Pablo Heras-Casado

Pablo Heras-Casado, the gifted Spanish conductor made a welcome return to Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday afternoon to lead the San Francisco Symphony, has that knack...Heras-Casado shapes everything he touches with delicacy and respect." (San Francisco Chronicle, January 2012)

“Just a couple of weeks earlier the evening’s conductor, the young Spanish maestro Pablo Heras-Casado...had been named principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, a major fixture in the city’s musical ecosystem....And he took the opportunity to make a distinctive impression, displaying a lively feel for dance rhythms in Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1; a volatile temperament, especially in music from Vivaldi’s “Griselda”; and a contrasting, similarly apt responsiveness to the languorous strains of Ravel’s “Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé.” (The New York Times, December 2011)

“The real challenge for Pablo Heras-Casado with this orchestra was probably the romantic repertoire, the Mendelssohn. He mastered this full of spirits and with confidence too. His flowing conducting builds up a context without overriding the details. Conducting without a baton, he supported the drawing of lines and creates a softness of the sound, that gave the slow introduction of the third Symphony an almost physical sensuality... Enthusiastic applause for a well-fitting and individual interpretation." (Berliner Zeitung, October 2011)

This was the kind of debut one always dreams about… The young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado presented himself at the Philharmonie conducting the Berlin Philharmonic...he was a sensitive yet powerful conductor with extraordinary vision, whom the orchestra followed at first with cautious distance before throwing themselves into his arms. The resulting rapport quickly grew into perfection.” (Berliner Morgenpost, Oct 2011)

"Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado has the firm yet delicate touch required to allow the music to be heard in all its complexity, while allowing all the singers to take pride of place." (Toronto Star, September 2011)

"Before the concert, and even more during intermission, you could hear people asking one another about the baby-faced, ebullient conductor. He was Pablo Heras-Casado, a 33-year-old Spanish acolyte of Pierre Boulez and a rising star, fresh from a headline-grabbing run of Toshio Hosokawa’s opera “Matsukaze” in Berlin and appearances at the Tanglewood and Caramoor festivals. And he was sensational.

Most members of a stripped-down complement from the orchestra stood for the first work on the program, Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4. Working without a score or a baton, Mr. Heras-Casado elicited regal grandeur in the Ouverture, genial sparkle in the inner dance movements and buoyant dash in the final Réjouissance." (The New York Times, August 2011)

"The young, Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado holds the threads of this music together with admirable vision he encourages a transparent nuanced sound within the play of the Staatskapelle Berlin – like calligraphic brush marks.” (Matsukaze, Berlin - Der Tagesspiegel, July 2011)

"Chorus and instrumentalists are flawless and Pablo Heras-Casado holds together his forces with deft assurance." (Matsukaze, Brussels - Financial Times, May 2011)

"It was great to see the authority of the young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, conducting the Chamber Orchestra of the Théâtre de la Monnaie, how smartly he acted, never opting for overblown effects." (Matsukaze, Brussels - Der Tagesspiegel, May 2011)

"The gifted young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado elicited a soundscape teeming with subtle instrumental detail beneath a now-shimmering, now-agitated surface." (Chicago Tribune, March 2011)