For the second year in-a-row, The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck have won Opus Magazine‘s “Record of the Year” award! This year’s distinction goes to their recording of Strauss’s Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier Opera Suites: Order Now “In the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s sixth recording of the Pittsburgh live! series, conductor Manfred Honeck and Czech composer Tomáš Ille have once again joined forces (after their 2014 and 2016 collaborations on the Jenufa symphonic suite and the…
Order Now “The Pittsburgh Symphony is one of America’s more Germanic orchestras and is well suited to Strauss. The brass are terrific, and the strings play with a powerful Teutonic sound. Reference Recordings is known as an audiophile label, and it earns that distinction here, particularly in Elektra, whose extreme demands it meets especially well. Even opera purists should enjoy this program. Honeck’s booklet notes include detailed time indiciations of what is going on in…
Order Now “This is a groundbreaking recording—and a wonderful one!…Manfred Honeck himself catalysed the effort, in collaboration with Czech composer Tomás Ille. … Strauss pushes the borders of harmony in Elektra and employs a complex orchestra of 110, larger than most of his tone poems. … Honeck has marginally rescored it down to the merely mammoth forces customarily used in Strauss’s tone poems. Most importantly, he has woven the punchy, mercurial, polyphonic score into a…
Gramophone Magazine features the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck Strauss: Elektra/Rosenkavaalier recording in the January 2017 issue: The recording packs a mighty punch from the initial Agamemnon motif, scything brass braying Elektra’s revenge theme. There is percussive glitter for Klytemnestra, whip cracks marking the arrival of her entourage. The full barbarism of Strauss’s score makes a searing impact, Orest’s murder of Klytemnestra especially brutal, yet there are moments of great tenderness too. Reference…
Forbes has released their 10 Best Classical Recordings of 2016 list and the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck Strauss: Elektra/Rosenkavalier recording comes in at #8: “Manfred Honeck’s ‘Elektra Symphonic Drama’ (co-written by Manfred Honeck and Tomáš Ille) absolutely lifts the lid and shows you how much sensuous and sumptuous music there’s in this opera already, which otherwise looks and sounds, on experiencing in toto or in the opera house, so very, very – indeed totally…
ArkivMusic.com names Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Strauss: Elektra & Der Rosenkavalier their #2 recording of 2016! This ongoing series from orchestra and conductor goes from strength to strength. Another stunning album, one which should be an essential purchase for devotees of the composer. See the list on ArkivMusic.com Reference Recordings Amazon Native DSD
“This is juicy. I’m sure that many music lovers have wished that Strauss had made a suite from Elektra. It is, after all, one of his most exciting scores, as well as one of his most symphonically cogent. Well, here it is, courtesy of Manfred Honeck and Tomas Ille, and it’s a doozy. You get all of the major bits: Elektra’s opening monologue, the entry of Klytaemnestra, the recognition scene, the two murders, and of…
Gramophone Magazine’s “High Fidelity” section used the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck Strauss: Elektra & Der Rosenkavalier as one of their December Test Discs! “This recording of Manfred Honeck’s suite from Strauss’s Elektra is a true demonstration-quality set, well up to the Reference label’s usual standards.”
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Tchaikovsky/Dvořák recording has been nominated for in the Symphonic Category of the 2017 International Classical Music Awards! Winners will be announced on January 2017 with an awards ceremony and gala in Leipzig, Germany on April 1st. “The International Classical Music Awards recognise creativity, imagination in choice of repertoire and artistic excellence.” Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6; Dvořák Rusalka Fantasy Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra & Manfred Honeck Reference Recordings Amazon iTunes…
Now Available Strauss: Elektra/Der Rosenkavalier Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Manfred Honeck, Music Director Presenting the World Premiere of the First Symphonic Suite From Elektra! Get It Today This new recording presents orchestral suites based on two of the most significant operas in history. Der Rosenkavalier found its place in the concert hall from the beginning, first with two waltz sequences and later with the famous 1944 suite. But Elektra remained purely on the opera stage until…
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offer previews of what to expect in the new Pittsburgh Symphony recording of Suites from Richard Strauss operas with reviews from the ensemble’s performances of the works: “The concert opened with Honeck’s ‘Elektra Suite,’ which the conductor created with Tomas Ille. Strauss’s opera is even more brutal, sensational and progressive in compositional style than his previous opera ‘Salome.’ His use of bitonality preceded Stravinsky’s in ‘Petrouchka’ by several years.…
Strauss: Elektra/Rosenkavalier Excerpts from Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier: Suites from the Opera Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Manfred Honeck, Music Director Pre-Order! See the reviews! MusicWeb International Graham Williams, HRAudio Adrian Quanjer, HRAudio
“Thanks to Strauss’ distinctive sound world, this was the first time in many years that any music had both disturbed and excited me to such a remarkable degree. Both Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier work marvellously in this symphonic suite form. Especially striking in its new guise is Elektra, a work which startles and unsettles with murder, obsession and thirst for revenge pushing harmony and tonality to the edge and sheer barbarity of sound to levels…
HRAudio’s Graham Williams gives five stars for performance and sonics to our upcoming Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck release, Strauss: Elektra/Rosenkavalier! “All Straussians will be intrigued by this latest release from Manfred Honeck and his marvellous Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra of orchestral suites from what many would regard as the greatest of the composer’s fifteen operas – Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier… Honeck has already demonstrated his mastery of the Strauss idiom in his previous fine…
Upcoming Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck release, Strauss: Elektra/Rosenkavalier is already receiving critical praise: “Simply sensational! The eminent sound quality, for which Soundmirror, Boston deserves all the credits, takes the listener straight into the reality of Heinz Hall where Maestro Manfred Honeck grabs you by the throat with his ‘shaped into the minutest detail’ Pittsburgh Symphony, in a high octane performance of a new ‘Elektra Suite’ conceptualized by him and realized by his Czech…