Beethoven & Stucky: Orchestral Works

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Conductor Manfred Honeck has had the kind of tenure with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that's rare these days, and he has molded the orchestra into an instrument that can keep up with his more unorthodox ideas. Honeck's cycle of Beethoven symphonies, all beautifully recorded live at Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall, in no way follows well-established paths for these works, and in addition, he generally fills out the program with a second work that is relevant in some way. Here, that is an inspired choice: Steven Stucky's Silent Spring is a four-movement work commissioned in 2011 to mark the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's environmental classic, and its chilling ending, receding into silence, puts a new perspective on what might be called Beethoven's environmental symphony, the Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 ("Pastoral"). The Beethoven itself will not be to all tastes, but it's not dull in the least. Honeck takes some liberties with the score, having his orchestra members stamp their feet (lightly) in the peasant dance in the third movement, adding ponticello effects in the cellos in the fourth movement, and generally playing fast and loose with what's notated by Beethoven in terms of dynamics and accents. He justifies everything in an unusually detailed booklet note, and he doesn't go beyond anything a conductor like Mahler might have done (except for the foot-stamping), but some listeners will be left wondering whether devices more intrinsic to the written score might have been used to achieve similar ends. Honeck takes fairly brisk tempos and keeps a strong sense of forward motion without losing pictorial details, and his reading should generally be a crowd-pleaser. At any rate, devising fresh interpretations of Beethoven's symphonies is no easy matter by this time, and Honeck deserves credit for risk-taking.
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