The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has gained a wider reputation than the medium size of its home city might suggest, benefiting from the leadership of some of the 20th century's top conductors at various points in their careers. In the 2010s, the orchestra has issued a major series of recordings of mainstream symphonic repertory.

The Pittsburgh Symphony was founded in 1896 by the Pittsburgh Art Society, which two years later hired Irish-born operetta composer Victor Herbert as conductor. The move ran counter to the tendency toward German conductors at the time, but the orchestra gained wide popularity. In 1904, the orchestra went to the opposite pole, installing Germany's Emil Paur as conductor and getting a heavy diet of Brahms and other symphonists for its money. Paur clashed with local musicians, financial support dried up after the Panic of 1907, and the orchestra disbanded in 1910. It was reestablished in 1927, intentionally violating a Pennsylvania law against music on the Sabbath and gaining valuable publicity. The orchestra took advantage of the new medium of radio, launching broadcasts in 1936 that were heard across much of the eastern U.S. The following year, Otto Klemperer became one of a series of international-caliber conductors to lead the group, building it into a top-quality ensemble. He was succeeded by Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), Vladimir Bakaleinikov (1948-1952), William Steinberg (1952-1976), André Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996, who had lived in Pittsburgh and studied with Bakaleinikov), Mariss Jansons (1996-2004), a unique troika of Marek Janowski, Andrew Davis, and Yan Pascal Tortelier (2004-2008), and, since 2008, Manfred Honeck. The orchestra has also maintained a pops series that was conducted by famed ragtime pianist Marvin Hamlisch from 1995 until his death in 2014; in 2019, the pops concerts welcomed Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds as a guest. In its earlier years, the orchestra performed at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall, Syria Mosque (a performance space suggested by a shrine, not an actual mosque), and Penn Theatre; in 1971, it gained its own Heinz Hall, which has itself been expanded several times. Especially under Steinberg and Previn, the orchestra amassed a large recording catalog. Honeck has revived the orchestra's recording activity, issuing a series of recordings of symphonic repertoire works in the 2010s on the Exton and Reference Recordings labels. In 2018, the orchestra issued a reading of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55, paired with the Horn Concerto No. 1, Op. 11, of Richard Strauss; Honeck's Beethoven interpretations have been influenced by the historical-performance movement. The Pittsburgh Symphony, under Honeck, was nominated for a Grammy award for its 2019 album Bruckner: Symphony No. 9. ~ James Manheim

Conductor Marek Janowski has forged a solid, mostly European-based career by largely disengaging himself from the fast-track musical life. Disturbed by the dominance of regietheater in Europe, he vacated the opera pit in the early 1990s to concentrate on his symphonic repertory. In the new millennium, he assumed directorships of several orchestras and returned to the operatic repertoire.

Janowski was born in Warsaw on February 18, 1939. After completing his studies, he applied himself to the 19th century regimen that had produced the best-prepared conductors. Serving as a répétiteur in Aachen, Germany, for a year, Janowski moved to a similar position in Cologne for two seasons. In two years at Düsseldorf, beginning in 1964, he was afforded the opportunity to conduct some performances. After returning to Cologne as first Kapellmeister, he was engaged by Rolf Liebermann in Hamburg. Later, during directorships in Freiburg and Dortmund, Janowski appeared as a guest conductor in Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. In the late '70s, Janowski began to appear in American theaters, notably the Metropolitan Opera, and in Chicago and San Francisco. In 1984, he accepted the directorship of the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique in Paris (later known as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France). During his 16 years with the Paris orchestra, Janowski raised performance standards and broadened his repertoire, acquiring considerable fluency in a variety of French works. Aside from four years when he also served as music director for Cologne's Gürzenich-Orchester, Janowski devoted himself to Paris, all the while paring down his opera activities.

Appreciation for certain French composers, such as Messiaen, Roussel, d'Indy, and Dutilleux, informed his programming choices for Monte Carlo. With the Dresden Philharmonic, Janowski's other 2001 appointment, a long-term relationship hinged upon the promised construction of a new concert hall. In 2008, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin offered him the position of artistic director for life, after serving six years in that position; Janowski remained in this position until 2016. He joined the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande as music director in 2005, having filled similar positions with Orchestre Philharmonie de Monte-Carlo (2000-2005) and the Dresden Philharmonic (2001-2003). In 2018, the Dresden Philharmonic announced Janowski's return as chief conductor beginning in 2019.

Janowski's discography holds estimable recordings of Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau, Penderecki's The Devils of Loudon, Wagner's Ring, Euryanthe, Oberon, and Hindemith's Die Harmonie der Welt. In addition to the symphonies of Roussel, his orchestral recordings include Lutoslawski's Concerto for orchestra and Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3. Following his break from conducting opera in the 1990s, Janowski returned to the genre in the 2010s with several recordings of Wagner on the PentaTone Classics label, including a new recording of the composer's Ring Cycle in 2016. ~ Erik Eriksson