Highlights
03 Oct 2015
“Mr. Heras-Casado led a luminous and urgent performance, deftly balancing the shifts from moody ruminations to bouts of exuberance. There are many symphonies he could have chosen had he wanted to make a big impression. Instead he offered the audience a fascinating excursion. Mr. Heras-Casado is the thinking person’s idea of a hotshot young conductor.”
Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 8 February, 2013
“He is a conductor with an extremely acute sense of rhythm, a perfect vision of the timbre possibilities of the orchestra, and he is able to get the maximum performance out of them.”
Diario Ideal, July 2012
“His approach was vigorous, featuring sharp-edged attacks and dynamic contrasts that contributed to a bristling interpretation and high-octane finale.”
The New York Times, July 2012
“The trick is all too simple – Heras-Casado shapes everything he touches with delicacy and respect. He has passion and power enough for the bigger statements of orchestral music, but he seems to be at his best in more intimate repertoire.”
San Francisco Chronicle, January 2012
“In only five years, Pablo Heras-Casado has become one of the most distinguished conductors in Spain, and despite his youth, the one with the most international prestige.”
Andrés Gonzalez-Barba,Teatro Central, Seville, 2009
“He’s terrific. His bio, which has him leading virtually every new-music, experimental-music and youth-oriented organization here and abroad, goes on for days; that document is breathtaking, and so is his work. He leads without baton, but also without the affectation that many hands-only conductors employ; he is eminently watchable. His Mendelssohn ‘Italian’ was crisp, spirited, impulsive; his Mahler Fourth was beautifully balanced.”
Alan Rich, So I’ve Heard.com, March 2009
“Thursday’s concert by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra…felt like a multi-century symposium on the vitality and viability of the Western classical tradition…led by Pablo Heras-Casado, a batonless young Spaniard of boundless animation.”
Larry Fuchsberg, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 2009
“Pablo Heras-Casado, a Spaniard in his early 30s and a protégé of Pierre Boulez, conducted a performance of Stockhausen’s Kontra-Punkte … fine enough to give a sense of Stockhausen’s startling sonic arsenal, which here pierces the atmosphere with shards of sharp color. For a touch of theater, Heras-Casado had the players quietly leave the stage as their parts ended. The composer died a year ago, and this felt like a farewell gesture.”
Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, December 2008
“Conducting these daunting scores was Pablo Heras-Casado, in his American debut. Mr. Heras-Casado proved himself here by drawing technically solid, dynamic and nuanced accounts of Mr. Adès’s elemental, quirky chamber symphony and Mr. Carter’s ingenious ‘AskoConcerto’… [He] began the program with a highly charged account of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4. The playing had a jaunty swing and plenty of character.”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, June 2008
“Pablo Heras-Casado is an up-and-coming talent who will be tackling Boulez’s Le marteau sans maître and Stockhausen’s Kreuzspiel at Opéra Bastille in October. (He’s young: actually 30, but looks about 20).”
Bruce Hodges, Seen and Heard International, June 2008
“He uses the baton with passion and self-confidence.”
La Opinión de Granada, 2009
“Courage and willpower – these two characteristics distinguish the Zurich appearances by Pablo Heras-Casado… unwavering leadership skills.”
Michelle Ziegler, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, September 2009
“Pablo Heras-Casado conducted the Collegium Novum full of energy and with sovereignty that let the music sensuously pulsate.”
Tages-Anzeiger, Zurich, January 2009
“Under the young Spanish conductor, Pablo Heras-Casado, who was making his debut with the [BBC Philharmonic in Manchester], they were nothing short of world beating.”
Classical Partners, October 2009