The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s recording of Beethoven Symphony No. 9 gets a five-star rave from Audiophile Audition:
“This disc should come with a warning label. Why? Because it is easily the most intense Ninth I have ever heard. This is not a criticism, only a fact. … The wonderful last movement gives us a truly joyful and energetic flow of consolation and satisfaction, jam-packed with intensity and far, far away from the “joyful, joyful, we adore thee” utterances too often heard in this work that reflect more of a congregational hymn than the all-encompassing, almost unbearable foray into the transcendent feeling that Beethoven wanted in this last, great, and perhaps greatest of all symphonies. Telling you that the Pittsburgh forces are wonderful, stunning, and recorded in fantastic, best-ever sound has almost become routine when considering their releases. But I would be doing them a great disservice by not saying it. Honeck’s notes are also superb and instructive as to why he does what he does. You can’t really have only one Ninth Symphony—the work’s profundity disallows that, and I will still return to Furtwangler Lucerne 1954, Karajan 1962-63, and Bernstein’s Vienna reading. But this one adds something new and illuminating, with sound these former conductors could only dream of. Fabulous!”
—Steven Ritter, Audiophile Audition