Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony return to Carnegie Hall (Dec 3)

(November 2025) — It is eleven years since internationally celebrated Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra last appeared together at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Now in his 18th season as Music Director, Honeck leads the ensemble when it returns to the venue, with an all-Russian program showcasing their Grammy-winning interpretation of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, the New York premiere of a new commission from Lera Auerbach, and Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations, featuring Chopin Award-winner Seong-Jin Cho (Dec 3). Presented as the first event in Carnegie Hall’s “Great American Orchestras” subscription series, the concert will air live on WQXR’s Carnegie Hall Live, alongside a pre-performance interview with the conductor. This follows the August release of Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music. Capturing Honeck’s immersive and deeply personal conception of Mozart’s Requiem, the recording marks the latest addition to Reference Recordings’ Pittsburgh Live! series, already recognized with three Grammy Awards and twelve nominations.

Return to Carnegie Hall with Pittsburgh Symphony (Dec 3)

Anticipating the December 3 concert as one “we’re excited to hear” at Carnegie Hall this season, The New York Times observes:

“Honeck’s directorship of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra must be counted as one of the country’s most successful conductor-ensemble collaborations, his thoughtful interpretations of the standard repertory inflaming the players’ super-committed virtuosity.”

Indeed, Honeck’s “refined yet coruscating recording” (The New York Times) of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony won them both the Grammy Award for “Best Orchestral Performance” in 2018, the same year that the conductor was named “Artist of the Year” at the International Classical Music Awards.

At Carnegie Hall, Shostakovich’s symphony crowns a program that opens with the New York premiere of Frozen Dreams (2025), a Pittsburgh Symphony commission from Lera Auerbach. Known for music of “extraordinary power and intensity” (The New Yorker), the Soviet-born composer describes the piece as “a meditation on the way time is layered in our minds: past, present, and future coexisting in an endless spiral.”

To complete their program, Honeck and the orchestra will be joined by Seong-Jin Cho for Rachmaninoff’s perennially popular Paganini Variations. The first Korean pianist to win the prestigious Chopin Competition, in Russian repertoire Cho “commands the technical brilliance and expressive power to rival and, in some cases, top the best” (Classical Voice).

Honeck, Cho, and the Pittsburgh Symphony preview their Carnegie Hall program the previous night, at the orchestra’s Pittsburgh home (Dec 2).

New PSO recording: Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music

In 2014, when Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony last appeared at Carnegie Hall, their “bold, meaningful experiment in programming” inspired a “prolonged, grateful ovation” (The New York Times). The vehicle for this performance was the conductor’s immersive take on Mozart’s Requiem, which he and the orchestra have now committed to disc. Released this past August, Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music offers a profound meditation on the composer and his death, the enduring value of Catholic faith and tradition, and the nature of death itself. First premiered in Austria more than three decades ago, Honeck’s deeply personal conception of Mozart’s final, unfinished masterpiece omits Süssmayr’s posthumous additions, instead integrating Mozart’s completed portions of the mass with other examples of his sacred choral music, as well as Gregorian chant, church bells, and dramatic spoken word. Captured live in 2023, the recording presents Honeck and the orchestra alongside a stellar quartet of vocal soloists, the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, and the Westminster Choir College of Rider University, with expert narration by Hollywood and Broadway star F. Murray Abraham. Welcoming the release as one of “five unmissable new classical albums to hear this week,” Gramophone writes:

“F. Murray Abraham won an Academy Award for his moving portrayal of composer Antonio Salieri in the film Amadeus, and he makes a striking contribution to this innovative exploration of Mozart’s Requiem from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck.”

BBC Music Magazine affirms, “All the supplementary performances, whether musical or spoken, are filled with pathos and drama.” As the review concludes:

“Honeck’s is an exciting performance of the Requiem, with a crisp Kyrie, a nimble-footed Domine Jesu and a Dies Irae, which, though played and sung with absolute precision, evokes a whirlwind of terrifying turmoil. He foregrounds instrumental details, sometimes allowing his singers to shimmer in the background like a celestial chorus, then raising the roof with a blazing ‘Rex’, as if uttered by a thousand voices.”

Honeck reprises his conception of the Requiem in upcoming guest appearances with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Nov 20–23) and San Francisco Symphony (Feb 26–March 1).

Manfred Honeck: upcoming U.S. dates

Nov 20–23
Chicago, IL
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
BEETHOVEN: Coriolan Overture
HAYDN: Symphony No. 93
MOZART: Maurerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music)
MOZART: “Laudate dominum” from Vesperae solennes
MOZART: Requiem
MOZART: Ave verum corpus

Nov 28 & 30
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
HAYDN: Symphony No. 100
BRUCH: Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Himari, violin)
Carlos SIMON: Festive Fanfare and Overture
STRAUSS family: selected waltzes and polkas

Dec 2
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Lera AUERBACH: Frozen Dreams (PSO commission)
RACHMANINOFF: Paganini Variations (with Seong-Jin Cho, piano)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5

Dec 3
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Lera AUERBACH: Frozen Dreams (New York premiere of PSO commission)
RACHMANINOFF: Paganini Variations (with Seong-Jin Cho, piano)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5
This concert will air live in WQXR’s Carnegie Hall Live series, together with a pre-performance interview with Honeck.

Dec 5 & 7
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
COPLAND: Fanfare for the Common Man
BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto (with David McCarroll, violin)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5

Dec 9
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
HANDEL: Messiah

Dec 13 & 14
Miami, FL
New World Symphony
J. STRAUSS Jr.: Die Fledermaus Overture
HAYDN: Symphony No. 93
MAHLER: Symphony No. 4

Jan 29–Feb 1
New York, NY
New York Philharmonic
BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto (with María Dueñas, violin)
R. STRAUSS (arr. M. HONECK/T. ILLE): Elektra – Symphonic Suite

Feb 6 & 8
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
WALKER: Lyric for Strings
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 3
DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto (with Gautier Capuçon, cello)

Feb 13–15
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Arturs MASKATS: Tango
MOZART: Violin Concerto No. 5 (with Randall Goosby, violin)
BARBER: Adagio for Strings
BERNSTEIN: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Feb 20–22
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Samy MOUSSA: Adgilis Deda – Hymn for Orchestra
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 8

Feb 26 & 27; March 1
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Symphony
BEETHOVEN: Coriolan Overture
HAYDN: Symphony No. 93
“Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music”: MOZART: Requiem and other works

March 6 & 8
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Jacob BANCKS: The Greatest Show on Earth (world premiere of PSO commission)
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 2
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Emanuel Ax, piano)

March 13–15
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Boris PIGOVAT: Yizkor (PSO commission)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”

April 2–4
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles Philharmonic
HAYDN: Symphony No. 93
REINECKE: Flute Concerto (with Denis Bouriakov, flute)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5