There are some symphonies that need to be heard live. Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 — a mammoth even in its unfinished, hour-long, three-movement state — is one of them.
Friday’s Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert in Heinz Hall featured PSO music director Manfred Honeck in the aforementioned Bruckner, paired with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Yefim Bronfman.
Mr. Honeck shares both a homeland (Austria) and faith (Catholicism) with Bruckner, and his interpretations of the composer’s symphonies have garnered international notoriety over the years. The PSO began the symphony a bit timidly, the intonation in some of the soft, sustained unison tones not quite clean. But when the orchestra marshaled for the first big tutti passage, the result was extraordinary. The sheer amount of sound was breathtaking, and Mr. Honeck kept excellent balance between the augmented brass section and the rest of the ensemble.
While there are some wonderful recordings of Bruckner’s ninth, nothing can match the rafter-rattling sound of eight horns, four Wagner tubas, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba blowing the roof off of Heinz Hall. Glorious.
A delicate opening to the second movement proved deceptive, and the PSO delivered the driving theme with elegant savagery. The return to the opening theme after a gentler trio seemed to rush slightly, although it never felt out of control. The Adagio third movement was lush and gorgeous, and at the symphony’s close the audience maintained a spellbound hush for more than half a minute.
Bruckner passed away before completing a fourth movement for the symphony, and although he suggested adding an earlier composition (”Te Deum”) as the fourth movement, many conductors — Mr. Honeck among them — deem the Adagio an apt conclusion to the work.
The evening began with Beethoven’s third piano concerto with Mr. Bronfman achieving unparalleled clarity in articulation and delivering an inspired first-movement cadenza. His second movement scudded gently as a cloud, and the attaca (without pause) launch into the finale kicked off a dazzling display of technical and musical prowess. Mr. Bronfman encored with Debussy’s “Claire de Lune,” breathing life into an old favorite.
The PSO is recording this weekend’s concerts for future release, with Robert Chen (concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) as guest concertmaster.
This performance repeats Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $20-$104; pittsburghsymphony.org; 412-392-4900.
Jeremy Reynolds: jreynolds@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1634; twitter: @Reynolds_PG. Mr. Reynolds' work at the Post-Gazette is supported in part by a grant from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Getty Foundation, and the Rubin Institute.
First Published: February 24, 2018, 5:00 a.m.
