Bruckner Symphony No. 7 & Bates Resurrexit Hybrid Multi-Channel & Stereo SACD

TAS Rated 4.5/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the October 2024 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Reference Recordings® proudly presents Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, in a new interpretation from conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It is coupled with the first recording of Mason Bates' Resurrexit, which was composed in 2018 on a commission from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the 60th birthday of Maestro Honeck. This album was recorded live in 2022 in beautiful and historic Heinz Hall, home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in superb audiophile sound.

Maestro Honeck has had a deep connection with Bruckner's works ever since his early days as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He honors us again with his peerless music notes, in which he gives us great insight into his musical interpretation of the Seventh Symphony, and a deeply spiritual understanding of Bruckner the man.

Now in its 128th season, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is credited with a rich history of engaging the world's finest conductors and musicians, and is deeply committed to the Pittsburgh region and citizens. Since 2008, the Orchestra has been led by Manfred Honeck, its internationally renowned Music Director. Past music directors have included many of the greats, including Fritz Reiner, William Steinberg, Andre Previn, Lorin Maazel and Mariss Jansons. The Orchestra has always been at the forefront of championing new works, including recent commissions by Mason Bates, Stacy Garrop, James MacMillan, Wynton Marsalis, Jessie Montgomery and Julia Wolfe. The Orchestra has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and live radio broadcasts dating back to the 1930s. It has toured frequently both domestically and overseas since 1896. It next embarks on a 10­city tour of Austria and Germany, from August 22 to September 7, 2024. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world's greatest orchestras.

This release is the 15th in the highly acclaimed Pittsburgh Live! series of multi­channel hybrid SACD releases on the FRESH! imprint from Reference Recordings. This series has received numerous GRAMMY® Nominations and its 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. This release and the entire Pittsburgh Live! series are produced, recorded and mastered by the team at Soundmirror, whose outstanding orchestral, solo, opera and chamber recordings have received 135 GRAMMY® nominations and awards.

Manfred Honeck's mastery of the core European symphonic repertoire is unsurpassed by any currently active conductor, the latest evidence being this 2022 recording for Reference's Fresh! imprint of what is arguably Anton Bruckner's greatest work. Honeck's reading doesn't lack for grandeur but also has dramatic shape and momentum, with attention to melodic contour and orchestral color. Mason Bates couldn't be more different from Bruckner—cinematically specific as opposed to rhetorically monumental. Nonetheless, Bates takes on a biblical subject that Bruckner would have approved of and the 11 minute Resurrexit is sensational in its effect.