The New York Times has just published a list of “Five Classical Albums to Hear Right Now” and number one on the list is the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Brahms: Symphony No. 4 and MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra! “these forces have been setting new standards in the standards, their records combining astonishing playing… Right on cue, their new album offers James MacMillan’s gnarly-to-seraphic Larghetto for Orchestra, atmospherically adapted from his choral “Miserere” for its premiere in…
Don’t miss this incredible look at Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Manfred Honeck and New York Times critic David Allen! See it on nytimes.com “Manfred Honeck is one of today’s leading Beethoven conductors. As music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he has created notably exciting recordings of the Third, Fifth and Seventh Symphonies. Now he and the orchestra, founded 125 years ago this month, are releasing their interpretation of the mighty Ninth. What makes Honeck’s approach so…
The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck perform at Lincoln Center on May 19, and the New York Times is previewing the performance with an in-depth look at their Pittsburgh Live! recording series! “Good barely covers it. All eight of the releases that the Pittsburgh forces have brought out on Reference Recordings, with the aid of microphone whizzes from Soundmirror, come with the highest of recommendations.… Four have received nominations for the Grammy for best orchestral performance. One,…
The New York Times has released its “25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2018” and the GRAMMY-nominated Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck recording of Beethoven’s “Funeral March” from Symphony No. 3 made the list! “The most interesting and innovative Beethoven recording since these forces set down the Fifth and Seventh, this intense “Eroica” nods in the direction of tradition but sounds completely new, rethought from the ground up.” —David Allen, The New York Times See the…
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…
The New York Times “Classical Playlist” features the Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Dvořák & Janáček recording: “Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have quietly become one of the country’s hottest partnerships in repertory staples, thereby invigorating and legitimizing the very idea of a canon. Mr. Honeck’s trademark flexible tempos, along with the spectacularly refined playing he draws, enliven this Dvorak war horse. A suite from Janacek’s “Jenufa,” conceived by Mr. Honeck and…