Steinberg was an excellent conductor of Beethoven and these performances find him and his Pittsburgh players in top form. His performance of the Leonore Overture No. 3 is white hot. He moves across extremes of very quiet, soft passages to full bloody roar, and the orchestra plays for all they're worth to stay right in step with his vision for this piece. The brass section simply shines. It's quite a wild ride and well worth the journey.
Steinberg's Symphony No. 4 must rank as one of the best performances in the catalog. As one reviewer commented, it "shows how Steinberg was able to hold a phrase in mid air and keep the drama going without losing any momentum." I just love it. The orchestra continues in top form throughout this performance.
Robert Fine (he of Mercury Living Presence fame) delivers another of his excellent recording efforts. The recording is all that one thinks of with the Mercury recordings: up front, very detailed, full frequency extension, tremendous impact. It's a great recording.
If you haven't already discovered all of the other Robert Fine recordings in the HDTT catalog, you should go looking for them. Performances and recording quality are all excellent, as are the HDTT transfers. In this case, the HDTT DXD transfer is superb: very low noise floor, transparent, highly resolved. Well done!
24/352.8 DXD PCM Flac Digital Download
