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…
“For much of the work Floyd writes in an expressive parlando style that allows the words to be clearly heard even when the voices are competing with large orchestral forces. The dark brooding orchestral score is, even allowing for the tragic nature of the story, mellifluous and often lushly romantic in the style of Puccini and Samuel Barber as, for example, in Edgar’s aria “Then marry me Cathy and make me whole again” (Act 2…
“This recording of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ is a ‘monument’ in every sense of the word. … Conveying ideas to an orchestra is one thing, but letting an orchestral body of around 100 musicians carry them out like clockwork, as if holding everyone on a personal string, can only be done if musicians believe in their master and have confidence in what he is asking them to do. This makes a Chef stand out from the crowd.…
New Graham Williams review on HRAudio.net! “It is fair to say that Manfred Honeck’s series of live recordings with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra of music by Richard Strauss, Dvorak, Bruckner and Beethoven on the Reference Recordings Fresh! label have been revelatory, even to those listeners who are very familiar with the works featured on them that are, by and large, cornerstones of the orchestral repertoire. The main work on this latest release is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony…
Graham Williams gives five stars across the board for Utah Symphony’s new Dawn To Dust recording! “The programme opens with ‘Eos (Goddess of the Dawn)’ by Augusta Read Thomas (b.1964) whose command of a wide ranging orchestral palette is breathtaking. … The music is full of ravishing orchestral sonorities, the subtle use of glittering percussion and writing for winds being immediately striking, whilst the almost Mahlerian string passages in the fourth section ‘Dreams and Memories’…
A second HRAudio.net review from contributor Adrian Quanjer: “Playing and recording, including dynamic contrasts and rhythmic changes, touch upon extremes: Both are extraordinarily well done, but one cannot escape a feeling of them having been stretched to the maximum. Taking the fifth symphony as an example, one notes that interpretational drive, richly inspired by Beethoven’s inner conflicts, unrelenting fury and continuous struggle to conquer defeat, sweeps up the orchestra to the limits of what it…
Critic Graham Williams has a new review for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s BEETHOVEN: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 recording: “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 insights into some of…