Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra & Manfred Honeck – Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, Barber: Adagio for Strings (2017)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:00:08 minutes | 2,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: SACD | Artwork: Front cover | © PentaTone

2018 Grammy Winner – Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Album, Classical
In his fascinating and scholarly music notes, Maestro Manfred Honeck gives us great insight into the history of both pieces and describes how he conducts and interprets each. He reminds us that Joseph Stalin’s Soviet government was offended by Shostakovich’s previous works. Under threat of arrest or banishment to Siberia, Shostakovich devised a new, less-complex compositional style for the 5th Symphony, still full of irony and double meaning, to appease Stalin and appeal to the common people.

The Adagio of Samuel Barber is his most performed work, and one of the most popular of all 20th Century orchestral works. It is beloved for its beautiful simplicity and emotion. Manfred Honeck describes Barber’s 1967 acapella version for mixed choir using the “Agnus Dei” text and tells us his own interpretation is inspired by this text. He says it is “for me, without a doubt, the key to finding a deeper sense of this piece. Perhaps it is for this reason that the Adagio has enchanted and moved audiences around the world since its very first incarnation and has continued to do so in all subsequent versions born since.”

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Manfred Honeck, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra – Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (2019)
DSD256 (.dsf) 1 bit/11,2 MHz | Time – 63:11 minutes | 9,96 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 63:11 minutes | 1,04 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Artwork: Digital booklet

Reference Recordings proudly presents this iconic work in a new and definitive interpretation from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in superb Stereo Audiophile sound. This “Soundmirror” recording was made and post-produced in DSD 256 on a Pyramix workstation to give you, the listener, the highest sound quality possible.

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Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck – Richard Strauss: Tone Poems (2013)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 59:24 minutes | 2,34 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet | © Reference Recordings
Recorded: June 8 – 10, 2012 at Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, PA

There are few composers who have such an impressiveability to depict a story together with single existential moments in instrumental music as Richard Strauss in his Tondichtungen (“tone poems”). Despite the clear structure that the music follows, a closer interpretative look reveals many unanswered questions. For me, it was the in-depth discovery and exploration of these details that appealed to me, as the answers resulted in surprising nuances that helped to shape the overall sound of the pieces. One such example is the opening of Tod und Verklärung  (Death and Transfiguration) where it is obvious that the person on the deathbed breathes heavily, characterized by the second violins and violas in a syncopated rhythm. What does the following brief interjection of the flutes mean? The answer came to me while thinking about my own dark, shimmering farmhouse parlor where I lived as a child. There, we had only a sofa and a clock on the wall that interrupted the silence. The flutes remind me of the ticking clock hand. This is why it has to sound sober, unemotional, mechanistic and almost metallic. Another such example is the end of Don Juan  where the strings seem to tremble. It is here that one can hear the last convulsions of the hero’s dying body. This must sound nervous, dreadful and dramatic. For this reason, I took the liberty to alter the usual sound. I ask the strings to gradually transform the tone into an uncomfortable, convulsing, and shuddering ponticello  until the final pizzicato  marks the hero’s last heartbeat.

Another detail I would like to emphasize can be found in the trial scene of Till Eulenspiegel.  Before Till is sentenced to death, the D-clarinet has a note that, according to Strauss, must sound entstellt  (“distorted”). The problem with this note is that it is impossible to hear, because the whole orchestra enters with a fortissimo . That is why I have this “distorted” note played one octave higher than written. This way, it does not only sound higher, but tremendously entstellt . In my opinion, this must have been a mistake, because Strauss surely knew that the instrumentation he asked for makes the note inaudible.

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Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck – Strauss: Elektra & Der Rosenkavalier Suites (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD256, 1 bit/11,2 MHz | Time – 58:31 minutes | 9,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Reference Recordings
Recorded: May 13-15, 2016, Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, PA

This new recording presents orchestral suites based on two of the most significant operas in history. Der Rosenkavalier found its place in the concert hall from the beginning, first with two waltz sequences and later with the famous 1944 suite. But Elektra remained purely on the opera stage until now. Conductor Manfred Honeck has made his own symphonic adaptation, in collaboration with the Czech composer Tomás Ille.We proudly present these Strauss suites, new and old, in definitive interpretations from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in superb audiophile sound.

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