Reference Recordings
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Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 & Barber: Adagio for Strings
RecommendedPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
Honeck’s Shostakovich sounds magnificent. From intense pianissimos to the shrieking upper register and full bass thwack of a grand peroration – which Honeck takes surprisingly at face value... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 60th Awards (2017), Best Orchestral Performance
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Grammy Awards, 60th Awards (2017), Best Engineered Album, Classical
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the performance level here is straightforwardly stellar, with a rounded, brashness-free overall sound that may well be close to what Mahler knew from the more mellow-toned orchestras of his... —
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Close Encounters opens with a piercingly dissonant note cluster, unexpectedly resolving to a punchy C major chord after 30 seconds, a moment that will make the unwary spill their drinks. Jerry... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 61st Awards (2019), Nominee - Classical Compendium
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Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in Eb Major 'Romantic'
RecommendedPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
the sleek, sweetly yielding strings of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and its characteristically full-throttle brass section [offer] playing that calls to mind the halcyon days of William... —
Awards:
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Building A Library, March 2025, Recommended Recording
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Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C Minor 'Organ'
and other works
Noah Geller (violin, Noah Geller (violin), Mark Gibbs (cello), Jan Kraybill (organ)
Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
There is an appealing family feel to this disc…Geller exudes lyrical warmth and a perky rhythmic spirit in the first work, and in the second he uses the violin's wily flights of fancy to engage... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, September 2015, Editor's Choice
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R. Strauss: Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration & Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
Honeck's interpretations have huge personality, and mostly in the right way. He's not averse to Stokowski-style touchings-up if they help the drama...Honeck likes to underline something pathological... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2014, Editor's Choice
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Special offer. Carlisle Floyd: Prince of Players
RecommendedFlorentine Opera, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, William Boggs
The performance is excellent. As Kynaston, baritone Keith Phares sings well, articulates the text clearly, and is very touching in a role that requires a wide dramatic range. Kynaston has a... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 63rd Awards (2021), Nominee - Best Opera Recording
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Grammy Awards, 63rd Awards (2021), Nominee - Best Classical Composition
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The organ has a really gutsy, symphonic core... Jan Kraybill... plays with considerable verve and a feeling both for colour and for the grand gesture. —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 62nd Awards (2019), Nominee - Best Classical Instrumental Solo
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Honeck's interpretation is rich in imagination and the playing of the Pittsburgh Symphony scales the heights...I would say that Manfred Honeck is one of the few remaining masters of the rostrum... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2026, Editor's Choice
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Special offer. Barber, Sibelius & Scriabin: One Movement Symphonies
Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
Founded in 1982, this orchestra offers here a classy standard of playing, plus the conductor-and-orchestra chemistry that’s needed to generate musical results as memorable as these, and in three... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, September 2021, Orchestral Choice
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