After the successful release by the highly regarded Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra of recordings of two of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies, No. 1 in D major (EXCL00026) and No. 4 in G major (EXCL00048), this two channel double SACD set features a live performance of the composer’s massive Third Symphony in D minor.
Considered to be one of the best modern day interpreters of Gustav Mahler’s music, the Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck began his career as conductor of Vienna's Jeunesse Orchestra, which he co-founded, and as assistant to Claudio Abbado with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. After several highly successful guest appearances as conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he was appointed its Music Director in 2008.
Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 in D minor was written between 1893 and 1896 and is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire. It has five movements and features a large orchestra, chorus, children’s choir, and female soloist.
Mahler Symphony No.3 - 1.Kräftig. Entschieden
Mahler Symphony No.3 - 2.Tempo di Menuetto
Mahler Symphony No.3 - 3.Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast
Mahler Symphony No.3 - 4.Sehr langsam. Misterioso
Mahler Symphony No.3 - 5.Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck
“There are many glorious things in here: the ethereally distant posthorn in the Scherzo, or the sudden eruption of raw elemental power at the end of the movement. Michelle de Young's 'O Mensch!' is suitably mesmerising, and the children's 'Bimm, bamm' bell effects in the fifth movement are splendidly lacking in Anglo-Saxon embarrassment. The recording captures everything with vivid fidelity.”
Gramophone 2011
“The great cinemascopic vistas that are summoned up by those eight unison horns at the start are quite remarkable for their depth, breadth and thunderous immediacy. Manfred Honeck (clearly a Mahlerian to reckon with) and his engineers are especially impressive in catching the gaudy splendour of the first movement...The orchestral playing is pretty tremendous throughout...More than a little special, then, in marvellous sound.”
January 2012
“this is a notably successful new version...First, there's the playing: this orchestra has a long and distinguished recording history...but it can seldom have sounded as magnificent as it does here...Next, there's Manfred Honeck's conducting...it's one of the most successful readings I've heard of the work in recent years...As for the sound, it's marvellous”
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Mahler Symphony No.3 - 1.Kräftig. Entschieden
