Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E Major—Pittsburgh Symphony/Manfred Honeck/Reference Recordings SACD

Catalog No: FR-757
Artists: Manfred Honeck, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Composers: Anton Bruckner, Mason Bates
Release Year: 2024-07-19

After Manfred Honeck’s magnificent Bruckner Symphony No. 9 recording of 2019 with the same team, this new Bruckner Symphony No. 7 was an easy request to our friends at Reference Recordings. Thank you to Jan Mancuso at Reference for providing a copy for our readers.

Although released through Reference Recordings under its “Fresh” imprint, the Pittsburgh releases are recorded by the Grammy-winning team at sound/mirror “whose outstanding orchestral, solo, opera and chamber recordings have received 135 GRAMMY® nominations and awards.”.

Grammy-team reunited to record Bruckner 7 and Bates‘ Resurrexit! Photo credit: sound/mirror

Hybrid SACD contains: 5.0 Surround and Stereo SACD, Stereo CD with HDCD

Recorded Live
March 25–27, 2022
Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

RECORDING PRODUCER: Dirk Sobotka
RECORDING ENGINEER: John Newton
MASTERING: Mark Donahue

Honeck is a fine Bruckner conductor. He allows the melodies in spacious tempos to breathe and phrase beautifully. None of them slowing down dirge-like in every cadence like Thielemann in his new Vienna set. Listening to his Bruckner no matter how well played and recorded is a lesson in frustration.

Here, inner lines with Bruckner’s wonderful counterpoint are exceptionally clear thanks to the knockout digital work from the sound/mirror team. This is the same for all four movements. The magical opening after Bruckner’s inevitable pp string tremolando opening (see image below) is imposing with magnificent climaxes played with great style, beauty and power by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. And solo work is of the front rank, with flute, clarinet, trumpet and horn chief among them.

Dynamics range from hushed to massive, but no matter the volume, the sound of the recording never becomes unfocused or uninteresting. Honeck also makes seemingly unimportant accompaniments sound like structural and musical imperatives. The opening movement second subject at Letter B has a beautiful melody in the oboe and clarinet with a plain repeated eighth note accompaniment (shown in the score below on horn and trumpets as half notes with a line through the stem, and played as eighth notes). Honeck shapes them with as much care as the melody, not only with the indicated crescendo but with the Pittsburgh players using their breath control and musicianship to make the lines interesting. A first in my experience.

Bass is superb, which can be quite easy to bring off in Bruckner if you have great lower brass and strings like Pittsburgh, but listen out for the bass note ostinato to hear how quiet basses can sound full, solid and important (see photo below Letter D K-B). Many times they are just plodding away uninterested in the overall landscape. Honeck creates something ominous and inevitable.

The details and phrasing by this team almost match the new DG digital vinyl remaster from the Emil Berliner team of Giulini’s seminal Bruckner Symphony No. 7 with the Vienna Philharmonic. It’s no coincidence that conductor Honeck began his career as a violist in the great orchestra and brings his wealth of aural knowledge to his American orchestra. The orchestra is obviously enjoying him as an MD. They just resigned him ‘till 2028.

And to celebrate the conductor’s 60th birthday, the orchestra commissioned Mason Bates to write a piece for the orchestra in celebration. Resurrexit is the superb result—a melodious, but fully realized gem of a “modern” work and is included on this release. I’d like to hear more from the San Francisco-based composer.

Manfred Honeck conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Photo credit: George Lange.

It’s no secret within these pages and on social media that I’m not a fan of everything Honeck conducts (looking at you Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4) however well played and recorded (they all are). But there is no doubt he’s a brilliant Bruckner man. However, if you want the very best Bruckner 7 with no flaws, “Bruckner’s orchestra” and a master conductor, Guilini’s new vinyl is your guy. The Vienna just pip the Pittsburgh in violin tone in the “Adagio” (sometimes Honeck wants maximum espressivo from the violins and a few more fiddles and less volume may have centred the sound even better) and magnificent though the Pittsburgh horn section is, the Vienna “Pumpenhorn” makes a unique and essential Brucknarian sound. But that’s about it, which is very high praise for the Steel City. So on SACD/CD, the new Reference Recording is an easy first choice.

I’m hoping the Reference/souundmirror/Pittsburgh team have more Bruckner in the can. Symphonies No. 5 and 8 will do nicely. In the here and now, I give this outstanding disc my highest recommendation