WOW 
Sub £20 on Amazon.
Is it a good set?
Thanks Chris. On the strength of the 8th and 9th I have, I’ve just picked up a copy of this box set. As @QuickSticks points out, it’s available for under £20. It seems he recorded a complete cycle in the 60’s which I’m assuming is the one the DG have reissued in this box. He also made some Beethoven Symphony recordings in the 50’s ( perhaps on 35mm tape) including the 9th. Im not sure which recording I have on the MFP Vinyl. Either way it should be interesting. There’s a lot of interesting info in the review section on Amazon for that Box set. It seems the Steinberg interpretations attract a lot of allegiance. One reviewer (C.M. Briggs) made a comment that resonated for me with what I heard last night:
“a master sculptor’s Beethoven…with every detail perfectly wrought and in perfect proportion to the overall design”. Well put.
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Hi KJC - I haven’t heard any of the original pressings so have no comparison to offer. The latest CD set shows recording dates between 1962 and 1966. The 8th and 9th on 4th & 8th April 1966. Steinberg’s Beethoven has been somewhat overshadowed, certainly in the UK, by the likes of Karajan, Klemperer etc during that period in the 1960s but the Pittsburg Orchestra plays supremely well and the performances are most certainly worth hearing.
Steinberg made a widely acclaimed recording of the Planets with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on DG. I think this has been reissued by DG coupled with R Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Yes definitely worth hearing - certainly for that price! See also my comments replying to KJC.
Listened last night to symphonies 8 and 2, followed by the first movement of symphony no.4. The performances have electricity and Steinberg manages to sustain the tension through long spans. The first movement of symphony no.4 particularly, is special.
For some reason I have never got / got on with “ Das Lied von der Erde”
This appeared in the Qobuz new releases today and I had a hankering for some Mahler so thought I try Das…. again
Didn’t read the cover properly so wasn’t expecting piano and baritone / bass
Pleasantly surprised but it’s beginning to drag a bit not the performance just the music
The stone cold classic recording is Klemperer’s Philharmonia account on EMI, with Christa Ludwig and the incomparable Fritz Wunderlich. One of FW’s last recordings before his tragic accidental death. A truly beautiful recording, unlikely ever to be equalled.
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This is where my vinyl collection is sorely lacking. I don’t have a single version of Das Lied…
In the alto songs, for me it has to be Kathleen Ferrier with Bruno Walter, who conducted the first performance and said: “ The greatest thing in music in my life has been to know Kathleen Ferrier and Gustav Mahler – in that order.” A good deal of tolerance is required with respect to the recording, but that unique true contralto voice sends shivers down my spine like no other. And her final “Ewig” … simply heart breaking.
Roger
As you say, a special recording.
I’ve been working on filling out my collection of the Dorati/Phil.Hungarica cycle of Haydn Symphonies on London Decca on vinyl. I have a mix of the English/Dutch-pressed London/Decca boxes and was missing the volumes with symphonies 20-35 and 36-48 (that’s nine box sets total for all of them).
I’m now listening to the Symphonies 36-48 that arrived over the weekend from the Netherlands. The box is VG+ at best but the discs are near mint, with just a little bit of noise, but not enough to to spoil the show. I have the final one (20-35) in route from the UK, and it should arrive in the next couple days. After that all I need is the 2-LP set of Appendices, and I know where to get that.
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That was one of the greatest recording projects ever. I regret not having heard them.
I still greatly treasure my CDs of the non-HIP Beecham recordings of the ‘London’ Symphonies, which I suspect are very different.
It’s entirely on Qobuz Graham.
The Steinberg ‘Planets’ is a great recording, and sounds very different from what we usually hear from the likes of Boult and other native British conductors. I have it on a greatly treasured LP, which I believe was deleted from the DGG catalogue long ago.
As I recall, it was recorded in Boston in the middle of an American Musicians’ Union strike, so it went down like a lead balloon in his native country.
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I think it was my music history teacher who said that Haydn wrote the same symphony 100 times. I’m sure he was quoting someone else, but I don’t remember who said it for for the first time.
I like the keyboard works and some of his symphonies. I’m a bit more fond of Carl Philippe Emmanuel Bach though.
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Your teacher got that from someone else, because I heard that before too. Ditto for his string quartets (some 70 or so). Ditto for his piano sonatas.
The Steinberg/BSO CD is available on Amazon AFAIK, Graham.
Don’t think it’s impossible to buy on vinyl, but whether new or not I’m not sure.
Out of interest, I’ll be picking up the Decca CD of Karajan’s recording in a few minutes - got to be better than the later DG one!
The Steinberg/BSO was reissued on vinyl by DG Classics. I bought a copy March 2019. Several places show it as out of stock and backordered, but not out of print.
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Karajan’s Vienna PO ‘Planets’ is a fabulous recording, made at the same times Decca were recording Solti’s famous ‘Ring’.
The 50-year copyright has now passed, and I bought a brand new LP of it recently, on a Dutch label thatI had never heard of.
It looks great, but I haven’t played it yet, so I can’t speak for the quietness of the vinyl or the sound quality as a whole.
Whatever you do, avoid Karajan’s digital Berlin re-make on CD, in its early digital screechy sound.
Lol, I didn’t much like the sound of it on LP, so no problems avoiding the CD. I am looking forward to the 1961 one though - if Decca haven’t messed up the digital mastering…fingers x’d.