The InfoDad Team revels in Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven Symphony No. 9 recording, giving it their highest rating!
“there are near-infinite ways of presenting a symphony as crucial to all of classical music as Beethoven’s Ninth, and any recording that has something new to say is certainly entitled to say it.
In the case of the performance led by Manfred Honeck and released by Reference Recordings, it happens that there is much new to say – both in words and in the music. Honeck is a conductor for whom, no matter how well the music speaks for itself, it speaks even more powerfully when coupled with explanatory words. To that end, he provides, in the booklet accompanying this SACD, some exceptional insight into how a conductor thinks about a work as seminal as this one, and as frequently performed. And he makes it possible, even easy, for non-experts to follow his thinking, since the extended essay gives a host of specific references to measures of the music and the timings at which those specific measures can be heard in the recording.…
And it is worth mentioning that the performance is exemplary in and of itself: skip Honeck’s verbal explanations altogether and you will still find this reading exceptionally communicative… one of the great things about the Ninth is that it comes across with such potency in so many different ways, so many different approaches, that it is not necessary to understand intellectually how Beethoven achieved his effects in order to experience and respond to them. …
Anyone who hears this beautifully played and sung, excellently recorded rendition of the music, whether or not he or she chooses to quibble with some of the details and decision-making, will have a marvelous musical and emotional experience. That is ultimately what this music is all about – what so much great music is all about. And that is the most meaningful lesson of all.”
—The InfoDad Team