[TR24][OF] Richard Strauss - Tone Poems: Don Juan; Death and Transfiguration (Tod und Verklärung); Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks (Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche) - Manfred Honeck, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra - 2014 (Classical)

Thrilling live performances from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in brilliant audiophile sound! This release is planned as the first in a series of multi-channel hybrid SACD recordings on FRESH! from Reference Recordings. Several additional recordings for the PITTSBURGH LIVE! series are already completed and we expect to release two per year. The next title planned is Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, for spring 2014.
"Richard Strauss was a master when it comes to combining orchestral timbres with deep philosophical concepts, and his orchestration skills are second to none. Even in the darkest and quietest passages of this work there glows an energy like a candle in the black of night. The final ten minutes or so are most impressive, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra players produce a sound to match. And if the mountain of sound they build isn't enough of a jaw-dropper, it's in the final blissful minute or so, that the ever so soft brass section shines so much they almost glow...Definitely a series off to a great start and one to follow." --Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Sentinal (Canada)
“Now that the Pittsburgh Symphony has signed on with this pioneering label, let us hope they get some more exposure...because they are clearly one of the very best orchestras in the world right now...Finally, a Eulenspiegel that actually sounds as merry as the title suggests ends the disc on a delightful high. Again, the brass play their hearts out, but the other sections are just as well captured and virtuosic. The winds dance, the strings sing, and not for a moment are you bored. Again, Honeck has a really strong sense of what he wants to do; he let's his orchestra do the talking and stays out of the way...Superlative, and a great start to an exciting new partnership.” --Brian Wigman, Classical.net
"Honeck is already well known as an extremely fine Strauss conductor, but also one with very definite ideas on how these pieces should be interpreted...his admiration for these works is self-evident from the incandescent playing that he elicits from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra...The 5.1 channel recording was made and post-produced in 64fs DSD and the disc also includes HDCD encoding. This is without doubt an impressive start to what promises to be an exciting showcase for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra" --Graham Williams, SA-CD.net