Episode Details

The Bruckner Society of America President Benjamin Korstvedt joins Jim Cunningham to recall the presentation of the Kilenyi Award from the Bruckner Society to Manfred Honeck on February 21, 2026, at Heinz Hall. The Pittsburgh Symphony followed the presentation with a performance of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony, which was recorded for broadcast on WQED-FM and for a Reference CD.

Manfred Honeck had already received an award from the Society for Recording of the Year when the Bruckner Seventh appeared on disc. Pittsburgh conductors Otto Klemperer, Fritz Reiner, and William Steinberg had preceded Manfred Honeck in winning the Kilenyi prize. Benjamin suggests that among the special features of Manfred Honeck's interpretation was the vast dynamic range from the extremely quiet playing to the roaring fortissimo of many passages.

Dr. Korstvedt teaches at Clark University, where he received his undergraduate degree. He later attended the University of Pennsylvania for his PhD. He has written two award-winning books on Bruckner and won the Claude V Palisca prize for extensive research into the three versions of the Fourth Symphony.  In his book on the Eighth, he dives into "the Adagio and the sublime" as a key feature of the Eighth. Dr. Korstvedt has also written and conducted research regarding the complex and troubling relationship of the Third Reich to Bruckner's music. He's thought about how to make the Bruckner Symphonies come alive for modern audiences, jazz interpretations of Bruckner in Europe, and details such as the cymbal crash and percussion in the Seventh Symphony that some claim never existed.

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