Archive for Review – Page 32
Bruckner an All Music Editor’s Choice
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner recording is a March All Music Editor’s Choice! “Honeck gives this live performance a rather expansive interpretation, emphasizing the long sweep of melody and using a fair amount of rubato in his tempos to add dramatic shading, particularly by drawing out cadences for their full emotional effect. The orchestra is prepared for all of Honeck’s gradations and nuances, and it is remarkably fluid in shifting from one mood…
Classical CD Choice Reviews Bruckner
Classical CD Choice‘s Barry Forshaw sees Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s rise in stardom in the new Bruckner recording: “The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and their Music Director Manfred Honeck have – in a very short space of time – become one of the most exciting teams in the modern classical world, with recordings that combine superlative musicianship with unparalleled recording quality.… we are offered a striking new interpretation of this imperishable masterpiece…” —Barry Forshaw,…
Exactly Like This Gets Four Stars From Audiophile Audition
Audiophile Audition‘s Robbie Gerson gives Doug MacLeod’s new Exactly Like This release four (out of five) stars in this latest review: “The material on ‘Exactly Like This‘ is very good. The recording environment by Reference Recordings is superlative. The live studio intimacy is enhanced significantly by the full sound of the 24-bit HDCD. The guitar resonates with natural vibration and echo. McLeod’s baritone reverberates with subtle prominence. Engineer Keith O. “Prof” Johnson” captures the essence…
New Classic LA Features Nadia Shpachenko Woman At The New Piano
New Classic LA‘s Paul Muller has a new feature for Nadia Shpachenko’s Woman At The New Piano: “Airdancing is an appealing combination of the traditional piano sounds and electronic percussion. The lightness in the rhythms and timbre of the electronics are nicely contrasted with the lower, more ominous sections in an interesting mix. … Part Suite-a for Solo Piano is a technically challenging piece that is precisely realized here. … Finger Songs for Solo Piano…
The Arts Desk Says Honeck is “At It Again”
The Arts Desk‘s Graham Rickson named the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Dvořák/Janáček recording a “Best of 2014”, so how does the new Bruckner SACD stack up? “Manfred Honeck’s at it again. Changing dynamics, tampering with tempo markings, adjusting balances. But when the results feel so idiomatically right, only a chump would object. … Start noting down the high spots and you’ll need several sheets of paper. … This is a great performance, exactly the sort of disc…
Our Musical Journey Reviews Exactly Like This
Exactly Like This gets a rave review and Doug MacLeod adds a new fan in the Our Musical Journey blog: “I need to get my balance, so that I can tip my hat to both Doug MacLeod and Reference Recordings, and kick myself for not finding both sooner. Doug plays all originals and has written somewhere around 300 songs and recorded 17 studio albums. I am truly impressed with Doug’s lyricism and his playing which…
Blues In The Northwest Reviews Exactly Like This
Lionel Ross of Blues In The Northwest recommends Doug MacLeod’s latest recording, Exactly Like This: “…‘Serious Doin’ Woman’ describes the temptations that can confront a musician on the road and is embellished by some lovely guitar work while the instrumental, ‘Ridge Runner’ races along, brilliantly driven by the excellent rhythm section. ‘New Morning Road’ is a down home blues, which showcases MacLeod’s wonderfully rich vocal quality at its impressive best in advance of the superb,…
SA-CD Net Gives Bruckner 5 Stars
SA-CD.net’s Graham Williams gives five stars for both performance and sonics to the new Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck Bruckner recording: “Manfred Honeck has shown himself to be a searching interpreter of everything he conducts, in addition to being an outstandingly cultured musician and fine orchestral trainer. … Honeck convincingly relates the musical ideas to the literary ones outlined in the composer’s programme – something that in some respects moves the symphony closer to becoming…
Pittsburgh Symphony Bruckner “Simply Tantalizing”
Brian Wigman of Classical.net has been “anticipating this release since the beginning of Pittsburgh’s partnership with Reference Recordings” because “the prospect of Bruckner was simply tantalizing.” His review: “The opening instantly establishes this as Honeck’s own performance. … It’s quite magical.… About 10 minutes in, the strings and brass work so thrillingly together that it effectively captures everything right about this disc. … At about the same speed on EMI, Herbert von Karajan finds markedly…
Pittsburgh Symphony Among the Best in the World — Stereo Times
Stereo Times critic Russell Lichter was “intrigued by the hoopla” around the new Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck Bruckner release. Did it live up to the hype? “I really did not know the PSO’s music-making ability nor was I familiar with Manfred Honeck, but I know them now and in my view this orchestra and conductor are up there with the very best in the world. This particular performance, this amazing performance, is very special…
Pittsburgh Symphony Bruckner Gets “Highest Recommendation”
Film Music: The Neglected Art critic Thomas Kiefner gives the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Bruckner release his “highest recommendation.” “Listening to the new live recording from Reference Recordings of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 is as close to being there as you’ll ever experience. … On the very first play you’ll hear that the Pittsburgh Symphony under Honeck’s direction play this work as if they’ve played it a 1000 times. … The Pittsburgh Symphony has brought…
Is The Pittsburgh Symphony Bruckner the Best Ever?
Audiophile Audition‘s Steven Ritter asks, is the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck release “The best Bruckner Fourth ever recorded?” “There have been many fine recordings of this work, but none to my mind holds a candle to Karl Bohm’s 1973 Decca reading. I can honestly say that Honeck and the superb Pittsburghians have given us a performance in phenomenal—underline that—surround sound that launches this rendition to the absolute top of the pile. The…
Textura Magazine Reviews Woman At The New Piano
Textura Magazine reviews the new Nadia Shpachenko release, Woman at the New Piano in their February issue: “An exceptional recording of newly composed piano works… Shpachenko is that special musician who possesses the ability to execute technically challenging contemporary works but also bring out the emotional dimension of the material. … Given the involvement of multiple composers, Woman At The New Piano is naturally diverse, yet it’s cohesive, too. Though dramatic stylistic contrasts between works…
WQXR Reviews Dances for Piano and Orchestra
WQXR reviews the new Joel Fan and Northwest Sinfonietta Dances for Piano and Orchestra release and named it one of last week’s albums of the week! “American pianist Joel Fan is a veteran of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project whose tastes extent well beyond the standard repertoire. He has made several enjoyably eclectic recordings for San Francisco’s Reference Recordings label, the latest featuring an almost-forgotten genre, the single-movement dance piece for piano and orchestra. Hearing…
Fanfare Critics Want More Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Fanfare Magazine critics can’t get enough of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Raymond Tuttle wasn’t the only critic with a Pittsburgh Live! release on their year-end “Want List”: “Under music director Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is increasingly recognized as an ensemble to reckon with. It’s our good fortune that an audiophile label, San Francisco’s Reference Recordings has, so far, released two SACDs from the PSO. (The other is a Richard Strauss program.) The audio…