“Concluding the classical season with Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony, as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is doing this weekend, virtually guarantees success,” writes Mark Kanny in Saturday’s (6/13) Pittsburgh Tribune Review. “The music is romantic, soulful, exuberant and brilliantly scored. It is also a specialty of music director Manfred Honeck. Friday’s concert opened with the world premiere of Alan Fletcher’s Oboe Concerto, commissioned by the symphony for principal oboe Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida. It is his third concerto for a principal wind player of the symphony, and [showcases] DeAlmeida’s beautiful tone in all registers and her skill at creating significance with her phrasing…. Pianist Yefim Bronfman brought all the virtuoso power as well as sensitivity one could hope for in Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2…. Honeck set the scene beautifully at the start of the Mahler Symphony, a slow introduction that captures the stillness of nature, with bird calls for contrast.… The orchestra’s playing was heartfelt and brilliant.”
Posted June 16, 2015
