Pablo Heras-Casado makes debut at Berlin Philharmonic

The Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado gives his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic on 20 October 2011. In three concerts on 20, 21 and 22 October he will conduct Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Third Symphony as well as Szymanowski‘s Symphony No. 4 and “Quatre dédicaces for orchestra” by Berio.

Pablo Heras-Casado says about the programme:

“There is something really exciting about putting together in one concert programme masterpieces which, although written by several of our greatest composers, are to some extent still unfamiliar to concert audiences.

International influences are a thread running through all of these works. In Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony and his Hebrides Overture, the composer conveys both an emotional and visual image of times and places which have inspired him – but maintains the integrity of his own musical voice throughout, without recourse to e.g. folk music or historical quotations. And while Berio dedicates each of his four pieces to a great orchestra in different corners of the world, he keeps solidly consistent in his style in this collection of pieces which never pretended to be a cycle – yet which interplay and combine perfectly.”

The concerts will be streamed live by the Digital Concert Hall. The Digital Concert Hall is the virtual concert venue of the Berliner Philharmoniker on the Internet. Please contact us for a free 48-hour pass for journalists to listen to Heras-Casado’s concerts in Berlin.

Pablo Heras-Casado just returned to the Canadian Opera Company where he conducted a new production of Gluck’s “Iphigenia in Tauris”. European appearances included the musical direction of the world premiere production of Hosokawa’s opera Matsukaze in May 2011 in Brussels in cooperation with Sasha Waltz & Guests and Vocalconsort Berlin with further performances in Warsaw, Luxemburg and Berlin.

In the 2011/12 season, Pablo Heras-Casado will return to the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Tonhalle-Orchester and make his debuts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra.

His upcoming European appearances in 2011/12 at a glance:

29 October, Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Haydn: Symphony No. 1
Mozart: Symphony No. 1
Prokofjev: Symphony No. 1 “The Classical”
Brahms: Symphony No. 1

4 November, Utrecht, Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland
Prokofjev: Overture on Hebrew Themes
Weinberg: Violin concerto
Shostakovitch: Symphony No. 10
Eugene Ugorsky, Violin

10 November, Paris Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Théâtre
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Stravinsky: Suite “Firebird” (Version of 1919)
Stravinsky: Agon
Further works tbc

18 November, Rotterdam, De Doelen
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane Suite No. 2
Canteloube: Chants d’Auvergne
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale”
Maria Luigia Borsi, Soprano

24/25 November, Essen, Philharmonie
Essener Philharmoniker
Schubert: Symphony No. 3
Mendelssohn: Lobgesang

30 November, St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and Chorus
Ravel: L’heure espagnole
De Falla: La Vida Breve

9/10 December, Den Haag, Dr Anton Philipszaal
Residentie Orkest
Stravinsky: Symphonie für Blasinstrumente
Shostakovitch: Chamber Symphony for strings
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

21/22 December, Zürich, Tonhalle
Tonhalle-Orchester
Mozart: Piano concerto No. 25
Mozart: Arie ”Ch’io mi scordi di te”
Mozart: Mass No. 16 „Krönung“ (“Coronation“)
Bach: Jauchzet frohlocket – Christmas Oratorio
Martin Helmchen, piano
Anna Prohaska & Lydia Teuscher – Soprano, Valérie Bonnard – Alto,
Benjamin Bernheim – Tenor, NN – Bass
Zürcher Sing-Akademie

Pablo Heras-Casado’s new website has just been launched – please take a look at www.pabloherascasado.com