The Absolute Sound Reviews All-Night Vigil LP
The February 2022 issue of The Absolute Sound gives high marks to our release of Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil, Op. 37 on LP: “This 2017 recording may seem like unlikely material to get the half-speed mastered, 45rpm, 180-gram virgin vinyl treatment, but LP partisans should be glad it did. Reference provides further evidence that Keith O. Johnson’s range as a recording professional knows no limits. … The choral sound has the low center-of-gravity that serves this…
MusicWeb International Adds a Rave for Pittsburgh Symphony’s Brahms & MacMillan
Ralph Moore has a new rave review for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Brahms: Symphony No. 4 and MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra recording: “From the way Honeck asks his orchestra to lean into the very first note, beseechingly and growing out of a whispered sigh, you know that this is a deeply thought out performance. Grand, stately, very “masculine” this recording is nonetheless lyrically flowing with its sights firmly set on the final…
Remembering Richard Freed
Esteemed music critic and writer Richard Freed passed away on New Year’s Day, a few days after his 93rd birthday. Reference Recordings is incredibly fortunate that he provided superb music notes for 17 of our albums in the last thirty years. For decades, Mr. Freed corresponded frequently with our founder Tam Henderson. We will miss him, and the classical music world has lost a great soul. —Marcia Martin Richard Freed (1928 – 2022) Richard Freed, distinguished…
Brahms & MacMillan a NativeDSD Album of the Year
NativeDSD.com released their 2021 albums of the year, and the Orchestral winner is Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Brahms: Symphony No. 4 and Macmillan: Larghetto for Orchestra! “Athletic! I see that word applied to many of Honeck’s recordings – strong, emphatic performances! Sometimes he has been accused of being a bit over the top, but I find this Brahms Fourth to be excellent in every way. If I had to choose…
Five Stars for Honeck’s Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Audiophile Audition‘s Gary Lemco has published a five-star review for Manfred Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony’s GRAMMY®-nominated Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 recording: “This performance does indeed balance its multifarious adjustments to Beethoven’s dynamic requirements with a spacious warmth in the realization that does not suffer lags and sags in the musical line. … We should acknowledge immediately the contribution of acting principal timpanist Christopher Allen in the Scherzo, given the constant immediacy of his presence. This often wild…
Five Stars for Liebermann: Frankenstein from Pizzicato
Martin West and San Francisco Ballet Orchestra’s Lowell Liebermann: Frankenstein recording gets a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review from Remy Frank’s Pizzicato Magazine: “Lowell Liebermann’s score has a distinctly visual, plot-driven and dramatic character, and is absolutely brilliantly orchestrated, so that it is a great pleasure to hear this imaginative, colorful and richly ornamented music, pleasantly rich in movement. The distinctive themes for the acting characters and the descriptive music make it easy to follow the action purely…
Five Stars from BBC Music Magazine for PSO’s Brahms & MacMillan
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Brahms: Symphony No. 4 & MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra release receives a five-star review in the December issue of BBC Music Magazine! “In this outstanding performance of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony, Manfred Honeck draws a wonderfully rich, almost Central European string sound from the Pittsburgh Symphony, matched by equally mellifluous and wonderfully blended colours from the woodwind and horns. …there’s a thrilling immediacy to their playing which seems absolutely…
Classical Music Daily on Frankenstein: “electrifying”
Gerald Fenech has Martin West and the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra’s new recording of Lowell Liebermann: Frankenstein in the Classical Music Daily Spotlight: “Liebermann and [Liam] Scarlett have created a truly modern three-Act masterpiece that keeps you rooted to your seat. The choreography by Scarlett has come in for high praise, but the music is terrific, and it is this element that concerns us here. Indeed, Liebermann’s inspirational vein shines from beginning to end, and…
American Record Guide Rave for Stylus Phantasticus
Tekla Cunnigham and Pacific MusicWorks get a rave review for their Stylus Phantasticus album in the January/February 2022 issue of American Record Guide: “Rarely have I heard a collection of 17th Century music as enjoyable as this one, and this is clearly thanks to the remarkable musicians Tekla Cunningham and Pacific MusicWorks. Pacific MusicWorks is William Skeen, cello; Stephen Stubbs, baroque guitar and chitarrone; Maxine Eilander, baroque harp; and Henry Lebedinsky, organ and harpsichord. They…
Lowell Liebermann’s Frankenstein Is Not To Be Missed!
Fanfare Archive’s David DeBoor Canfield has declared the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Martin West’s Lowell Liebermann: Frankenstein recording “Not To Be Missed”: “The orchestra plays magnificently under the well-paced leadership of Martin West. Given its live provenance, I expected to hear much more in the way of stage noise occasioned by leaping dancers, but there was very little, and certainly nowhere near enough to detract from my enjoyment of the performance. The sonics on…
The ArtsDesk reviews Brahms & MacMillan
Graham Rickson reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s recording of Brahms: Symphony No. 4 & MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra in The ArtsDesk: “This new Pittsburgh Symphony recording starts beautifully, Manfred Honeck lingering imperceptibly on the upbeat, an unmannered and affecting touch. ‘Unmannered’ sums this performance up; Honeck’s Brahms 4 is consistently idiomatic and fabulously played, the Pittsburgh orchestra’s dark, distinctive timbre perfect for this brooding work. Horns and lower strings are magnificent throughout: sample…
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Brahms Gets Five Stars from Norman Lebrecht
Norman Lebrecht gives five stars to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Brahms: Symphony No. 4 and MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra. “The Larghetto, based on MacMillan’s choral setting of Psalm 51, moves from a Miserere starting point to something altogether more encouraging, an organic optimism that transcends present woes and looks to bright eternity. I would add it without hesitation to commemorative concerts for the COVID era. It’s the work of a fine composer writing…
2022 GRAMMY® Nominations!
Reference Recordings is excited to announce multiple nominations for the 2022 GRAMMY® Awards! Best Orchestral Performance Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 Manfred Honeck, conductor (Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) Best Engineered Album, Classical Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 Mark Donahue, engineer; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck, Mendelssohn Choir Of Pittsburgh & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) Congratulations to all involved in this double-nominated album!!! Producer of the Year, Classical David Frost Congratulations to producer David…
10s Across The Board for Brahms & MacMillan
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Brahms: Symphony No. 4 and MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra receives a 10/10 in Artist Quality and Sound Quality from ClassicsToday.com and David Hurwitz! “After a first movement outstanding for its exquisitely gentle (but still fluent) opening and an aptly ferocious coda, the remainder of the symphony is noteworthy for its unusual fleetness–no “autumnal” Brahms here! This approach pays big dividends in the ballad-like second movement, whose singing, legato melodies…
Gramophone Reviews Pittsburgh Symphony’s Brahms & MacMillan
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,…