In Friday’s (5/21) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Andrew Druckenbrod writes, “Things are going groovy so far for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on its 2010 European Tour. At least, that’s one definition of ‘fetzig,’ the German word one music critic used to describe the group’s playing in Basel, Switzerland’s Musiksaal Stadtcasino: ‘The orchestra, under Manfred Honeck … showed itself in top form: groovy in the tutti passages, full of presence in the woodwind (with fabulous oboe and flute solos), precise and not too bombastic in the brass, supple in the strings,’ wrote Sigfried Schibli in the Basler Zeitung about the PSO’s performance of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. The audience apparently felt the same, honoring the PSO with rhythmic clapping. ‘The presenter in Basel said it is not always that enthusiastic there,’ said Manfred Honeck from Frankfurt Wednesday. It was a response that was matched when the PSO played the Salle Pleyel in Paris, where the PSO had not performed since the Lorin Maazel days. … In each hall so far, the shows have been sold out and the orchestra was immediately invited back, he said.”
Posted May 21, 2010
