@ the Symphony

The Principal Horn of the Pittsburgh Symphony, William Caballero, and Principal Oboe, Cynthia Koledo de Almeida, talk about the 2024 European Festivals Tour just before the first of two concerts at the Elb Philharmonie in Hamburg, Germany. They describe the extraordinary success of the Salzburg Festival concert, the beauty of the South Tirol in Merano Italy, and the confetti at the end of the concert in Dusseldorf with Anne Sophie Mutter. The Pittsburgh Symphony has met the challenges of very warm concert halls and a few players being sidelined temporarily with Covid. Cynthia can’t recommend schnitzel with tofu in Austria but they’ve found lots of good things to eat and loved a guided tour with Manfred Honeck of Anton Bruckner’s final resting place at St. Florian Monastery. All in all the trip has been rapturously received everywhere and the Orchestra is feeling great.

Piano superstar Yefim Bronfman joined Jim Cunningham in the third floor rehearsal room at Heinz Hall to discuss his interpretation of the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto which he will play on August 15 at the Pittsburgh Symphony’s European Tour sendoff celebration, at the Salzburg Festival, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, and at Merano in the Italian Alps. He talks about his tour routine, playing outside, his recent performance at the Tanglewood Festival of the Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy, how author Philip Roth described him in the novel The Human Stain, and the significance of the Sound of Music in its upcoming 60th anniversary observation. He has high praise for the Pittsburgh Symphony working with Manfred Honeck and the value of taking the orchestra to Europe.

Pittsburgh Symphony Music Director, Manfred Honeck, talks about the upcoming European festivals tour starting with a visit to the prestigious Salzburg festival. He talks with Jim Cunningham about the special atmosphere at Salzburg and how it is Mozart’s birthplace, the country where Honeck was born, and where the Sound Of Music was filmed over 60 years ago! Maestro runs through the special qualities of each stop on the tour and how pleased he is to be working with Yefim Bronfman, Anne Sophie Mutter and Maria Duenas as soloists. Gute Reise and Bon Voyage!

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WQED-FM’s Jim Cunningham spoke with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Director and composer Michael Daugherty backstage immediately after the world premiere of Daugherty’s “Songs of the Open Road,” during our live broadcast on Friday June 7, 2024.

Pittsburgh Symphony Principal Oboe Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida and Principal Horn William Caballero have joined pianist Rodrigo Ojeda to record Three Rivers Trios on the Crystal label released May 27. The disc features two pieces written for them: Chris Massa’s Scenes From Chautauqua Lake and Eric Ewazen’s Three Rivers Trio along with several other first recordings of the Mozart trio for oboe horn and piano arranged by Eric Naumann from the Quintet k. 407, Robert Kahn’s Serenade, and Heinrich Molbe’s Air Arabe. Cyndy and Bill will give the world premiere of Michael Daugherty’s Songs of the Open Road on Friday June 7th with Manfred Honeck conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony. They give a road map for the piece and talk about how the commission came together complete with a visit to the Lucille Ball Museum in Jamestown New York, the Big Sur, Continental Divide, Sleeping Bear, Desilu, Blue Ridge and Key West.

Jim Cunningham spoke with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor who plays the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this weekend. Benjamin talks about the piece, his latest recording projects, and more.

Vasily Petrenko returns to Heinz Hall to conduct the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this weekend. He’ll conduct Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony and Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist Benjamin Grosvenor. Jim Cunningham talks to him about the program, his latest projects and more.

WQED-FM’s Jim Cunningham spoke with this weekend’s Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra guest conductor, Stephane Deneve. He’s conducting music of Ravel, Poulenc and the Gershwin “An American in Paris.” He talks about program, working in St. Louis, if he ever sees Leonard Slatkin in town, and if he is a classical radio fan.

Pianist Cedric Tiberghien plays the Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand this weekend with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It’s his Heinz Hall debut. WQED-FM’s Jim Cunningham got his thoughts on the Ravel concerto, his interests outside of music and more.

Montreal Canada born composer Samy Moussa talks about his Pittsburgh Symphony commission Adgilis Deda —Hymn for Orchestra – mentioning that it is terrific to have it on a program with one of his favorite composers Anton Bruckner as well as how it was inspired by a person he met in Georgia of the former USSR where he spent an extended period of time. He describes his path so far as a musician studying in Canada, Munich, Germany and now living in Berlin. He is delighted that the Pittsburgh Symphony has already played his Violin Concerto and that he will be working with an orchestra and conductor he has admired from afar.

Pittsburgh Symphony Music Director Manfred Honeck talks with Jim Cunningham in the grand lobby of Heinz Hall about the Liszt Dante Symphony and this weekend’s performances of Beethoven’s Ninth with 3 pieces by Anton Bruckner – Locus Iste, Ave Maria and the Adagio from the String Quintet in F in the arrangement Manfred Honeck and Thomas Ille have made. He also speaks about the Beethoven Ninth and how it is always new including an offstage military band and working with Daniel Singer at the Mendelssohn Choir. Manfred Honeck talks about the Pittsburgh Symphony commission of Samy Moussa to write Adgilis Deda—Hymn for Orchestra. The Pittsburgh Symphony announced just this week that the orchestra will be back on tour in August and September 2024 as the only American orchestra at the Salzburg Festival and return visits to several other prestigious European Festivals.

Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes returns to the Pittsburgh Symphony to play one of the most challenging piano concertos of all, the Third by Sergei Rachmaninov with Music Director Manfred Honeck. He joins Jim Cunningham in the Grand Lobby of Heinz Hall to talk about the fine points of the Concerto, how he stays ” in the pocket” as drummers in jazz and funk bands like to do, comments on the record Rachmaninov made of his own Third, mentions a few favorites from the 37 cd box set of his recordings which have been issued by Warner Classics, talks about his season with the Rachmaninov Third also in Philadelphia, his chamber music tour with the Dover Quartet playing Brahms and Dohnanyi and his videos including the Pictures Reframed which involves the piano being played under water and his love of his hometown Bergen, Norway about a day’s drive from Trondheim where he will perform this season. He says he does not know anything about the Trondheim stick dance which Monty Python suggests is done by women in Norway to resolve marital disputes.