Manfred Honeck Returns To San Francisco And New York In October And November 2018
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 27, 2018
Conductor Manfred Honeck's 2018/2019 season begins with a busy fall schedule, featuring appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) in September and October, and his returns to the San Francisco Symphony in October and the New York Philharmonic in November. Shortly after Honeck opened his 11th season as Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on September 15, the orchestra announced that it had extended his contract as Music Director through the 2021/2022 season.
As part of his 60th birthday celebrations, Honeck conducts the PSO in a world premiere by Mason Bates commissioned to mark the occasion, followed by a program honoring Leonard Bernstein's centennial featuring his Symphony No.1, Jeremiah, a work which the PSO premiered in 1944 with the composer on the podium. Earlier this month the PSO released a new recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica, and Strauss's Horn Concerto No. 1 which followed last year's Grammy Award-winning album for Best Orchestral Performance.
Honeck will have several guest engagements with orchestras on the West and East Coasts of the United States this season, beginning with his return to the Bay Area to lead the San Francisco Symphony in October. This comes after his triumphant debut with the San Francisco Symphony in May 2017; he has been invited back to lead the orchestra in a program featuring Prokofiev's Sinfonia concertante with cellist Truls Mørk and Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 8, October 11-13, 2018 at Davies Symphony Hall.
In November 2018, Honeck returns to the New York Philharmonic, where he has been a frequent guest and audience favorite. Honeck will lead a program including Dvo?ák's Carnival Overture and Martin?'s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Frank Peter Zimmermann, as well as Viennese waltzes and polkas inspired by his Austrian roots as well as his tenure as a violinist in the Vienna Philharmonic. In March 2019, Honeck again conducts the orchestra in an all-Mozart program, including Mozart's Requiem.
This month, the PSO and Honeck saw the release of their latest recording by Reference Recordings, featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica and Richard Strauss's Horn Concerto No. 1 with William Caballero, the orchestra's Principal Horn player. The new recording is already garnering critical acclaim, with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette praising it, saying: "The new disc is more energizing than your morning espresso...What makes this orchestra's recordings so enjoyably distinctive are the details in every note and nuance, and a guileless enthusiasm for the music at hand." Through his tenure as Music Director of the orchestra, Honeck and the PSO have built an extensive discography and successful partnership with Reference Recordings, including winning the Grammy Award for "Best Orchestral Performance" in 2018 for their disc of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 and Barber's Adagio for Strings, along with several other Grammy nominations.
Honeck's 11th season as Music Director of the PSO began on September 15 with an opening night gala concert featuring Renée Fleming. The orchestra celebrates his 60th birthday with the first subscription series concerts of the 2018/2019 season, September 28-30, when Honeck leads the orchestra in the world premiere of Mason Bates's Resurrexit, which the orchestra commissioned for the occasion. The new piece by Bates-the PSO's Composer of the Year in the 2012/2013 and 2014/2015 seasons, and the 2018 Musical America Composer of the Year-evokes the Resurrection, beginning in a dark and mysterious place, and culminating in a sparkling and supernatural finale. Honeck will also conduct Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Pinchas Zukerman and Brahms's Symphony No. 2.
The PSO will join the global celebration of Leonard Bernstein's centennial as they perform his Symphony No. 1, Jeremiah. For these performances, October 5 and 7, Maestro Honeck will be joined by mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano. The program also features Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, Haydn's Symphony No. 88, and Stravinsky's Suite from The Firebird (1919).
Later this season, Honeck and the PSO will perform at New York's David Geffen Hall as part of Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, with a program including Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor") and Mahler's Symphony No. 5, on May 19, 2019.
Opening Weekend: Manfred Honeck's 60th Birthday Celebration with Pinchas Zukerman
Friday, September 28, 8:00 PM
Sunday, September 30, 2:30 PM
Heinz Hall
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Pinchas Zukerman, violin
Manfred Honeck, conductor
BATES Resurrexit (World Premiere)
Commission in Honor of Manfred Honeck's 60th Birthday
BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2
For more information, click here.
Bernstein in Pittsburgh
October 5, 2018, 8:00 PM
October 7, 2018, 2:30 PM
BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3
HAYDN Symphony No. 88
BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 1, Jeremiah
STRAVINSKY Suite from The Firebird (1919)
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra,
Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano
Manfred Honeck, conductor
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Manfred Honeck Returns to the San Francisco Symphony
October 11, 2018 2:00 PM
October 12, 2018 8:00 PM
October 13, 2018 at 8:00 PM
Davies Symphony Hall
San Francisco, California
San Francisco Symphony
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Truls Mørk, cello
PROKOFIEV Sinfonia concertante
DVO?ÁK Symphony No. 8
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Manfred Honeck Conducts the New York Philharmonic
November 15, 2018 7:30 PM
November 16, 2018 8:00 PM
November 17, 2018 8:00 PM
David Geffen Hall
New York, NY
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
DVO?ÁK Carnival Overture
MARTIN? Violin Concerto No. 1
J. STRAUSS II The Gypsy Baron Overture
Jos. STRAUSS The Dragonfly
J. STRAUSS II Hail to Hungary!
On the Beautiful Blue Danube
At the Hunt
In Krapfen's Woods
Thunder and Lightning
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