Archive for Review – Page 21
Classical-Modern Music Heartily Recommends Utah Symphony’s Mahler 8
“As much as I’ve appreciated Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 over time, I have connected only tangentially to it on a personal level. Until now. Thierry Fischer directs the Utah Symphony and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in a brand new recording. … Fischer and the Utah contingent meet the challenges and bring us a single-hearted reading that perhaps is less Wagnerian (a problem with some readings) than Mahlerian, less strictly giganticistic and more focused than some.…
American Record Guide Reviews Shostakovich and Barber
The January/February 2018 issue of American Record Guide features a new review for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio for Strings recording: “Manfred Honeck has…drawn on Shostakovich’s life and experiences for his interpretation fo the Fifth. Honeck does not ‘rewrite’ the piece, but he does adapt interpretive points to what he believes the muic is saying or depicting. The result is one of the more interesting performances of the…
Break The Chain a Top Blues Release of 2017
Making A Scene released their “Top 50 Indie Blues Albums of 2017” and Doug MacLeod’s Break The Chain makes the list! “MacLeod has a rhythmic guitar style, a soulful voice and loves to tell a story usually via a narrative in which he builds rapport with his audience. His regular band mates Denny Croy, bass; and BMA award winner Jimi Bott, drums; are joined by percussionist Oliver Brown (who has worked with everyone from KC…
Four Stars for Shostakovich & Barber from BBC Magazine
Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck‘s Shostakovich/Barber receives ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ performance and ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ recording ratings from BBC Music Magazine: “Manfred Honeck’s Shostakovich sounds magnificent. From intense pianissimos to the shrieking upper register and full bass thwack of a grand peroration…there’s faith in what can sometimes seem like a time-serving symphony. … the scherzo is writ huge, like Mahler on steroids, cellos and basses digging in at the start; the finale has all the trenchancy it needs… [the…
Shostakovich/Barber a MusicWeb Recording of the Year
Add MusicWeb International Recording of the Year to the growing list of accolades for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio recording! “I find this interpretation of a so familiar symphony to be as convincing as it is revelatory. The Pittsburgh Symphony show themselves to be in inspired and virtuosic form under conductor Manfred Honeck who makes unconventional but inspired interpretative choices. Reference Recordings provide a recording of superb…
Pittsburgh’s Shostakovich Makes the Forbes Best of 2017
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony‘s Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio recording makes the Forbes Best Classical Recordings of 2017 list! “[Manfred Honeck] interprets – he even anthropomorphizes the music. It works! The music comes alive in uncanny ways. I’m wary of interpreting too much into composers and their works, especially Shostakovich. … Honeck’s profound empathizing with the music – equally obvious from his own, extensive liner notes – denotes a passionate, detail-happy, and…
Classical CD Choice Reviews Utah Symphony’s Impressive Mahler 8
Barry Forshaw reviews the new Utah Symphony and Thierry Fischer recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 on Classical CD Choice: “It will hardly come as a revelation to those who have been collecting earlier Reference Recordings discs of the great masterpieces of the orchestral repertoire that this new reading of Mahler’s monumental Eighth Symphony is so impressive. … it’s clear that both the musical and recording values are (as usual) firmly in place. The singing,…
Manfred Honeck has the Pittsburgh Symphony in Fine Form
MusicWeb International critic, Michael Cookson, offers high praise for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony‘s Barber: Adagio recording: “Samuel Barber’s renowned Adagio for Strings is his best-known work an arrangement for string orchestra from the second movement of his 1936 String Quartet, Op. 11. … In one of the finest performances I have heard, Honeck ensures the Adagio for Strings is played with an affecting vulnerability maintaining the emotional tension in the writing at an…
InfoDad Reviews Utah Symphony Mahler 1 and 8
Two Utah Symphony and Thierry Fischer Mahler Symphony reviews on the family-focused website InfoDad: Mahler Symphony No. 8 “Because of the unique sonic quality of Mahler’s music, the exceptional importance of getting both the quiet passages and the huge, noisy and sometimes deliberately crude ones right, the recording quality of Mahler performances is exceptionally important, most definitely so in the case of his Eighth, the “Symphony of a Thousand,” which really does require something close…
Utah Symphony’s Mind-Boggling Mahler Eighth
“This is, without question, the most sheerly beautiful recording of the Mahler Eighth I’ve ever heard. and I’ve heard a bunch of them. … you feel totally immersed in the chorus and orchestra from the very first note. In addition, all of the singers are quite good… Whether due to Fischer’s conducting, the engineering of the recording or both, one also hears a great deal of orchestral detail, so essential in Mahler but not always…
Audiophilia Names Break The Chain an Album of the Year
Audiophilia Magazine has released their 2017 Recordings of the Year and Doug MacLeod’s Break The Chain makes the cut: Order Now “Break the Chain does not do musically what the title implies. We have brilliant consistency. Here, you’ll find eleven songs and a ‘holler’ (story). Audiophiles will especially like the spoken voice track as they are so difficult to get right on recordings. … As the Reference team was together in Marin County’s Skywalker Studios,…
Utah Symphony’s Mahler 8 “among the best”
The Christian Review released their “Eight Recordings for Christmas” list and includes the new Utah Symphony Orchestra and Mormon Tabernacle Choir recording of Mahler Symphony No. 8: Order Now “Mahler 8th Symphony, conducted by Thierry Fischer, Utah Symphony, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and soloists, is exceptional, among the best 8ths I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard most of them. The soloists are first class, especially the tenor, Barry Banks, meeting all the challenges of the score.…
HR Audio Reviews Utah Symphony’s Mahler Symphony No. 8
Order Now “In 2015 Reference Recordings released a very recommendable version of Mahler’s 1st Symphony by the Utah Symphony conducted by their Musical Director Thierry Fischer Mahler: Symphony No. 1 – Fischer. That recording taken from live performances given in the orchestra’s home – the Maurice Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah – showed Fisher’s Mahlerian credentials in a most favorable light and they are now confirmed by this stunningly recorded account of the…
CD Choice Review for Utah Symphony Mahler 8
Classical CD Choice says Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony‘s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 will take a lot to beat: Order Now “not just its remarkable sensitivity to the composer’s intentions (every nuance and facet is found, from the more restrained colouristic passages to the great swells of orchestral excitement), captured in a recording which does full justice to the immense sound picture. The fact of that recording is so technically impressive will,…
ClassicsToday Review for Compelling Shostakovich
Order Now “Manfred Honeck makes the Shostakovich Fifth sound freshly-composed–quite an accomplishment for this certified warhorse. His scrupulous attention to Shostakovich’s meticulous dynamic markings and instrumental balances–the harp emerging perfectly from the orchestral texture in the first movement, the audible piano at the climax of the adagio, and the brass beautifully sonorous and penetrating throughout–provides much aural delight. Honeck’s interpretation is remarkable for its clean, rhythmically-alert phrasing… The Pittsburgh Symphony plays marvelously, with a bright…