Archive for Review – Page 14
Straight Tens for Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9!
Manfred Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording received a 10 rating for both Artistic and Sound Quality from ClassicsToday: “This is an amazing performance, captured in terrific sound. … Honeck’s aided by typically exceptional brass playing, with horns, trumpets, and trombones well differentiated in timbre, their musical lines clear in even the densest tuttis. The strings, too, make gorgeous sounds in the first movement’s second-subject “song period,” and throughout the Adagio. In…
The Strad Reviews The Hermitage Piano Trio’s Outstanding Rachmaninoff Recording
The Strad Magazine reviews the Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff recording in the October 2019 issue: “Striking the right balance between interpretative nobility and expressive candour is particularly challenging in music of such claustrophobic intensity, yet the Hermitage Piano Trio – pianist Ilya Kazantsev, violinist Misha Keylin and cellist Sergey Antonov – proves fully equal to the task, ensuring that no emotional stone is left unturned without resorting to mere hysteria. … Exemplary annotations from Victor…
Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony Meet High Expectations in Bruckner Symphony No. 9
Fanfare Magazine’s Gavin Dixon reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording: “Manfred Honeck’s impressive discography with the Pittsburgh Symphony raises high expectations for this new Bruckner Nine, and it doesn’t disappoint. Honeck has a knack for reinventing core Romantic repertoire, but without moving outside of established performing traditions. … The orchestra deserves equal praise for their performance here. The distinctively American brass sound works wonders in Bruckner, but the…
InfoDad Review for Richmond Symphony’s Mason Bates and Vaughan Williams Recording
The InfoDad team gives their highest rating to the Richmond Symphony and Richmond Symphony Chorus’s Bates: Children of Adam; Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem recording in a new review: “The elegant orchestration and skillful use of voices make [Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem] a very moving work when it is well performed, as it is on a new Reference Recordings disc featuring the Richmond Symphony Chorus and Richmond Symphony conducted by Steven Smith. Soloists Michelle Areyzaga…
Pittsburgh’s Bruckner Symphony No. 9 Gets Five Stars from Audiophile Audition
Audiophile Audition’s Steven Ritter gives Five Stars to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording: “Ah, to live in Pittsburgh these days! … And why, you say? Because the Pittsburgh Symphony is sounding as good as any orchestra in the country, and Manfred Honeck’s direction stamps an indelible seal on so many masterworks once thought virtually untouchable. … a balanced, dramatic, powerfully reliable attention to the score is coupled with what…
Culture Spot LA Reviews Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
Henry Schlinger reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording for Culture Spot LA: “Manfred Honeck, the music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, can apparently read my mind and has been doing so for some time now. He seems to know what I want him and the PSO to record on the spectacular Fresh Series from Reference Recordings. … [Honeck] has a seemingly intuitive knack for pulling back on the…
Revelatory PSO Performances Make Bruckner Symphony No. 9 Fresh Again
The family review site, InfoDad reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording and finds it “revelatory”: “Even music that is familiar and has frequently been recorded can sometimes come across as fresh and new when performances are sufficiently revelatory – as is Manfred Honeck’s of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Not since the days of William Steinberg has this orchestra sounded so warm, full, and emotionally evocative…
American Record Guide Reviews PaTRAM’s Kurt Sander: Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
The September/October 2019 issue of American Record Guide features a new review for the PaTRAM Institute‘s recording of Kurt Sander’s Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom: “Most of the music falls into one of two categories: brief choral responses to chanted declamation by the priest or deacon, and more extended choral pieces like the Cherubic Hymn and the Lord’s Prayer. In his notes, Sander observes that most composers would begin by writing the more extended…
MundoClasico Reviews Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Bruckner Symphony No. 9
The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording gets a review in MundoClasico: “Furthermore, the Pittsburgh Symphony surrenders itself without compromise. Although this recording is not as widely broadcast as one would desire, it is, in my opinion, an interpretation that must be taken very seriously by anyone worthy of being a Brucknerite. And it is, of course–until now, and as far as I know– Honeck’s best discographic work in Pittsburgh.” —Alfredo López-Vivié…
The Whole Note Reviews Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff
“Now based out of the United States, the ensemble has just released their debut CD for Reference Recordings, a beautifully performed and recorded capture at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts of some of the most intricate and dynamic works of the celebrated late Romantic-era Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). … And, like the finest Western art musicians of today, the trio here handles all of this (and more) with ease, expressively and flawlessly traversing the…
Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff is “absolutely unmissable”
Barry Forshaw reviews the Hermitage Piano Trio’s new Rachmaninoff recording for Classical CD Choice: “This absolutely unmissable disc performs a valuable service in providing the first SACD performances of his exquisite piano trios. The Hermitage Piano Trio has the full measure of this vivid and colourful music, chamber works which are not afraid to wear their heart on their sleeve – but never in a forced, sentimental manner. In fact, it is the muscle and…
Four-Star Review for the Richmond Symphony from Pizzicato
The Richmond Symphony and Richmond Symphony Chorus’s Bates: Children of Adam; Vaughan-Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem recording gets a four-star rating from Remy Franck’s Pizzicato Magazine: “The work is eventful in its orchestration and varied in its moods… [and] musically rich… here spiritual and sensual, there reflective, sometimes also solemn. In contrast to the very colorful and complex orchestral part, the choral part is rooted in the chorale and hymn… [an] exciting live recording.” —Remy Franck,…
The Wall Street Journal Profiles Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
The Wall Street Journal has a new review and feature for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s new Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording! “Conductor Manfred Honeck has become one of today’s most insightful interpreters of the classics. A regular presence on the world’s most prestigious orchestra podiums, the Austrian maestro has been music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for more than a decade, where he has made valuable additions to its discography. … Their…
Classical Music Sentinel Review for Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
Jean-Yves Duperron reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra‘s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording in Classical Music Sentinel: “As if a call from the beyond, the magnificent horns of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra infuse a profound sense of eerie and yet powerful stillness within the opening pages. … this account is highly gripping. … a Bruckner symphony is ‘absolute’ music. You can’t evince a different outcome from a harmonic progression or a sequence of chords. It’s sound…
Pizzicato Gives Four Stars To The Dallas Winds’ Asphalt Cocktail Recording
Remy Frank’s Pizzicato Magazine gives four stars to the Dallas Winds’ new Asphalt Cocktail: The Music of John Mackey recording! “The performances by the Dallas Winds under Jerry Junkin are absolutely great, energetic in the fast works, wonderfully lyrical and atmospheric in the quieter pieces. The recorded sound is crystal-clear and reinforces the positive impression of this production which should satisfy every lover of brass music.” —Remy Franck, Pizzicato See the full review on Pizzicato.lu