He displayed early talent as a violinist, pianist, and composer, conducting his own choral/orchestral composition (based on texts from Ovid's Metamorphoses) at age 13.

In 1914, he began studies at the Cologne Conservatory, where his piano teacher was the Clara Schumann pupil Lazzaro Uzielli and his conducting mentor was Hermann Abendroth.

Toscanini was impressed with Steinberg's preliminary groundwork for his concerts and later engaged him as an assistant in preparing for the NBC Symphony Orchestra radio broadcasts.

From 1969 to 1972, Steinberg was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (with which he had achieved earlier success as guest conductor), while maintaining his Pittsburgh post.

Steinberg had been in declining health for several years; on May 1, 1978, he conducted the final concert of his career, leading the New York Philharmonic with guest violinist Isaac Stern.

[7] After the war, Steinberg made a single album for the Musicraft label with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra – the first studio recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No.

The exceptions included a recording with the Los Angeles Woodwinds of Mozart's Gran Partita, K.361, taped in Hollywood in August 1952, and the aforementioned Strauss disc with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

His Pittsburgh recordings for Capitol, all made in the Syria Mosque, included concertos with Nathan Milstein and Rudolf Firkušný, as well as a cross-section of the symphonic repertoire from Beethoven to Wagner.

Light had attended a Steinberg concert in Danbury, Connecticut a few years before and told the conductor he'd like to record the orchestra.

The Command releases, hailed as "outstanding examples of contemporary recording," were made in the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh.

"[12] Steinberg's Command recordings eventually included complete cycles of the Beethoven and Brahms Symphonies, along with a diverse list of other works.

[13] Command Vice President and General Manager Loren Becker stated that "Steinberg's stature as a great conductor will also mean many more recordings of standard fare.

Steinberg's Boston Symphony recordings for both RCA and DG were praised by critics for their excellence, both musically and technically.

William Steinberg was noted throughout his career for his straightforward yet expressive musical style, leading familiar works with integrity and authority such that they sounded fresh and vital.

Steinberg said of his interpretive philosophy, "One must always respect the character of the music and never try to grow lush foliage in a well tempered English garden.

"[24] Pittsburgh principal flute Bernard Goldberg told how Steinberg "looked forward to being 70 years old because only then did a conductor know what he was doing.

"[25] Armando Ghitalla, distinguished Boston Symphony principal trumpet from 1966 to 1979, said of Steinberg that "his musical taste was one of the finest I've ever heard.

"[27] Steinberg had a wide range of repertoire, including a sympathy for the English music of Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

During his first Pittsburgh season, Steinberg conducted works by Bartók, Berg, Bloch, Britten, Copland, Harris, Honegger, Milhaud, Schuman, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, and Villa-Lobos at the Pittsburgh International Contemporary Music Festival (all of these performances appeared on record, and the Bloch, Schuman, and Vaughan Williams were licensed by Capitol).

He made a famous recording of Holst's The Planets with the Boston Symphony for Deutsche Grammophon, after learning the piece at the age of 70.

Although sometimes criticized for his unusual programming, Steinberg was a champion of certain lesser known works including Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette, Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony, Reger's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart, and his own orchestral transcription of Verdi's String Quartet in E minor.

"[28] Steinberg's prestige however filled Carnegie Hall to 80 percent capacity under the unlikely circumstance of the first all-Schoenberg orchestral program ever given in New York.

"[30] Although all business on the podium, Steinberg was not above a bit of clowning in public; at one Pittsburgh Symphony fundraiser, he donned a blonde wig on his bald head that Johnny Carson jokingly presented him.

Steinberg's puckish humor was often in evidence, as when he told Time Magazine that he had conceived "something for the New York snobs—an all-Mendelssohn program.