[12/10/2010] Preview: Can this really be our 3rd Annual "Very Tchaikovsky Christmas"? (continued)

You'd figure there would be some video of our mystery conductor, William Steinberg (1899-1978), longtime music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and later of the Boston Symphony as well. But I couldn't find any!


Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony had already recorded for Everest and Capitol when Enoch Light's Command label came on the scene and made them one of its classical mainstays. All that extensive series of recordings had going for it was (a) generally truly outstanding performances and (b) invariably truly outstanding recorded sound -- a special concern of Light's. The "recording chief" (working with producer Light) of the Steinberg-Pittsburgh Nutcracker Suite we're hearing this week was Robert Fine, a revered name in the annals of recording history -- he had been the engineer, mostly with Wilma Cozart (from 1957, Wilma Cozart Fine!) as producer, of most of the Mercury Living Presence recordings, still among the best-sounding records ever made.

Here, then, are two more excerpts from the Steinberg-Pittsburgh Nutcracker Suite:

TCHAIKOVSKY: Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a

3. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies


8. Waltz of the Flowers

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg, cond. Command, recorded c1963


BONUS: THE FLIP SIDE

If you're wondering, the LP coupling for the Steinberg-Piitsburgh-Command Nutcracker Suite was a string-orchestra rendering of Verdi's String Quartet in E minor. Heck, we haven't had that much music tonight, so why don't we hear that? (I suppose one of these days we should hear the actual string-quartet version, but I'll control myself for now. As it happens, for all my veneration of Verdi, the String Quartet -- a late piece, from roughly the period of Aida -- isn't something I listen to a lot.)

VERDI: String Quartet in E minor (arr. for string orchestra)
i. Allegro
ii. Andantino
iii. Prestissimo
iv. Scherzo fuga: Allegro assai mosso
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg, cond. Command, recorded c1963


IN TOMORROW NIGHT'S PREVIEW . . .

We've got samples of some real treats we're going to hear, from the full-length Tchaikovsky ballets, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. Our conductors are Efrem Kurtz, Leopold Stokowski, and Pierre Monteux.


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