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If you’ve followed Manfred Honeck’s Beethoven symphonies with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on Reference Recordings, presumably a complete cycle in the making, the first from an audiophile label (the third, fifth, seventh, and ninth have already appeared), you’ll know what to expect from this “Pastoral”—swift tempi, lean, even sec sonorities (vibrato held in considerable check), great clarity of line and texture, the live recording impressively wide in dynamic range if a tad short on atmosphere and bloom. The arrival in the countryside is brisk and bracing, the brook never dawdles along its merry way, the peasants’ dance is bumptious and high-spirited, the thunderstorm rages with hair-raising ferocity, and the plangent, beautifully phrased “Shepherd’s Song” rises to a strong climax. The late Stephen Stucky’s Silent Spring fills out the program, a powerfully expressive suite of four meditations on Rachel Carson’s environmental classic of the same title. The Pittsburgh Symphony play like gods and angels in both works. If a richer, more relaxed and expansive “Pastoral” is desired, try Bernstein/Vienna (DG) or Walter/Columbia (Sony), while Szell/Cleveland (Sony) ideally mediate classical rigor and early romantic ardor. Still, those who’ve liked Honeck’s previous Beethoven needn’t hesitate.
By Paul Seydor
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