1908) · Karl Muck (1912) · Henri Rabaud (1918) · Pierre Monteux (1919) · Sergei Koussevitzky (1924) · Charles Münch (1949) · Erich Leinsdorf (1962) · William Steinberg (1969) · Seiji Ozawa (1973) · James Levine (2004)