The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck received a “Recommended” distinction from Nick Barnard of MusicWeb International for their Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording:

“Honeck has restored the Pittsburgh Orchestra to its position as one of America’s very finest ensembles and, alongside the state of the art engineering from Reference, he is creating a library of recordings that will stand the test of the ages.

This new recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No.9 is just such a triumph. This is an epic interpretation heroically played. Modern orchestral players are routinely unphased by Bruckner’s often unforgiving writing but even allowing for that high bar of excellence I am not sure I have ever heard this work played with such ease. The endlessly awkward string figurations are played with perfect unanimity with even the string tone and vibrato being perfectly matched across the sections. The Pittsburgh brass is simply thrilling but again remarkable in the way the tone of the brass choir expands without the sound hardening or feeling forced or effortful. If one subscribes to the notion that Bruckner wrote for the orchestra as a kind of giant cathedral organ of a hundred players this might just be the performance to support the theory.…

Allied to the superbly engineered, unforced sophistication of the production, the fascinating insights of the liner and quite breath-taking playing of the Pittsburgh SO, this has to be a recording that forces itself towards the top of the list for those seeking a new version of this visionary work in state of the art sound.”

—Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International

See the full review on musicweb-international.com

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