Steinberg's Command Classics performances were my introduction to Beethoven when I was getting in Beethoven in the UK in the mid to late 1960s as some of them were available on the budget Classics for Pleasure label. I have been rediscovering them lately and so the opportunity to hear this, sadly incomplete, recording was too good to miss as it is always interesting to hear a live concert

This performance is in fact the Mahler orchestration of Beethoven's 9th, as it was on Command Classics. You rarely hear this arrangement nowadays, although I think Kristjan Jarvi has recorded it. If you notice details in the brass that you never heard before, that's probably Mahler's work. Two of the soloists, the soprano (Ella Lee) and the bass (Thomas Paul), are the same as on the 1966 recording, as is the choir (Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh). The mezzo here is Carol Durkin and the tenor is Stanley Kolk. The performance is said to be from 1970. I have not been able to find anything in the Pittsburgh archives to give a precise date or even to confirm that such a performance took place in 1970, but there certainly were performances with these forces in May 1968.

The reading is very similar in overall shape to the 1966 recording. The tempi are fairly middle of the road, the opening is not as hushed as it can be, the second repeat is not taken in the first appearance of the scherzo and the soloists are competent rather than inspired. The live atmosphere does enhance the experience, however, through a greater sense of spontaneity with more rubato, despite the occasional lapse (most noticeably an early entry from a horn a beat before the first movement's start). The acoustic of the Syria Mosque contributes to the atmosphere, although I can hear why it was deemed unsuitable as a location for the commercial recordings.

The sound is remarkably good for an off-air taping although it's a shame that there is a gap in the finale. About 2 minutes is missing from part-way through the orchestral introduction of the main theme to a few seconds after the entry of the bass soloist. The good news is that the similarity to the 1966 recording means that, if you have access to it, you can use Audacity or any audio-editing program to patch the gap in a plausible way. I have had a bit of fun playing with equalization, channel balance and added reverberation to make an imperfect but enjoyable completion of the performance and I shall certainly be listening to it in that form in the future. I am most grateful to Regor Laden for making it available.

Postscript:
Having done a bit more research, I am now pretty sure that the performance is actually from May 26th 1968. The announcements say that it is the closing concert of the 41st season and, according to the orchestra's online archives, the first season was 1927/8, making the 41st season 1967/68 assuming there were no gaps. The archives also contain a programme from the 1972/73 season that calls it the 46th season, so clearly there weren't any gaps. Finally, the archives record that this symphony was performed by these forces on May 24th and 26th 1968, making the latter date the closing concert.