Fritz Stiedry

In 1932 he conducted the world premiere of Kurt Weill's opera Die Bürgschaft.

Stiedry left Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and from 1934 to 1937 was principal conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.

Some claim that Shostakovich felt Stiedry was unable to deal with the symphony's complexities, but others maintain that the real reason was that Communist Party officials pressured the composer to withdraw the work.

[1] In 1937, Stiedry left Leningrad for the United States and the New Friends of Music Orchestra in New York, conducting long-neglected works by Bach, Haydn and Mozart and premiering Schoenberg's Second Chamber Symphony.

His live recording from the Metropolitan Opera of Giuseppe Verdi's La forza del destino (omitting the Act I inn scene, as customary there in the 1950s under Rudolf Bing) has been transferred to CD.