Archive for Uncategorized – Page 3
Pittsburgh Symphony Perform Manfred Honeck’s Suite from Elektra
WQED shares the Pittsburgh Symphony’s performance of Manfred Honeck and Thomas Ille’s Elektra Suite! Hear it on the recording — out this week! 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
Happy Veteran’s Day 2016!
Reference Recordings would like to extend a warm round of thanks to our veterans today on Veteran’s Day. In honor of the day, we’d like to offer a performance from Reference Recordings artist and U.S. Navy veteran, Doug MacLeod:
Pre-Order Pittsburgh Symphony’s New Strauss: Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier Today!
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
The Arts Desk Reviews Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights Recording
“…Cathy’s ghostly offstage voice in the Prologue soon had me hooked, Heathcliff’s passionate, florid response utterly in keeping with the novel’s spirit.… Georgia Jarman and Kelly Markgraf as the doomed couple are terrific, Markgraf’s testosterone-rich baritone a stark contrast to Vale Rideout’s insipid Edgar Linton. Chad Shelton’s Hindley is suitably brutish. Diction is clear, the English accents pretty decent. Repeated listenings reveal a myriad of instrumental details, like the rude trombone glissandi during Joseph’s tedious…
New Pittsburgh Symphony Recording is “Stunning”
“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…
American Record Guide Reviews Florentine Opera Company’s Wuthering Heights
The Florentine Opera Company’s Carlisle Floyd: Wuthering Heights receives a new review in the November/December 2016 issue of American Record Guide: “…there is a lot of interesting music, enough to make this an enjoyable theatrical experience…The performance is quite good. George Jarman and Kelly Markgraf make a very good Cathy and Heathcliff, Jarman with her clear, secure soprano and Markgraf with his rich, wide-ranging baritone. … The veteran Suzanne Mentzer makes a wonderful Nelly, and…
RR at Bay Area Record Fair!
RR will be attending the Bay Area Record Fair this Sunday from 12-5pm at the Swedish American Hall. Make sure to come by our booth in front of the stage and say hello! If you’re in the area, make sure and purchase an early-bird ticket by Friday to get in one hour before general admission and beat the rush!
New Pittsburgh Symphony Recording Gets Five Stars from HRAudio!
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…
New Pittsburgh Symphony Strauss is Sensational!
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…
First Listen – Pittsburgh Symphony: Strauss
First Listen — Strauss: Elektra/Rosenkavalier Excerpts from Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier: Suites from the Opera Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Manfred Honeck, Music Director Album out November 18, 2016!
The Absolute Sound Features Woman At The New Piano
Nadia Schpachenko’s Woman at the New Piano recording gets a 4.5 star review from Andrew Quint of The Absolute Sound: “Reference Recordings garnered seven nominations for the 2016 Grammy Awards, including two for Woman at the New Piano. The disc premieres six works written in 2013 by four composers, three of whom, like Shpachenko, live and work in the Los Angeles environs. … Shpachenko and Lee perform the music with complete authority, and they’re superbly…
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Tchaikovsky & Dvořák a “Winner”
“Manfred Honeck has a winner here again with the Pittsburgh Symphony. It would be hard to praise this recording too much. Not only does he bring us the most exciting recorded Tchaikovsky “Pathetique” I know—plus arrange a fine unified suite from Dvořák’s Rusalka—he’s taken trouble to pen the best CD program notes I recall reading anywhere, complete with audio index points and examples of what he’s trying to accomplish. Honeck’s observations about Tchaikovsky’s life and…
Wine Dark Sea on Classical Ear!
“Seventy minutes of wind-band music includes the album’s title piece, Wine Dark Sea by John Mackey…attractive, whimsical, soulful, filmic.… Dan Welcher’s Spumante…is an ebullient starter with enticing colours and a ready wit. J’ai été au bal finds Donald Grantham exploring Cajun music, the dance music delightfully lopsided and friendly, a tuba and a euphonium are given a jazzy workout before the brass contingent beefs things up and the music becomes fantastical. The Concerto for Clarinet…
Culture Spot LA Reviews Pittsburgh Symphony’s Tchaikovsky/Dvořák
“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…
Moszkowski: From Foreign Lands Is A Radio Star!
The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra’s new Moszkowski: From Foreign Lands recording has been getting a lot of attention on the radio this month: WFMT “Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) is best known for his piano works. He also composed an opera, a full-length ballet, three orchestra suites, a symphony, songs, concertos and chamber music – almost all of which remain neglected or forgotten. The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Martin West have assembled an intriguing program of…