Achim Breiling, noting the release of a DG disc of music by Maximilian
Steinberg, conducted by N. Jarvi, wonders who M S is and what his music
might be like.  Steinberg was the son-in-law of N. Rimsky Korsakov, the
prize student of his last era, and envisioned to be the heir of the
nationalist symphonic tradition, passing from Borodin and RK through
Glazunov and finally to M S.  Stravinsky, however, copped the honors.
For much of his early career, I.S. was haunted by M.S. as a rival and
successful placeman of the Russian/Soviet musical establishment.  Steinberg
was a professor at the Conservatory and greatly influential in many
areas of Soviet musical life.  Steinberg, more than Glazunov, taught
Shostakovitch symphonic composition, though DDS disavowed the influence.

M. S. composed an unsuccessful ballet score for Dhiagilev - Metamorphosis.
It's failure convinced Stravinsky he had nothing to worry about
artistically from Steinberg.  Yet the early scores (those featured on
the DG disc - Symphony #1, Prelude Symphonique Opus 7, and Fantasie
Dramatique Opus 9) were an extension of Rimsky's octatonic explorations.
His later career suffered the sorts of intellectual accommodations all
too dishearteningly familiar to persons under Soviet rule, with ethnic
folksongs supplying the musical fodder for symphonies # 4 "Turksib" (1933)
and #5 on Uzbekian themes (1942). He died in 1946.

MS appears all over the Soviet scholarship dealing with the early 20th
century.  Richard Taruskin has given a pungent account of his service as
foil for Stravinsky.

David Shields