“When studying music, few young conductors begin at the beginning,” writes William Robin in Sunday’s (8/5) New York Times. “The Gustavo Dudamels of the world cut their teeth on a 200-year orchestral canon, starting with Mozart and ending with Shostakovich. … Not Pablo Heras-Casado. For him early music represents the core of the repertory, with contemporary music a close second. Trained as a conductor of Renaissance choral music and soon steeped in the cerebral avant-garde, Mr. Heras-Casado, who is 34 and Spanish, arrived at Beethoven and Brahms only in recent years. And after ascending several pinnacles in Europe—he made his Berlin Philharmonic debut in October—Mr. Heras-Casado has landed in the United States. Last year he was appointed principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. … On Thursday he will lead the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at the Mostly Mozart festival at Lincoln Center in works by Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, a repertory relatively new to the German period-instrument ensemble but increasingly familiar to Mr. Heras-Casado. ‘We’ve clicked so well together,’ Mr. Heras-Casado said of the Freiburg. He has led it in two recordings of Mendelssohn and Schubert symphonies, to be released on Harmonia Mundi in 2013. … Trim, with steely-blue eyes occasionally masked by Clark Kent glasses, Mr. Heras-Casado exudes warmth but also intellectual rigor.”
Posted August 6, 2012
