Brahms: Symphony No. 4, MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra

[...] It all adds up to an extremely rewarding and important release, where the considerable sum of the parts of fabulous orchestral playing, inspired conducting and superb sound. [...]

Does someone who already owns four different recordings of Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 really need another?

Yes.

I’ll leave it to others to describe the technical details of tempo, phrasing and articulation. I’ll just say there’s magic happening here that makes this old favorite (premiered in 1885) sound brand new. In large part it boils down to one word: Clarity.

Many Brahms recordings sound like a swirling mass of melodies rumbling around in a sea of bass frequencies. Majestic but a whole lotta beauty lost in the mix.

Somehow, Pittsburgh Symphony Music Director Manfed Honeck creates an environment that allows you to hear way down into the recording, with a whole world of small details you never knew existed. Brahms was such a master craftsman, and this - especially the fourth movement - was his ultimate creation and symphonic swan song.

It’s a stunning performance and worthy addition to any Brahms collection. The world premiere recording of James MacMillan’s Larghetto for Orchestra is another eloquent surprise that boosts this even further up my list of favorite new recordings for 2021.

Every new release in the Reference Recordings Fresh! Series can hardly go unnoticed. Surely not as long as Maestro Honeck’s personal ideas are so faithfully implemented by its seasoned members and the result equally faithful documented by Sound Mirror Inc. Indeed, the stage is magically set for the ‘bold is beautiful’ music lovers, to test the correctness of their preference, and the ‘lean’ crowd may then be hard-pressed to readjust their view or, as it often goes under these circumstances, their firm conviction.

However, not every big size Brahms does qualify to convince the ‘bolders’ nor the ‘leaners’. To conduct hundred-plus musicians to success requires not only musical insight and understanding but also a lot of management. In the wrong hands, things get easily out of sync and the sound stodgy.

I assume that serious listeners are by now aware that Honeck is not a run-of-the-mill craftsman. He has a view of his own to contribute to the world of classical music. With Honeck interpretation is consistently in accordance with what he lectures. The full lecture is given in his lengthy and detailed personal notes in the booklet. A must-read.

It would be short-sighted to believe that Honeck is the only one who can set down a memorable Brahms 4. This is now by far my first choice.

Need I say more? Yes. In my excitement, I nearly forgot to say that MacMillan’s Larghetto for Orchestra (recorded live) is another example, and a brilliantly crafted one at that, of a modern composer’s renewed interest in saying things in yesteryear’s proven language, without precluding anything of today’s values. In fact, the melancholy of his Larghetto is of all times. Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in honor of the tenth anniversary of Manfred Honeck as Music Director, its opening lament and mourning (miserere) turn into hope and optimism.

Summing it up: Maestro Honeck and his splendid musicians have done it again!

My first listen was based on a stereo FLAC file. I cannot recommend it. The sound is a far cry away from the real thing. When I listened to the DSD 128fs Multichannel file, everything changed from dark to light. Heaven opened up. Putting the volume further up than usual (and the quality can easily have it) the music instantly drew every bit of emotion out of my mind. This performance is so stunning that it deserves and needs to be played at the best possible resolution your (surround) music system can handle! It’s (almost) like sitting in the Hall allowing you to listen to the music instead of being disturbed by sound coming from the speakers.

Superb engineering makes this new release especially welcome. A winner all around. Artistic Quality: 10 + Sound Quality: 10

Most people, when they know at all, might recognize Scottish composer James Macmillan for his early Veni, Veni, Emanuel, a percussion concerto that premiered in 1992. The Larghetto for Orchestra is a reworking of his 2009 Miserere, a choral work. Macmillan decided that the piece had instrumental proclivities within it, and fashioned this somber, though ultimately life-affirming piece for the celebration of Manfred Honeck’s tenth season as conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony. It is a fine piece, well worth hearing, and quite moving.

The sound, captured to perfection by the Soundmirror team miracles in marvelous DSD 256, is wonderful, brilliantly detailed, warm, and illuminating when the moment calls for it.