Lev Steinberg

Lev Steinberg was a Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian conductor, composer, and teacher. He was born on September 15, 1870, in Yekaterinoslav, then in the Russian Empire, now Dnipro, Ukraine, and died on January 16, 1945, in Moscow. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1937 and was awarded the title Hero of Labour in 1923.

In 1893 he graduated from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He studied piano with Anton Rubinstein and Konstanty Fan-Ark, composition theory with Nikolai Solovyov, having earlier studied with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and harmony with Anatoly Lyadov. His conducting debut took place in 1892 during the traditional summer symphonic concerts in Druskininkai, in Grodno Governorate.

From 1899 he conducted operas in Saint Petersburg at Kononov Hall and the Mariinsky Theatre. He later worked as both a symphonic and opera conductor in the theatres of Moscow, Saratov, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and other cities. In 1914, at the invitation of Sergei Diaghilev, he appeared in the Russian Seasons abroad, in Paris and London, and later also performed in Bern, Dresden, Leipzig, and Berlin.

After the revolution, from 1917 to 1924 he worked in the theatres of Kyiv, then from 1924 to 1926 at the Ukrainian State Capital Opera, now the Kharkiv Opera and Ballet Theatre, and from 1926 to 1928 at the Sverdlovsk State Opera Theatre and in Baku. He also took part in organizing theatres and philharmonic societies in Kyiv and Odesa.

From 1928 he lived in Moscow. In 1928-1941 and again in 1943-1945 he was a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre and artistic director of the symphony orchestra of the Central House of the Red Army. In 1937-1938 he taught conducting at the Moscow Conservatory as a professor. In 1943 he became head of the newly created Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Regional Philharmonic and led it until the end of his life.

Among his recordings was the first complete recorded version of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride. His opera productions included works by Dargomyzhsky, Solovyov, Wagner, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Lysenko, Puccini, Mussorgsky, Rubinstein, Rossini, Bizet, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Notable productions named in the article include Rusalka, Vakula the Smith, The Valkyrie, Aida, The Queen of Spades, The Enchantress, May Night, Prince Igor, Taras Bulba, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Turandot, and The Tsar's Bride.

As a composer, Steinberg wrote the opera Nine Days That Shook the World, the ballet Myrrha, the symphonic suite Eastern Pictures, the musical chronicle John Reed, the cantatas Samson and Solemn, the symphonic choral picture Red Square, four symphonies, the symphonic poem The Forest Sleeps, the symphonic pictures Melusina and Ukraine, and a violin concerto, among other works.

He died in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery. His wife was Leonida Gashinskaya-Steinberg, a soprano.