Honeck extends tradition of Pittsburgh maestros

By RAMESH SANTANAM

PITTSBURGH — The contract to conduct the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was on Manfred Honeck’s desk when he got another offer: to be music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

The Austrian-born conductor said the decision was easy.

“You have to decide with your heart, and my heart was with Pittsburgh,” Honeck said in an interview. “I knew it’s wonderful to be music director of this orchestra.”

He just had to make sure he didn’t upset the Czech Philharmonic and so offered them twice as many dates next year as principal guest conductor.

Honeck celebrated his 50th birthday and began his three-year contract with the Pittsburgh Symphony in September.

He will have eight weeks of conducting in the first season with 10 weeks in subsequent seasons. He will also tour with the orchestra to Vienna’s famed Musikverein concert hall in 2010 and 2011, and the Proms in London in 2010.

Honeck was music director of the Swedish Radio Company from 2000 to 2006, music director of the Stuttgart State Opera, and has had guest engagements at the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

Honeck replaces three conductors — Andrew Davis, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Marek Janowksi — who shared the music director role after Mariss Jansons left in 2004.

Pittsburgh Symphony officials knew they wanted Honeck after he conducted the orchestra in 2006 — twice in Pittsburgh and once at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center.

“The orchestra, at rehearsal, said, ‘This is the guy,’” symphony president and CEO Larry Tamburri said. “From then on, it was just a matter of talking to see what we could work out.”

The symphony’s board chairman, Richard Simmons, said the chemistry between Honeck and the musicians was “like none other I have seen.”

Horn player Joe Rounds, approaching his 21st year with the orchestra, said he had never seen a music director welcomed with such enthusiasm.

That the Pittsburgh Symphony landed a Honeck should come as no surprise.

“It is one of the longest-standing and historic orchestras in the world. It has always been recognized as one of the great orchestras in the world,” said the North Carolina Symphony’s Bruce Ridge, who also chairs the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians.

The decision to pick Honeck shows the Pittsburgh Symphony’s commitment to high standards as well as style and repertoire, said Jesse Rosen, president of the New York-based League of American Orchestras.

Simmons said that Honeck will also serve as a fine ambassador for Pittsburgh, joining the orchestra in changing outdated perceptions of Pittsburgh as a gritty, smoke-filled steel town.

British composer, conductor and organist Frederic Archer is recognized as establishing the orchestra in the mid-1890s and serving as its first conductor. Since then, musical directors have included Victor Herbert, Emil Paur, Antonio Modarelli, Fritz Reiner, William Steinberg, Andre Previn, Lorin Maazel and Jansons.

Honeck now adds his name to that celebrated list.