– central conductor of the 1950s and 1960s
– outstanding personality of the American musical life
– Head of the Pittsburgh and Boston Symphony Orchstras
– highly acclaimed interpretations by Mahler, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Elgar and others
– Recordings from 1947 to 1959
William Steinberg, who was born in Cologne, belongs in the ranks of prominent conductors who left Germany in the 1930s and took up important positions in the musical life of the USA – among them also Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer, Fritz Busch, Bruno Walter and Erich Leinsdorf. The Jewish musician Steinberg began his conducting career in 1924 as Otto Klemperer's assistant in Frankfurt and went from Nazi Germany to Palestine to help set up a symphony orchestra there, which was to become the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The great Toscanini, who was also involved in this project, invited Steinberg to New York to become his assistant at and to occasionally lead the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Steinberg succeeded quickly and for a while held two positions as chief conductor. He left a trail of exquisitely led orchestras from New York via Buffalo and San Francisco to London during his brilliant career. The main orchestra of his career was and remained the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which he headed from 1952 to 1976 and which he molded into one of the most renowned ensembles in the USA. The recordings collected in this box-set present Steinberg as both a powerful and sensitive musician. His repertoire was broad and he left us with highly praised interpretations of works of almost every genre and style. "You always have to respect the character of the music and never try to sprout lush bushes in a well-tended English garden.“ (William Steinberg)
