Archive for Manfred Honeck
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff Five Pieces is a New York Times Pick!
The New York Times published “5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now” featuring a selection of the New York Times Classical Critics’ favorite new releases and David Allen has an absolute RAVE review for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff Five Pieces recording: “make no mistake, it is a masterpiece, a dark psychological thriller that soars and scars and ends up being rather unnerving. Drawing on Tchaikovsky’s sketches…
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff: Five Pieces is a Gramophone Recording of the Month
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff: Five Pieces is a Gramophone Recording of the Month and Editor’s Choice feature! “Manfred Honeck has been Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony since 2008, during which time they have released many discs together on Reference Recordings, including several that have earned recognition as Editor’s Choice: Dvořák, Mahler and ‘Promethean’ Beethoven (as described by Richard Osborne, 12/15) among others.… And now they…
Fanfare Declares Pittsburgh Symphony’s Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 “Not To Be Missed”
Fanfare Magazine’s Henry Fogel names Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff: Five Pieces a “Not To Be Missed” recording: “this has to be ranked in the upper echelon of the [Tchaikovsky Fifth] discography… [In the Schulhoff] Honeck …[and] Thomas Ille… have done a superb job in creating a version that deserves a place in the orchestral repertoire.… This is a hugely successful recording.” —Henry Fogel, Fanfare See the full review…
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Brahms Symphony No. 4 and MacMillan Larghetto a 2022 Recording of the Year Nominee
Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Brahms: Symphony No. 4 and James MacMillan Larghetto for Orchestra is a MusicWeb International 2022 Recording of the Year Double-Nominee! “Indisputably the finest – and possibly the most important – recording to emerge in 2022 was this release of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony by Manfred Honeck. In an age where recordings of the old war-horses are not universally welcomed, the general thought being that everything that has been said about the…
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 and Stucky: Silent Spring Nominated for Engineering GRAMMY®
We are thrilled to share that Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 and Stucky: Silent Spring was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY® Award in the Best Engineered Album, Classical category! Congratulations to engineer Mark Donahue on his nomination! “Throughout the symphony, passion is omnipresent, be it in a positive or ominous posture. Honeck unravels with his musicians to infinite perfection a modern version of a symphony that is all too…
Two 2023 International Classical Music Awards Nominations!
We are thrilled to share that the International Classical Music Awards have nominated two of our recordings in the 2023 ICMAs! The final result with all winners will be announced on January 18, 2023, and the Award Ceremony and Gala concert will take place in Wrocław, Poland on April 21, hosted by the NFM Philharmonic. Nominations Symphonic Music Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Contemporary Music Martin West & the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra
Classical Music Sentinel Review for Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven and Stucky Recording
Jean-Yves Duperron reviews the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 and Stucky: Silent Spring recording on Classical Music Sentinel: “This ‘live’ performance by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Manfred Honeck of the iconic Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, “Pastoral” by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), is nothing if not light-footed and yet muscular, airy and yet intricately detailed, naïvely good-natured and yet deeply expressive. Could it be that they’ve hit upon its spiritual…
Atlanta Audio Club Reviews Beethoven Symphony 6 and Stucky: Silent Spring
Phil Muse’s Atlanta Audio Club Mid-Summer Classical Reviews Column features Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 & Stucky: Silent Spring: “What better choice for summertime listening than Beethoven’s time-tested ‘Pastorale’? … Quick but soul-satisfying pacing by conductor and orchestra makes it all come together. … Stucky pays respect to Carson’s dark, uncompromising vision of environmental destruction in musical terms that are positively chilling.… disspirited birdsong in haunting brass and reeds, relentless…
The Arts Fuse Hails Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven Symphony 6 as “Another Winner”
The Arts Fuse‘s Jonathan Blumhofer gives a warm recommendation to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven & Stucky recording: “The Pittsburgher’s performance is nothing if not very well balanced and strongly colored. Solos short and long – for tuba, contrabassoon, and English horn, among them – are all well done. And the orchestra has clearly got a firm grasp on Stucky’s highly intellectual (but still accessible) personal style. … it’s forceful, well-written music and…
Vote for Pittsburgh Symphony for Gramophone Orchestra of the Year!
Gramophone Magazine has announced its 10 finalists for the 2022 Orchestra of the Year — the only one of its prestigious awards decided by the public — and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has made the list! “Nomination comes as a result of each ensemble impressing Gramophone’s editors and reviewers through its work on record, and all ten have released magnificent and often thought-provoking new albums over the past 12 months.” Vote now through Monday, September 7!…
Five Star HRAudio Review for Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven Symphony No. 6
HRAudio.net‘s Adrian Quanjer gives a five-star rating to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 and Steven Stucky: “Silent Spring” recording: “Unfamiliar as I was with Silent Spring, in Honeck’s reading it unescapably got my immediate attention. Expressing in music what is barely possible to express in words. Around 15 minutes of awareness of the formidable complexities of nature is in itself already worth acquiring this release. … I have no…
MusicWeb International Recommendation for James MacMillan’s Larghetto for Orchestra
Another “Recommended” distinction from a MusicWeb International Critic for Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Brahms & MacMillan release, and this time the spotlight shines on James MacMillan! “I really have to doff my hat to Reference Recordings, as well as to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, for their commitment to programming and recording new music is genuinely admirable. … I have come across the music of MacMillan more than once in the past, both in…
MusicWeb International Adds a Rave for Pittsburgh Symphony’s Brahms & MacMillan
Ralph Moore has a new rave review for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Brahms: Symphony No. 4 and MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra recording: “From the way Honeck asks his orchestra to lean into the very first note, beseechingly and growing out of a whispered sigh, you know that this is a deeply thought out performance. Grand, stately, very “masculine” this recording is nonetheless lyrically flowing with its sights firmly set on the final…
Brahms & MacMillan a NativeDSD Album of the Year
NativeDSD.com released their 2021 albums of the year, and the Orchestral winner is Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Brahms: Symphony No. 4 and Macmillan: Larghetto for Orchestra! “Athletic! I see that word applied to many of Honeck’s recordings – strong, emphatic performances! Sometimes he has been accused of being a bit over the top, but I find this Brahms Fourth to be excellent in every way. If I had to choose…
Five Stars for Honeck’s Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Audiophile Audition‘s Gary Lemco has published a five-star review for Manfred Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony’s GRAMMY®-nominated Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 recording: “This performance does indeed balance its multifarious adjustments to Beethoven’s dynamic requirements with a spacious warmth in the realization that does not suffer lags and sags in the musical line. … We should acknowledge immediately the contribution of acting principal timpanist Christopher Allen in the Scherzo, given the constant immediacy of his presence. This often wild…