Honeck: Bruckner – Symphony no.9 (SACD)

Composer: Anton Bruckner
Orchestra: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Manfred Honeck
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: DSD256 (DSF tracks)
Label: Reference Recordings
Release: 2019
Size: 9.96 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

01. Symphony No. 9 in D minor – 1896 unfinished, ed. Nowak – Feierlich – Sehr ruhig
02. Symphony No. 9 in D minor – 1896 unfinished, ed. Nowak – Scherzo – Bewegt, lebhaft. Trio – Schnell
03. Symphony No. 9 in D minor – 1896 unfinished, ed. Nowak – Adagio – Sehr langsam, feierlich

Reference Recordings proudly presents this iconic work in a new and definitive interpretation from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in superb Stereo and Multichannel DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 and DXD audiophile sound. It is also available in Stereo DSD 512. This album was recorded live in beautiful and historic Heinz Hall, the home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

This release is the 9th in the highly acclaimed Pittsburgh Live! series of Stereo and Multichannel DSD and DXD releases on the Fresh! series from Reference Recordings. This series has received Grammy Nominations in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. The orchestra’s recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5 / Barber Adagio for Strings won the 2018 Grammy Awards for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Classical Album. All 9 albums in the Pittsburgh Live! series are available in Stereo and Multichannel DSD and DXD sound exclusively at the NativeDSD Music store.

This release and the entire Pittsburgh Live! series are recorded and mastered by the team at Soundmirror, whose outstanding orchestral, solo, opera and chamber recordings have received more than 100 Grammy nominations and awards. For over 40 years, Soundmirror has recorded for every major classical record label, including Reference Recordings.

Soundmirror notes “This recording was made and post-produced in DSD 256 on a Pyramix workstation to give you, the listener, the highest sound quality possible.”

In his deeply personal and scholarly music notes, Maestro Honeck gives us great insight into the history and the musical structure of Bruckner’s final composition, and describes how he conducts and interprets this masterwork. To conclude his notes he quotes Bruckner biographer Max Auer: “The Ninth Symphony surpasses all its predecessors in sublimity and consecration. If Arthur Schopenhauer describes the arts as an image of an idea, but music as an idea in itself, then Bruckner’s swan song, his Ninth Symphony, appears to us as the idea of the beyond, of the deity itself. Already from the very beginning of the richly structured first movement, one feels surrounded by the twilight light of a Gothic cathedral—a mood that releases us from the heaviness and fatigue of matter and leads us to the afterlife.”

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, known for its artistic excellence for more than 120 years, is credited with a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians. Past music directors have included many of the greats, including Fritz Reiner, William Steinberg, Andre Previn, Lorin Maazel and Mariss Jansons. This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works, including recent commissions by Mason Bates, Jonathan Leshnoff, James MacMillan and Julia Wolfe. The orchestra premiered Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah” in 1944 and John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and live radio broadcasts dating back to the 1930s. And, with a distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900—including more than 37 international tours—the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest orchestras.