Culture Spot LA reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra‘s recording of Beethoven Symphony No. 9: “Getting a CD in the mail from Reference Recordings is always a little like Christmas, especially when the package contains a new release by Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. That’s because I know that there will always be an interesting and often exhilarating interpretation of whatever work(s) Honeck decides to bring the listener. … Right out…
Culture Spot LA‘s Henry Schlinger reviews the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s recording of Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 and Leshnoff: Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon: “We at Culture Spot are always thrilled to get a new release from Reference Recordings of Manfred Honeck conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the new recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 is no exception. One thing we’ve come to expect from Honeck and the PSO is an…
Henry Schlinger reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording for Culture Spot LA: “Manfred Honeck, the music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, can apparently read my mind and has been doing so for some time now. He seems to know what I want him and the PSO to record on the spectacular Fresh Series from Reference Recordings. … [Honeck] has a seemingly intuitive knack for pulling back on the…
Culture Spot LA‘s Henry Schlinger has a new review for Quartet San Francisco’s new recording, A QSF Journey: “The new CD on Reference Recordings by the Quartet San Francisco (QSF), A QSF Journey, is a wonderful addition to the string quartet catalogue. The CD contains 12 tracks, many of which were either composed or arranged by the quartet’s founder and first violinist Jeremy Cohen and played to perfection by the quartet whose other members include…
Culture Spot LA‘s Henry Schlinger reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra‘s recording of Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” & Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1: “The new release in the Pittsburgh Live! series is a revelatory performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 by Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. … As he does with every work he performs, [Honeck] has dissected it with surgical precision to massage the…
“The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Reference Recordings are on a mission: to record some of the world’s greatest symphonic works under the unique direction of its music director Manfred Honeck. The latest offering is a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, “Pathétique.” And just as with the previous recordings by Honeck and the PSO, Honeck takes the listener on a musical journey with the Tchaikovsky. Not content to just play…
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,…
Culture Spot LA, which reviewed the first Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra recording on FRESH! From Reference Recordings, is already raving about the next installment in the “Pittsburgh Live!” series: “Anyone who is familiar with the Dvořák G major symphony will find Honeck’s interpretation remarkable. Like his interpretations of the Strauss tone poems, Honeck takes great liberties with the tempo and dynamics in order to realize his vision. … The result is a fresh and exciting version…