Fanfare critic Andrew Quint has named Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 “Organ” to his 2016 year-end “Want List”: “San Francisco’s Reference Recordings, issuing musically worthy recordings in audiophile sound for more than three decades, continues its rewarding relationship with Michael Stern and the over-achieving Kansas City Symphony. This all-Saint-Saëns program is anchored by the well-worn “Organ” Symphony, played here with sure-footed metrical precision plus plenty of cinematic splendor. “Professor”…
Three Fanfare Magazine critics have Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s recordings on their 2016 year-end “Want Lists”: Order Now Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 “Manfred Honeck’s Beethoven… helps you to recapture the shock of the new. There is nothing gimmicky or freakish about it, but I wasn’t 10 seconds into this SACD before I sat up and took notice. The booklet contains Honeck’s almost blow-by-blow description of both symphonies, and it is…
Fanfare Magazine critics Merlin Patterson, Huntley Dent and Andrew Quint had one album in common on their year-end “Want Lists” — the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck Dvořák & Janáček SACD! “Under music director Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is increasingly recognized as an ensemble to reckon with. … . In addition to a propulsive and thoughtfully structured account of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, there’s also an effective synthesis of music from Janáček’s…
Fanfare Magazine critics can’t get enough of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Raymond Tuttle wasn’t the only critic with a Pittsburgh Live! release on their year-end “Want List”: “Under music director Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is increasingly recognized as an ensemble to reckon with. It’s our good fortune that an audiophile label, San Francisco’s Reference Recordings has, so far, released two SACDs from the PSO. (The other is a Richard Strauss program.) The audio…
Fanfare Magazine critics are submitting their annual “Want Lists” and critic Raymond Tuttle puts our Pittsburgh Symphony Strauss release at the top: “These Want Lists are difficult for me, because, Lord knows, I want everything… My philosophy is that basic repertoire will seldom make my Want List because, in this age of redundancy, priority should be given to that which is new or at least unfamiliar. Having written that, I start with an exception. Strauss’s…