Michael Steinberg, a distinguished music critic known for his incisive and deeply informed commentary, left a lasting imprint on the American classical music landscape through his work at The Boston Globe from 1964 to 1976. Steinberg’s writings, compiled in the recently published volume *Defending the Music: Michael Steinberg at The Boston Globe, 1964–1976* (Oxford University Press), offer a comprehensive record of his critical voice during a pivotal era in American musical life.
Born Carl Michael Alfred Israel Steinberg in Breslau, Germany, in 1928, he escaped Nazi persecution as a child on a 1939 Kindertransport train bound for England. Steinberg, then ten years old, later recounted this journey in an unfinished memoir, noting the bittersweet nature of the escape—a perilous and bureaucratically challenging exodus for Jewish children, yet, for him, an adventure marked by curiosity and relief. After being placed with a caring foster family in England, Steinberg was eventually reunited with his mother in the United States, where the family settled in St. Louis. There, he adapted to his new identity, abandoning his childhood nickname “Carmi” and fully embracing his American life.
Although not a virtuoso performer, Steinberg possessed a lifelong passion for classical music that propelled him toward a career as a critic and scholar. After graduating from Princeton University and spending some time teaching and freelancing in New York, he joined The Boston Globe’s staff, where his writing combined clarity and wit with a profound understanding of music’s technical and emotional dimensions. Steinberg’s criticism was characterized by a conversational tone and a capacity to make complex musical ideas accessible to a general audience, while never sacrificing intellectual rigor.
His reviews often transcended the immediate events and performers under discussion, reflecting broader aesthetic and cultural concerns. Steinberg was unafraid to offer sharp critiques, including early in his tenure at the Globe, when he openly challenged Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3, describing its blend of music and spoken text as “a strain on one’s credulity” due to what he called the text’s trite and overly familiar language.
Despite the sometimes candid nature of his appraisals, Steinberg approached his role with respect for the art form and the artists he critiqued. His work underscored the importance of thoughtful criticism as a vital component of the musical ecosystem—benefiting performers, presenters, and audiences alike. The gradual decline of serious musical criticism in the modern media landscape, where popular culture often dominates, makes Steinberg’s contributions all the more noteworthy today.
The collection *Defending the Music* invites a new generation to appreciate Steinberg’s legacy, preserving the voice of a critic who balanced authority and warmth, intellectual rigor and approachability, and who championed music as a living, dynamic art form.