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Manfred Honeck returns to PSO
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Only six months removed from a strong debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck will be back again at Heinz Hall Nov. 24 and 26. His return is courtesy of Sir Andrew Davis, the PSO's artistic adviser, who canceled.
"It was an unforeseen scheduling conflict," said Robert Moir, vice president for artistic planning. Honeck will conduct the planned program: Bach's Viola Concerto, Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 and Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World."
After Honeck's performances at Heinz Hall and at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center last season, he has emerged as an orchestra and audience favorite.
"He made his debut with the orchestra in May, and it was very successful," Moir said. "The orchestra expressed an interest in seeing him again. Usually it takes two years to get someone back; obviously we were very fortunate."
Honeck is conducting the New World Symphony (the orchestral academy in Miami, not the Dvorak work) the week before the PSO program, and he is free to work with the Pittsburgh orchestra before heading back to Europe.
Moir would not say whether Honeck is being brought in as a candidate for artistic leadership of the PSO, which Davis has said he will vacate when his contract is up at the end of the 2007-08 season. Davis' announcement two weeks ago has created the need for a search for his successor. Davis will return in December to conduct the PSO and still plans to take the group to Carnegie Hall Dec. 5.
-- Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette classical music critic
First Published October 13, 2006 12:00 am
