Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Coming Soon: Pablo Heras-Casado

The Houston Symphony's next classical concert will bring Pablo Heras-Casado to the podium to lead the orchestra in a program to include Schumann: Overture to Manfred, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1, and Stravinsky: Petrouchka (1947).

Jon Kimura Parker will be the piano soloist and the concerts will take place on April 13, 14 and 15.
Heras-Casado is listed among The Contenders to become the next music director of our HSO, so I have looked around for some resources to preview his upcoming performance.

You will find some of those after the jump.

Your faithful critic is neither young nor photogenically handsome. So I admit it: I can have a bit of a chip on my shoulder for a conductor who is 30-something, photographs well and has a mane of almost Dudamel-esque magnificence.

But I shall not allow my biases to prejudge the young maestro.

Instead, start with me in forming a considered opinion based upon the resources available due to the miracle of the world wide web.

Heras-Casado conducted the Berlin Philharmonic on October 22, 2011 in a program including pieces by Mendelssohn, Symanowski and Berio. There is a free interview here, and you can watch the concert on the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall for less than 10 Euros.

Better still, subscribe for an entire year of unlimited access for only 149 Euros. It is the best value in classical music.

(The question of why an orchestra like Detroit is streaming performances while the HSO is not is another post for another day).

The Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall provides the following biography and press clippings concerning Heras-Casado.
Pablo Heras-Casado was born in Granada. The young conductor can look back on a meteoric international career and works with such renowned orchestras as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked with specialist ensembles such as the Freiburger Barockorchester. Pablo Heras-Casado has developed long-term relationships as a guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. His repertoire ranges from Renaissance to contemporary compositions, from chamber music to opera literature of all kinds: He conducted the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s Matsukaze at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels in May 2011 in a production together with Sasha Waltz & Guests and the Vocal Consort Berlin, which was subsequently seen in Warsaw, Luxembourg and at the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin. Pablo Heras-Casado’s particular interest in contemporary music is also reflected in his collaboration with the Ensemble ACJW at Carnegie Hall, the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, the Klangforum Wien and the Collegium Novum Zurich. With his interpretation of Stockhausen’s Gruppen, he won the Lucerne Festival Conducting Competition with Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös heading the jury in 2007. With these concerts, Pablo Heras-Casado makes his debut at the conductor’s desk of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
And more:
If you want to meet a versatile musician, you should not miss this concert, with Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado making his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker. The website of the just 33-year-old artist contains an impressively long repertoire list of music from all eras and countries – from Tielman Susato (c. 1510–70) to the latest generation of composers. The global response of critics to this “superb new podium talent” (San Francisco Chronicle) shows Heras-Casado’s skills are characterized not only by breadth but also depth.
In connection with his performance with the New World Symphony, Heras-Casado gave an interview which has been broken into four short sectsions.

First, Heras-Casado on the importance of new music:




On being a young conductor:




On the job of a conductor:




Comparing and contrasting old and new music, along with making the connection with the audience:



More later about the repertoire and the artists in the run up to the concerts. And after, the review.

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