Reference Recordings 50th Anniversary Sale
Until 5th August, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Reference Recordings, by offering up to 25% off CDs and SACDs, and up to 50% off downloads.
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New. Antonin Dvořák: Symphony No. 9; Carlos Simon: Four Black American Dances
RecommendedPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
Honeck has that rare ability to make even the most well-worn works sound engagingly fresh...Simon's riotously colourful Four Black American Dances (2023) makes an apt coupling. —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 3rd July 2026
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2026, Recording of the Month
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Honeck’s Bruckner Ninth is the greatest I’ve heard since Giulini, and for me it surpasses any current rival. Bruckner collectors are known for being fiercely partisan about the conductors they... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 62nd Awards (2019), Nominee - Best Orchestral Performance
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Grammy Awards, 62nd Awards (2019), Nominee - Best Engineered Album (Classical)
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International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Symphonic Music
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2019, Critics' Choice
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The New York Times, Recordings of the Year 2019
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Special offer. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet
RecommendedPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
This is one of the best new Tchaikovsky Fifths I’ve heard for ages...even if this Fifth came with no coupling, I’d still recommend it. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, September 2023, Recording of the Month
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Grammy Awards, 66th Awards (2024), Nominee - Best Engineered Classical Album
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International Classical Music Awards, 2024, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2023
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Presto Recording of the Week, 29th December 2023
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Gramophone Awards, 2024 Shortlist, Shortlisted - Orchestral
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Special offer. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 / Bates: Resurrexit
RecommendedPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
It's undoubtedly one of the best recordings of the symphony in the digital era...It’s a glowing testament to the high levels of synergy and mutual comprehension that Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, October 2024, Recording of the Month
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Grammy Awards, 67th Awards (2025), Winner - Best Engineered Classical Album
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalists 2024
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Special offer. Beethoven: Symphony No. 6; Steven Stucky: Silent Spring
RecommendedPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
The energy in the Peasants’ Merrymaking and Storm is fiercely controlled, and the final Thanksgiving, if also on the fast side, moves steadily towards its conclusion, with colourful sonorities... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2022, Editor's Choice
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Grammy Awards, 65th Awards (2023), Nominee - Best Engineered Album, Classical
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International Classical Music Awards, 2023, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Special offer. Beethoven: The Complete Piano Concertos
Garrick Ohlsson (piano), Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Sir Donald Runnicles
…These are my type of performances—full-bodied-sounding modern instruments in up-tempo, sharply defined readings set in perfect balance between piano and orchestra. No detail—be it tempo indication,... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 20th May 2023, Record of the Week
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2023, Editor's Choice
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Special offer. Brahms: Symphony No.4 & MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra
RecommendedPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
In this outstanding performance of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony, Manfred Honeck draws a wonderfully rich, almost Central European string sound from the Pittsburgh Symphony, matched by equally mellifluous... —
Awards:
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International Classical Music Awards, 2022, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Building A Library, October 2025, Top Choice (Brahms)
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Their playing is consummate, fearless in its bravura, deeply impassioned and dazzlingly flighted (try the Allegro scherzando variation of the D minor’s second movement). Eyes seeking within,... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 62nd Awards (2019), Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
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Grammy Awards, 62nd Awards (2019), Nominee - Best Engineered Album (Classical)
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Special offer. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 & Leshnoff: Double Concerto
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
f Honeck’s interpretative tendency is to emphasise the score’s purely symphonic credentials, he still keeps one foot in the ballet theatre – witness the way he magics the slow movement’s long... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 23rd May 2020, Record of the Week
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BBC Music Magazine, August 2020, Orchestral Choice
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Special offer. Beethoven: Symphony No.9
RecommendedChristina Landshamer (soprano), Jennifer Johnson Cano (mezzo-soprano), Werner Güra (tenor), Shenyang (bass-baritone), Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
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... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 27th March 2021, Record of the Week
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Grammy Awards, 64th Awards (2022), Nominee - Best Orchestral Performance
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Grammy Awards, 64th Awards (2022), Nominee - Best Engineered Classical Album
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