HRAudio.net gives Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony a five-star rating for both performance and multi-channel sonics on their new Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording!
“each new issue in [the] Fresh! series is an event worth its weight in gold. … Listening to such a wonderful orchestra, led by someone with a clear, albeit very personal vision, words fall indeed short to express the deeply emotional experience. What makes Honeck’s rendition so significant? His ‘special effects’? The dynamics? The sudden changes in mood? The tight control over a hundred or so exceptional players? Well, the performance has to be heard, rather than read about, to be struck by its immensely gripping power, turning many other recordings into bleak collections of noise. … Different views, different accents, one might say. But even without Honeck’s reasoning, his Adagio gave me a profound feeling of divine accomplishment… Playing it with such commitment is admirable, but recorded by Soundmirror (Mark Donahue), putting everything in proper perspective, giving each individual instrument sufficient room to shine, makes the recording of this live performance in Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall without any doubt one of the very, if not the best Super Audio version thus far on offer.”
—Adrian Quanjer, HRAudio.net