Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's newest record, orchestra led by Manfred Honeck: Tchaikovsky'sSymphony No. 5 and 5 pieces byErwin Schulhoff - part of an album released on the 4^th of August, the fourteenth record signed by famous musicians for Reference Recordingswithin an award-winning series with Grammy.

In September 2023, this album became the album of the month in Gramophone Magazine: "It is one of the best new interpretations of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5released in the last decades.", notes the chronicler of the famous British magazine.

Indeed, it is a sensational record. We, the ones who went to the Romanian Athenaeum on the 30^th of August, got a preamble of it. Another orchestra, but at the same time, another sensational interpretation by Manfred Honeck, who was invited at the Enescu Festival for Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 - this time, alongside the Czech Philharmonic. It is proof that one of the most important details for a successful concert lies within the conductor's hands.

That is why, listening to this record was no longer a surprize, but the confirmation of an extraordinary impression Manfred Honeck managed toportray at the Enescu Festival.

Together with the orchestra that he has been leading since 2007 - his contract ending in 2028, Manfred Honeck appears even more impressive. Interpreting such a frequently addressed work, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, is often very difficult: Honeck, always supported by a very thorough analysis of the original scores, manages to come up with versions that resemble nothing else - they are very personal, but also have a perfect musical foundation. There is nothing taken for granted in his interpretation - he deciphers every musical note and opts out of tradition, together with an orchestra made up of powerful musicians, capable of responding to every intention of their maestro's. That is how we got one of the most beautiful horn solos that we have ever listened to, or the clear difference betweenpiano pianissimo and forte fortissimo. Honeck knows how to create tension that is to be released at the end, when, personally, I couldn't hold in my tears. Honeckmanages to portray a liberating catharsis in this exceptional album, recorded during the live concerts the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, held between the 17^th and 19^th June of 2022.

Of course, addingother works to such an exceptional version is a pretty difficult thing to do, but Honeck has found the original version of the 5 pieces by Erwin Schulhoff, in a quartet for strings, that he, himself, together with Thomas Ille, had created an orchestral version for. Thomas Ille is the same person that he collaborated with for the Rusalka Fantasy, also interpreted at the Enescu Festival, which had just ended.

It is about 5character miniatures - the Viennese waltz, the serenade, the Czech dance, Milonga tango and Tarantella, works written in 1924, which present a luminosity and a musicality that rather sprout from the Romantic-Classic Period, than the Modern one. Moreover, they present a clear and serene world, a very suitable one, considering the confrontation with destiny from Tchaikovsky's symphony.