In terms of sound and precision, the performance is meticulous, immaculate and even. That’s not to say that Honeck doesn't occasionally play a little loose…Everything about this performance has heft, from the orchestra to the soloists, with precision sculpting from Honeck verging on the maniacal, the Finale a joyous argy-bargy of conflicting forces, beset with moments of transcendent, expressive beauty.

if the menace in the first two movements is palpable, so too is the loving comfort and almost inexpressible, all-embracing tenderness in the Adagio that follows.Honeck’s Ninth goes from super to superlative. And, in my opinion, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra goes from being the re-emergent success story of a great American orchestra to becoming one of the best orchestras on the world stage...a Beethoven Ninth for the ages.

The string-playing is especially fine, as we might expect with a former Vienna Philharmonic player as music director and the ‘no vibrato’ heresy kept firmly at bay.

What makes Honeck’s approach so stimulating in this most standard of repertoire is the sense that he has rethought each bar of the music.