Pablo Heras-Casado

Conductor

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“Heras-Casado came roaring in like a lion. There was a thunderous physicality to his conducting that I don’t recall having witnessed before, a readiness to unleash the full sonic resources of the orchestra and to marshal them in the service of full-blooded accounts of music both old and new.”
(SFGate)

Principal Guest Conductor: Teatro Real, Madrid
Director: Granada Festival (from 2017/18)
Conductor Laureate: Orchestra of St. Luke’s

Described by The Telegraph as a conductor of “glowing reputation,” Pablo Heras-Casado enjoys an unusually varied and broad-ranging career, encompassing the great symphonic and operatic repertoire, historically informed performances, and contemporary scores.

He is Principal Guest Conductor at Teatro Real in Madrid and Director of the Granada Festival. He also enjoys a long-term collaboration with Freiburger Barockorchester featuring extensive touring and recording projects.

In 2018/19, Heras-Casado is Spotlight Artist of the NTR Matinee series at Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, conducting the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, as well as Freiburger Barockorchester and Mahler Chamber Orchestra on tour. He debuts with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and returns to the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall as its Conductor Laureate, following his tenure as Principal Conductor between 2011 and 2017. In January 2019, Heras-Casado conducts Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Teatro Real in Madrid, starting his first-ever complete Ring Cycle, spanning four consecutive seasons.

Heras-Casado records primarily for harmonia mundi, recognised at the Gramophone Awards as 2018’s Label of the Year. An extensive discography includes a developing series of recordings entitled “Die Neue Romantik”, with Freiburger Barockorchester and partners such as Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexander Melnikov. In 2018 releases also include dedicated albums of Debussy, with Philharmonia Orchestra; Bartók with Münchner Philharmoniker and Javier Perianes; a DVD release of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer at Teatro Real; plus Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale with the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor & Ensemble.

Highly committed to the Spanish charity Ayuda en Acción as a Global Ambassador, Heras-Casado supports and promotes the charity’s work internationally.

Pablo Heras-Casado - Les Siècles et Pablo Heras-Casado - interprètent Debussy - Live at Festival de Grenade © Culturebox

Pablo Heras-Casado- Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3 // Simon Trpčeski, piano © Todd Rosenberg / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Pablo Heras-Casado Conducts Brahms' Symphony No. 1 © San Francisco Symphony

Pablo Heras-Casado- Rimskij-Korsakow: Capriccio espagnol ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester © hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony

Pablo Heras-Casado- Ravel: Alborada del gracioso ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester © hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony

Pablo Heras-Casado, un gran festival para un gran músico © AlSurVideos Programa

Pablo Heras-Casado y Javier Perianes interpretan a Bartók © New Barcelona Post

Pablo Heras-Casado: la música de Die Soldaten | Teatro Real 200 años 17/18 © Teatro Real

Pablo Heras-Casado- 'El holandés errante:' la obra de arte total | Teatro Real 200 años 16/17 © Teatro Real

Pablo Heras-Casado - El Maestro Farinelli (Trailer) © Deutsche Grammophon

Mendelssohn- Hebrides Overture (excerpt)

“The beautiful interpretation of Berlioz’s Requiem that made the Philharmonie of Paris vibrate last week is rich in lessons. The first merit of Casado [was that he] remembered that the thunderous bursts that made Berlioz’s Requiem famous represent only about ten minutes out of the ninety of a work whose general tone is rather of a collected fervor. The conductor does not take advantage of the more than 200 executants he has on hand to delve into the colossal or the grandiloquent. His reading remains transparent and developed, with a clarity to which contribute the strings playing with little vibrato.”

(Le Figaro, February 2019)

“Several elements combine to make this reading of Pablo Heras-Casado [of Berlioz’s Requiem], one of the highlights of this year Berlioz. The great hall of the Philharmonie, first of all (…). To this is added all the science of the Spanish leader in the field of opera, constantly concerned with balance; he proposes in this interpretation a vision in total adequacy with the wishes of the composer, mixing a theatricality without excess to a science of orchestral colours, magnified by his precise and committed clear direction.”

(ResMusica, February 2019)

“The most impressive work emerged in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1 (…) Guest conductor Pablo Heras-Casado conceived an interpretation that made about as strong a case for this disarming composition as one might imagine (…) Thanks to the driving force and urgency of Heras-Casado’s reading, the motifs of the first movement made coherent sense. (…) Shaping a gorgeous Tchaikovsky melody can be more challenging than is apparent, and Heras-Casado showed how it’s done in the second movement. The grace and tenderness he brought to lyric themes made a nocturne of the piece.”

(Chicago Tribune, February 2019)

“The musical results were more successful than the program would indicate, with (…) conductor Pablo Heras-Casado making his most impressive CSO podium appearance to date. Relaxed yet in control, the Spanish conductor drew impassioned playing throughout yet skillfully tempered balances and refused to go over the top with volume or speed.”

(Chicago Classical Review, February 2019)

“A key role was Pablo Heras-Casado, which is becoming more and more a formidable conductor who seems to be able to perform every style period. The Radio Philharmonic Orchestra played under his expressive gestures with great feeling, found the Russian soul and hit the score.”

***** (Trouw, September 2018)

“From beginning to end, Heras-Casado had Mussorgsky’s colossal score in a firm grasp, delivering a deeply passionate performance underpinned by the cleanest of rhythms.”

***** (Bachtrack, September 2018)

“Heras-Casado brings Boulezian analytical textures to the Saint Sébastien fragments and La Mer, but his emotional engagement in this music is far less restrained. The playing is magical.”

(The Sunday Times, July 2018)

“As guest conductor Pablo Heras-Casado raised his long arms to cue the first downbeat of the Brahms Symphony No. 1 on Friday night at Davies Hall, the entire San Francisco Symphony ensemble seemed to take and hold a collective breath. Then, in a kind of ferocious exhalation, the musicians entered the timpani-studded thicket at the outset of the piece. That opening Allegro — indeed the entire symphony — drove on with an oxygen-infused, organic inevitability.”

(San Francisco Classical Voice, March 2018)

“At its best, the Philharmonia, guided by the esteemed Pablo Heras-Casado, certainly delivered superb performances. […] Heras-Casado just went with the flow, conjuring up one of the most refreshing, convincing and wettest interpretations [of Debussy’s La Mer] I’ve heard for some time. He was equally on the ball in Ravel’s lovely Mother Goose suite, shaping the miniature sonorities with such exquisite poise that I curled up in bliss.” ****

(The Times, January 2018)

“Pablo Heras-Casado and Pierre-Laurent Aimard were captivating in an outstanding programme of late 19^th- and early 20^th-century French music […] The playing was ravishing throughout” ****

(The Guardian, January 2018)

“Freiburg’s all-Mendelssohn programme had the translucency and energy of a Turner watercolour. Heras-Casado’s spacious reading of The Hebrides was sensitive to the stillness in Mendelssohn’s writing (…)” *****

(The Times, September 2017)

“Pablo Heras-Casado (…) led the ensemble with a consistently sophisticated vision.”

(Bachtrack, September 2017)

“With the gentlest of rhythmic swells in the violins, (…) a subtly revisionist account formed in the quietly authoritative hands of Pablo Heras-Casado. (…) Conductor and orchestra have recorded the symphonies together – the CD of this programme is newly available on Harmonia Mundi – and their account of the “Reformation” was no less illuminated than the Concerto by mutual trust and understanding.”

(The Arts Desk, September 2017)

“Pablo Heras-Casado whips the Orchestre de Paris (…) into a frenzy; his attention to detail, and the thrilling level of excellence, mirror what we see on the stage.” *****

(The Financial Times, July 2017)

“Pablo Heras-Casado chose a delicate gesture to imprint a new breath on this music, displaying a strong knowledge of the style and spirit of Monteverdi’s music.”

(Bachtrack, February 2017)

“Heras-Casado, beaming throughout, did not need a score and the orchestra dutifully followed his every gesture. Heras-Casado injected the piece with infectious humour and conducted with verve. (…) His fiery temperament blends with an amiable countenance, sound technique, a broad repertoire and plenty of charisma – could this be the perfect mix to ignite staid Zurichers?”

(Seen and Heard International, January 2017)

“The rest of the program was just the latest reminder of what a vivid and resourceful conductor Heras-Casado is. (…) the first major American orchestra to snap him up as music director will have hit the jackpot. … This was exactly the kind of performance that makes a conductor sound like a wizard.”

(San Francisco Chronicle, October 2016)

“One of the most versatile conductors of his generation … Heras-Casado sustained the narrative through slow, quiet sections that otherwise would have had dancers to help carry them. Seamlessly navigating the work’s many transitions, the conductor’s conjuring of orchestral mood and color was so pictorially communicative, one could almost see Prince Ivan encountering the enchanting Firebird for the first time.”

(LA Times, October 2016)

“In his Caramoor debut, maestro Pablo Heras-Casado led a vigorous, forward-moving performance that coaxed taut, nuanced playing from the ever-splendid Orchestra of St. Luke’s and committed singing from the principals and chorus.”

(Huffington Post, August 2016)

“Heras-Casado is a vigorous, expressive podium artist, and his command of rhythm and dynamics was apparent throughout the evening’s lineup of works by Beethoven, Biber, Haydn and Rameau. Wednesday’s performance in Davies Symphony Hall found the conductor in top form, with especially persuasive results in the second half’s superb reading of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D major.”

(The Mercury News, April 2016)