I just love this jacket, don't you? For my money, the two finest "Mathis der Maler's" are William Steinberg's Boston and this Pittsburgh one. Interpretative flow and structure is without peer and the maestro makes the strongest case for this work as being very much the greatest example of a "biographical" symphony.
I have long admired Steinberg's honest approach to the German masters. His Beethoven is unmannered, Mahler is free from emotional excessive and Brahms flows lyrically and naturally. One can describe this rare record of Ernst Toch's Third Symphony as technically controlled and structurally firm. Toch's somewhat thick texture is not muddied and details emerge as they should; obvious to me is the preparation that Steinberg gave this work. The Toch is not an easy piece to listen to but you won't find a better advocate of this composer's soundworld. Both the Hindemith and Toch recordings are the results of extensive and careful preparation, and commitment - you CAN hear this.
This lp, I believe, is about as fine as introduction to the art of William Steinberg as one will get. Though I had a really rough copy to work with, surprisingly I got out most of the surface crap. You will love the Hindemith, I am sure of that!
Flacs from a Capitol lp.
DOWNLOAD HINDEMITH
DOWNLOAD TOCH
