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"... highly accomplished, beautifully performed ... enters a market flooded with recordings, but it has a few unique qualities to celebrate. The Pittsburgh Symphony is one of the world’s great orchestras, here displaying rich, lush old-world strings which bring to mind conductor Manfred Honeck’s experience in Vienna. The brass section is thrillingly punchy and forward, as is the timpanist ... Reference Recordings’ sound is at its usual high standards ..." - MusicWeb International Recorded live in April 2015 by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck, this fresh interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 , his final symphony, is presented in superb audiophile sound. A work of great originality and power, Tchaikovsky himself considered the symphony the best and most sincere of all his creations, saying "I love it as I have never loved any of my other musical offspring." The album also includes the world premiere of the Rusalka Fantasy, an orchestral suite drawn from Dvořák’s opera by Honeck and arranger Tomáš Ille. "... it is undoubtedly clear that Tchaikovsky truly put all of his soul into this unique masterpiece. I dare to say that in a way, Tchaikovsky experienced his own death through the music. One can be sure that only somebody who is deeply empathetic about both life and death can be capable of creating such an atmosphere and I am deeply grateful for the great musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra who went with me on this journey, requiring the utmost technical perfection to reach such a level of expression." - Manfred Honeck