Archive for Beethoven – Page 2
Classical CD Review Features Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony
“For Reference Recodings, there are SACDs of Strauss symphonic poems, and Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8 coupled with a suite from Janacek’s opera Jenufa. Now we have three more SACDS of live recordings all made in the fine acoustics of Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts. All of these are superlative, virtuoso performances. The Beethoven symphonies are high energy throughout, with a rather frantic but exiting pace for the final two movements of Symphony No.…
American Record Guide Reviews Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven!
“The music is always pressing forward, as on a life-or-death mission. It’s dramatic and exciting…this is Beethoven driven by a carefully thought-out, masterly vision that’s brilliantly executed. None of this would work very well if the Pittsburgh Symphony were not fully up to the task. I’d be hard-pressed to say you’ll hear more technical dexterity or intensity of execution in Vienna or Berlin or Amsterdam. … I like it very much. Honeck’s interpretation of the…
Boston Concert Reviews Recommends Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven Symphony Nos. 5 & 7
“These performances are ravishing in their expansive sound and buoyancy. Each movement brings new gifts to explore: the expressive weight of the strings (all vibrant tones and capacious plucks); the ringing out of brass choruses thunderous and deep in the stage or the highest piccolo leaps tremulous and fragile. Honeck has the orchestra working with great alertness as to each intrepid moment in Beethoven’s brilliant writing. … This is a superb recording, especially in its…
Honeck and Pittsburgh’s Beethoven a Recording for the Ages
The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s BEETHOVEN: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 recording receives perfect 10 ratings from ClassicsToday: “No matter how many billion recordings of this music we already have, a great performance offers its own justification, these are very great performances. … It’s not easy to offer interpretations of this music that sound new without turning capricious–that both respect the music and personalize it. Honeck and the orchestra manage to pull it off…
Classical MPR Features Pittsburgh Symphony Beethoven
Classical MPR‘s Julie Amacher interviews the Pittsburgh Symphony’s principal horn, William (Bill) Caballero on New Classical Tracks! On the latest recording, Manfred Honeck leads the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in two of Beethoven’s most popular symphonies, No. 5 and No. 7. Bill Caballero says what makes this recording remarkable is that it’s live. “So in one sense that’s a plus,” he says. “You’re getting a vibrant performance here. But what comes across in the recordings, which…
Culture Spot LA Says You Need Another Beethoven Recording
Culture Spot LA‘s Henry Schlinger asks whether “we really need another record of Beethoven’s fifth or even seventh symphony”, and answers, “when it’s Manfred Honeck and the PSO, the answer is a resounding yes.”! “Honeck’s fifth is fresh right out of the gate, beginning with the way he plays the first four fateful notes. As he indicates in the liner notes, “The use of the more deliberate tempo gives the opening bars a grandiose weight,…
Stereo Times is Floored By Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven
Stereo Times critic Russell Lichter has been “floored” by Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s new Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 recording: “Like all aficionados of my longevity, I have heard numerous versions of the Fifth over the years, but when I alighted on Carlos Kleiber’s performance on the Deutsche Grammophon label, a decade or two ago, I stopped looking. Kleiber in my opinion is one of the supreme conductors of the Twentieth…
Five Stars for Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven
Audiophile Audition gives Manfred Honeck and The Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 a Five Star Review: “Pittsburgh is still the best kept secret among American orchestras, easily as good as any other ensemble active on the national scene, and this recording proves it. Even with a formidable Beethoven tradition in play, and with equally formidable competition in the catalog, this release, with its illuminating and brilliant surround sound, takes pride of place…
Beethoven an Arts Desk Best of 2015
The Arts Desk has named their Best Classical CDs of 2015 and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s new Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 has made the list: “Beethoven liked large-scale performances and he’d presumably have approved of Manfred Honeck’s Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performances of Symphonies 5 and 7. This is sensational orchestral playing, beautifully recorded, and these readings have an irresistible sweep and grandeur. One of those rare CDs which should leave you speechless after…
Two Gramophone Recordings of the Year!
Gramophone Magazine has released their 2015 Recordings of the Year in a special free digital issue and includes two Reference Recordings releases! Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3, “Organ” Jan Kraybill, organ; Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern “…the crucial test is not so much the volume of the organ but the way in which the orchestral context of the symphony as a whole is established. Here Michael Stern impressively injects impetus into the first section’s sinewy fabric,…
Pittsburgh Symphony Beethoven “as an anti-depressant”
Graham Rickson reviews the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck Beethoven Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 recording for The Arts Desk: “These performances, though never sluggish, are huge. In the best possible way. Their grandeur is irresistible, reminding us just how rare large-scale, modern instrument performances are. We know that Beethoven preferred big orchestras. He’d presumably have loved this disc. … Glorious. As is this Seventh, the Vivace’s rhythms enunciated with impeccable clarity. ……
Pittsburgh Symphony in the New York Times Classical Playlist
The New York Times critic David Allen adds the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 to the Arts Beat Classical Playlist: “Ninety seconds is all it takes to understand that Manfred Honeck’s is no sanitized Beethoven: the plethora of colorations, articulations and moods through which he forces the Fifth’s famous motto sees to that. Every phrase, every balance has been thought through in interventionist readings that are idiosyncratic but fully…
Pittsburgh Symphony Beethoven a 2015 Recording of the Year!
The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s new BEETHOVEN: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 recording has been nominated as a 2015 Recording of the Year by THREE MusicWeb International critics — one of only two recordings to receive such a distinction! Michael Cookson “The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck is on world class form with Beethoven’s Symphonies No’s 5 and 7. This release only arrived a short time ago but its merits were evident immediately.…
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven A MusicWeb Recording of the Month
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s new Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 gets a second (See the first) nomination for “Recording of the Month” from MusicWeb International! “Using a large orchestra one senses an elevated level of musical intelligence together with an unyielding structural coherence that produces impressively selected tempi, dynamic contrasts and moulding of phrase. These are mightily compelling performances, buoyantly rhythmic with plenty of thrust when required. Striking too is the penetrating…
Classical CD Choice Calls New Pittsburgh Symphony Beethoven “Vital”
Graham Williams offers a new review for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s new Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 recordings on Classical CD Choice: “The refreshingly vivid interpretations of works by Richard Strauss, Dvorak, Janacek and Bruckner that have appeared over the last few years on the Reference Recordings ‘Fresh’ label from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have convincingly demonstrated the ability of this partnership to deliver new and often remarkable…