Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra - friday January 22, 2009 - Emanuel Ax and Manfred Honeck

I was curious about this concert, not having heard Manfred Honeck perform
Bruckner prior to this show. I have been impressed with his work with the PSO up to this point. I really haven't heard him veer off the beaten track yet but his Beethoven, Dvorak, Mahler and Mozart have been quite good. Perhaps because I haven't seen as many good Bruckner performances, I believe that Bruckner is more of a challenge. Maybe I have just had bad Bruckner luck.

I am getting ahead of myself as the show opened with Emanuel Ax playing the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor". I don't remember the date of the first time I saw Mr. Ax but I know it was in the early '80's with Andre Previn conducting I think the Brahms First Piano Concerto. He was impressive then and just as impressive now. It's funny that I thought of him then as an old guy but I realize now he is not much older than I am. Could it be some prejudice I have about his physiognomy? That stout body and curly, somewhat unruly hair. He played like a young man, full of fluid, authoritative playing. His way with Beethoven seems a good fit with Honeck, brisk and muscular, nothing eccentric but full of nuanced touches. Emanuel treated us with an encore that I did not recognize but thoroughly enjoyed.

The Bruckner Seventh Symphony was a revelation for me. I did not know that the first movement climax could be so exciting. Big, grand and powerful yes but exciting too was quite a treat. I may end up saying this often about Honeck and the PSO but it is amazing to see a hundred or so people respond to a conductors every gesture. Honeck seemed to give Bruckner the room needed to be shown to be a great symphony. I know that the second movement is supposed to be funeral music for Wagner, but it has never seemed all that funereal to me. Or it is just that so much of Bruckner's music seems that way. It did not seem funereal here but it was in a way celebratory. The brass and especially the horns were exemplary.

I am intending to see all of Honeck's performances this year. Each one reinforces my view that he is the right man for this job. I am looking forward to hearing him step out from the repertoire he has done thus far. I am particularly interested in his Shostakovich Fifth Symphony in May as the was one of Mariss Jansons great performances here.