CD release: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra & Manfred Honeck – Dvořák & Janáček (July 2014)

Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have recorded a new CD that will be published by Reference Recordings at the beginning of July, featuring Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 and Janáček’s Symphonic Suite from Jenůfa, arranged by Czech composer Tomáš Ille and conceptualised by Manfred Honeck. This release is the second in a series of multi-channel hybrid SACD recordings on the FRESH! label by Reference Recordings with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck.

At the beginning of the 2014-15 season, Manfred Honeck will conduct the NDR-Sinfonieorchester, the Vienna and Bamberg Symphony Orchestras, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In Pittsburgh, he opens the new season on 13 September with a gala concert featuring Anne-Sophie Mutter.

Manfred Honeck’s concert dates at the beginning of the 14-15 season at a glance:

13 September, Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall – Gala
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Bruch: Violin concerto
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Violin

19-21 September, Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Bates: Rusty Air in Carolina
Rachmaninoff:  Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini op. 43
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique op. 14a
Valentina Lisitsa, Piano

8-10 October, Prag, Rudolfinum
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Janacek: Suite from Jenůfa
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
Mahler: Lieder from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”
Matthias Goerne, Bariton

16/19 October, Hamburg, Laeiszhalle
NDR-Sinfonieorchester
MacMillan: Woman of the Apocalypse
Mozart: Piano concerto C Major KV 503
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Martin Helmchen, Piano

17 October, Luebeck, Musik- und Kongresshalle
s. 16 October

30/31 October, Vienna, Musikverein
Wiener Symphoniker
Prokofieff: Piano concerto No. 3
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “Titan”
Yuja Wang, Piano

16 November, Bamberg, Konzerthalle
Bamberger Symphoniker
Widmann: “Con brio” – Concert Overture for orchestra
Weber: Clarinet concerto No. 1
Brahms: Symphony No. 4
Jörg Widmann, Clarinet

17 November, Erlangen, Stadthalle
s. 16 November

28/30 November, Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Thanksgiving
Alexskey Igudesman – Violin, Hyung-Ki Joo – Piano

5-7 December, Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

11/12/13/16 December, Chicago, Symphony Hall
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Haydn: Symphony No. 93
Strauss: Don Juan
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Strauss CD named Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice (March 2014)

Gramophone Magazine picked the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s recent recording of Strauss’s tone poems as one of its “Editor’s Choice” recordings for March 2014. The CD was released in November 2013 on Reference Recordings Fresh! label.

Reviewer Ivan March said of the recording, “This is one of the outstanding Strauss CDs of the year; the quality of playing and recording makes it very recommendable indeed.” He also credited Music Director Manfred Honeck for his interpretations, “which vividly bring out the music’s emotional and pictorial detail.”

In July 2014, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will release its next CD featuring works by Dvořák and Janáček.

On 10 May the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Manfred Honeck will appear at the Carnegie Hall New York. The concert is part of the Spring For Music festival and will feature works by Bruckner, Poulenc and MacMillan as well as Manfred Honeck’s version of Mozart’s Requiem – “Mozart and Death in Words and Music” – incorporating selections from the Requiem, and other chants, music for mourning and readings.

10 May, New York, Carnegie Hall
Bruckner: Ave Maria
Poulenc: Final Scene from “Dialogues des Carmélites”
MacMillan: Woman of the Apocalypse
Mozart: Requiem (in a version by Manfred Honeck “Mozart and Death in Words and Music”)
Sunhae Im – Soprano, Elizabeth DeShong – Mezzo-Soprano, Benjamin Bruns – Tenor, Liang Li – Bass
F. Murray Abraham – Speaker
The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (Betsy Burleigh, Music Director)