The November issue of Gramophone features a great review for the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Brahms: Symphony No. 4 & MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra:
“This latest release presents subtly incendiary Brahms alongside an utterance of radically different stripe. … The main work transmits an impression of interpretative renewal. Though capable of cushioned ‘European’ warmth, the Pittsburgh Symphony has a cleaner, brighter edge than traditionally associated with big-band Brahms.… As ever articulation is precisely honed, the smoothed-over and the brusque playfully juxtaposed. The triangle is nicely audible, timpani wonderfully crisp. The finale is again urgent with real dramatic sweep despite a diversity of expression some will find self-conscious. Honeck explains many of his unorthodox choices in an accompanying essay. Not wanting to be unduly influenced, I decided to listen first. In fact the booklet is as much a high-end production as the resplendent state-of-the art Soundmirror recorded sound from producer Dirk Sobotka and balance engineer Mark Donahue.… there’s no mistaking the rapt eloquence of the strings, nor the forceful New World delivery of the few brazen intrusions. Expert sound engineering helps convey the spatial element of a live performance, with solo trumpet and horn nicely distanced from the quiescent orchestral body towards the end. The Pittsburgh Symphony commissioned Christopher Rouse’s Rapture during Mariss Jansons’s time at the helm and it may be that MacMillan’s consolatory orchestral statement will endure similarly as a marker for the Honeck years. … All in all a provocative listen, beautifully packaged.”
—David Gutman, Gramophone
See the full review in the latest issue of Gramophone or at gramophone.co.uk