Honeck then returns to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) for the world premiere of Forging Steel. A new PSO commission from Stacy Garrop, “one of Chicago’s most keenly sensitive composers” (Chicago Tribune), the two-movement work offers a sonic exploration of steelmaking, the industry with which Pittsburgh was once synonymous. Next on the program is Gershwin’s F-major Piano Concerto with Gilmore Artist Igor Levit, followed by the world premiere of Honeck’s own newly conceived orchestral suite for Strauss’s Salome, created in collaboration with Czech composer-arranger Tomáš Ille. Following Jenufa, Elektra, Rusalka and Turandot, this marks the most recent addition to the conductor’s series of operatic suites, and the second to premiere this spring. To complete their program, he and the orchestra join forces with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre for Ravel’s iconic Boléro, featuring original choreographyby the company’s former Artistic Director, Susan Jaffe, now Artistic Director of New York’s American Ballet Theatre (June 9–11). More than 1,000 orchestra administrators, conductors, musicians, trustees and volunteers will gather in Pittsburgh for the League of American Orchestras’ 78th National Conference, “Bridges to the Future” (June 14–16), hosted by the Pittsburgh Symphony. Under Honeck’s leadership, the orchestra gives an Opening Night concert combining reprises of Forging Steel and Boléro, again featuring the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, with Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite; Herald, Holler and Hallelujah, a PSO co-commission from Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz legend Wynton Marsalis; and Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, with María Dueñas as violin soloist (June 14). Honeck and Dueñas may also be heard with the Vienna Symphony on Beethoven and Beyond, released earlier this month by Deutsche Grammophon. For their final concerts of the season, Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony reunite with the violinist for a reprise of Lalo’s concerto, together with the Pittsburgh premiere of Transfigure to Grace, a PSO commission from Chicago Symphony Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery, on a program bookended by two Respighi favorites: Roman Festivals and The Pines of Rome (June 16–18). Before the summer is out, music lovers can also look forward to the release of Honeck and the orchestra’s next Reference Recordings album, expected in late July. The conductor then heads to Europe for collaborations with the Bamberg Symphony in Germany (June 29–July 2) and the Czech Philharmonic at Bucharest’s Enescu Festival(Aug 30 & 31); a European Union Youth Orchestra tour to Italy’s Bolzano Festival, Austria’s Grafenegg Festival, Berlin’s Young Euro Classic and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie (Aug 11–17); and a performance of “Mozart’s Death in Words and Music” – his own signature dramatic treatment of Mozart’s Requiem – at the Salzburg Festival (July 24). Honeck recently led the Pittsburgh Symphony in stirring accounts of “Mozart’s Death in Words and Music,” featuring Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham as narrator. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette observed:
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