MusicWeb International‘s John Quinn reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 and Leshnoff: Double Concerto recording:
“The Double Concerto was written for the artists who play it here… There’s a fresh, open feel to the music and, apart from one brief climax, the movement is predominantly gentle and lyrical in voice. The whole thing is winningly attractive. … I think Jonathan Leshnoff has given us a thoroughly entertaining piece. … Michael Rusinek and Nancy Goeres are superb soloists. … I shall certainly return to this disc to hear the Double Concerto. Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony needs no introduction… It’s typical of Manfred Honeck’s approach to any work he conducts that he always goes back to first principles and thinks about the score in question very deeply. Unusually among conductors, he shares his reasoning with listeners by way of extremely detailed booklet notes, as he does here. … There’s a great deal to admire in Honeck’s performance of the Fourth Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony plays it marvellously. Honeck certainly made me think anew about this familiar masterpiece and that’s a very good thing. … Finally, I should say that both works have been recorded superbly by the Boston recording company, Soundmirror. I listened to this SACD using the stereo layer and I was seriously impressed. There’s a wide dynamic range; soft music registers ideally whilst the loud passages open up excitingly. The left-to-right and front-to-back perspectives are excellent and no detail goes unobserved in this first-rate recording.”
—John Quinn, MusicWeb International
See the full review on MusicWeb International