PITTSBURGH—Today, Reference Recordings and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra released “Dvořák/ Janáček,” an SACD featuring Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 and the symphonic suite from Jenůfa by Janáček.
Recorded live in the home of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, and led by Music Director Manfred Honeck, this release is the next best thing to being there. It is the second in a series of multi-channel hybrid SACD recordings on FRESH! from Reference Recordings. Additional recordings for the Pittsburgh Live! series are already completed and two are expected to be released per year.
This series is recorded and mastered by the team at Soundmirror, whose outstanding orchestral, solo, opera and chamber recordings have received more than 70 Grammy nominations and awards. Recordings are made in historic Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, home to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Originally the Loew’s Penn Theater, built in 1927 as an opulent movie house, it was rebuilt and dedicated in 1971 and further renovated in 1995.
FRESH! is part of Reference Recordings’ mission to encourage artists and give them a strong platform for promotion and sales nationally and internationally. Says Executive Director Marcia Martin, “FRESH! Allows RR to bring our customers even more of the very best in sound and performances. We also are pleased to feature exceptional producing/engineering teams from outside our company on FRESH!”
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra recordings are made possible by a generous grant from BNY Mellon.
The CD is available for purchase at the Pittsburgh Symphony’s online store.
For more than 116 years, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been known for its artistic excellence. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians. This tradition was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900, the Pittsburgh Symphony is critically acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest orchestras. They have made more than 35 international tours, and recently returned from their 2013 European Festivals Tour, where enthralled audiences filled the PSO’s concerts in Grafenegg, Berlin, Bucharest, Paris, Düsseldorf,Frankfurt, Lucerne and Bonn.
Manfred Honeck was appointed the ninth music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in January 2007, and began his tenure at the start of the 2008-2009 season. After a first extension in 2009, his contract was extended for the second time in February 2012, now through the 2019-2020 season. Honeck was born in Austria and studied music at the Academy of Music in Vienna. An accomplished violinist and violist, he spent more than 10 years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. He began his career as conductor of Vienna’s Jeunesse Orchestra, which he co-founded, and as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. In 2010, Honeck was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. Apart from his numerous tasks as conductor, he has been artistic director of the “International Concerts Wolfegg” in Germany for more than 15 years. Honeck served as principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2011, a position he has resumed for another three years at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season. As a guest conductor, Honeck has worked with major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic and in the United States with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Manfred Honeck’s successful work with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is now captured by Reference Recordings. The first SACD — of Strauss tone poems — was released in fall 2013 and received rave reviews.
Editors Please Note:
Dvořák & Janáček
PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
FRESH! FROM REFERENCE RECORDINGS
MANFRED HONECK, conductor
Antonin Dvořák:
Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Opus 88
1. Allegro con brio
2. Adagio
3. Allegretto grazioso
4. Allegro ma non troppo
Leoš Janáček:
Symphonic Suite from Jenůfa
(conceptualized by Manfred Honeck, realized by Tomáš Ille)
