Isabelle Faust / Orchestre de Paris / Pablo Heras-Casado STRAVISNKY Le Sacre du Printemps EÖTVÖS "Alhambra" Concerto

 

LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS - "ALHAMBRA" CONCERTO

 

Isabelle Faust / Jean-Guihen Queyras / Alexander Melnikov / Freiburger Barockorchester / Pablo Heras-Casado BEETHOVEN Triple Concerto - Piano Trio Op. 36

 

TRIPLE CONCERTO - PIANO TRIO OP. 36

 

Kristian Bezuidenhout / Freiburger Barockorchester / Pablo Heras-Casado BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4

PIANO CONCERTO No. 4

Freiburger Barockorchester / Zürcher Sing-Akademie / Pablo Heras-Casado BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 - Choral Fantasy

SYMPHONY No. 9 - CHORAL FANTASY

Kristian Bezuidenhout / Pablo Heras-Casado / Freiburger Barockochester BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5 "Emperor"

                                                   PIANO CONCERTOS NOS. 2 & 5

Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Pablo Heras-Casado MANUEL DE FALLA El Sombrero de Tres Picos - El Amor Brujo

There is no shortage of recordings of Manuel de Falla's El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) and El amor brujo (Love, the Wizard), with more on the way, thanks to the centenary of the former in 2019. Even casual listeners may reflect that this delightful work has never, despite plenty of changes in taste in music of the interwar period, fallen out of style. It was on the cutting edge when it was premiered, and yet its fusion of flamenco influences with growing French neoclassicism is irresistible for general symphonic audiences. It's in this fusion that Pablo Heras-Casado inspires the multinational Mahler Chamber Orchestra to impressive heights. The ballet El sombrero de tres picos, with its humorous, Figaro-like pastoral story, and the ballet-opera El amor brujo are not exactly renderings of flamenco music in symphonic form, although they are often thought of that way, and although the desired vocal sound in each comes from that tradition. Instead, Falla uses the rhythms of flamenco to spice up the clean new sounds that were taking shape in France and that he learned there. The two pieces should not be fiery exercises in making the orchestra emulate a flamenco guitar, but rather something crisper. That's exactly what Heras-Casado delivers here. In both works he's a minute or so faster than average, and he loses none of the rhythmic energy at that speed. Soprano Marina Heredia is an ideal complement, offering a chamber-sized flamenco voice. A enjoyable reading of these well-worn works, enhanced by Teldex Studio sound that takes into account the performers' artistic aims. (James Manheim)

Kristian Bezuidenhout / Pablo Heras-Casado / Freiburger Barockorchester MENDELSSOHN Piano Concerto No.2 - Symphony No. 1

Mendelssohn’s first symphonic work scored for full orchestra, the Symphony op. 11 in C minor paved the way for even greater examples of the genre he was soon to produce. The concert overture Die schöne Melusine and the sparkling Piano Concerto No. 2 rely on the type of orchestration and harmonic language which are best served when played on period instruments, as heard here. Devoid of the atmosphere of Romantic doom and gloom, nearly every page of both scores is marked by an exuberant cheerfulness, youthful drive, and irrepressible energy.

Isabelle Faust ROBERT SCHUMANN

Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexander Melnikov begin their project to record all of Schumann’s concertos and piano trios using gut strings and a piano of Schumann’s time (a Streicher of 1847) with the most challenging two works of all. The tangled performance history of the Violin Concerto is well enough known by now – written in 1853 for Joseph Joachim to play, it was suppressed after Schumann’s death and not performed in public until the 1930s. Performances have remained sporadic though, and as Faust’s shows, even the finest violinists (and she is one of the very best around today) still struggle to make convincing sense of some passages, especially in the rather stop-start opening movement; there are moments here when the usually nimble Freiburg Baroque Orchestra sounds as if it is having to wade through musical treacle. Composed two years before, the G minor Piano Trio isn’t top-drawer Schumann either, especially when compared with the two earlier trios, but Faust and her colleagues have the knack of teasing out its lyrical beauties and giving all the music real lightness and transparency.

Alexander Melnikov ROBERT SCHUMANN

This is the second in a three-part series exploring Schumann’s concertos and piano trios on gut strings and a period piano, and as the slightly creepy cover photo spells out – shadows of violinist Isabelle Faust and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras flank Alexander Melnikov like lurking henchmen – it is the pianist’s turn to shine. Melnikov is a steely player with plenty of ideas and charisma, but even in the finessed company of the Freiburg Baroque and conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, his bracing account of the Piano Concerto is hard to love. The first moment opens with a dry punch and hurtles ahead hell-for-leather; the second movement is breezy and borderline trite, and the finale digs in its heels with laboured earthiness and a self-conscious ping at the top of each phrase. All affectations evaporate in the Trio, though, where Faust’s sound is so silvery and expressive, so simultaneously commanding and questioning, that she risks blowing the rest of the disc out of the water. (The Guardian)

Jean-Guihen Queyras ROBERT SCHUMANN

The idea for this CD project arose during a tour on which we performed Robert Schumann’s Trio op.80. As passionate admirers of the composer, we conceived the desire to place his works for piano, violin, and cello in a broader context and to illuminate them mutually in order to allow listeners to gain a deeper understanding of his music. We soon agreed to play the pieces for this recording on a historical piano and stringed instruments with gut strings, using orchestral forces to match. Thanks to this, we expected our playing to be better balanced, better articulated, and more open-minded. 

Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester sprang spontaneously to mind as the ideal partners for a project of this kind. And indeed they took up our idea enthusiastically and were keen and irreplaceable fellow-conspirators in the world of Schumann. 

Our shared journey into the magical world of this incomparable composer will remain with us as an exceptionally intense, happy, and fulfilling experience. (Isabelle Faust / Alexander Melnikov / Jean-Guihen Queyras)

Javier Perianes / Münchner Philharmoniker / Pablo Heras-Casado BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra - Piano Concerto No. 3

Neither the disillusionment that set in after his exile to the United States nor his declining health stopped Bartók from fulfilling his commission for the Concerto for Orchestra nor from writing the Third Piano Concerto, his final work, intended to secure his wife’s future. Hence his gloomy circumstances led to two masterpieces (and gained him a long-awaited American reputation). They are magnificently served here by Javier Perianes and the musicians of the Münchner Philharmoniker under the direction of Pablo Heras-Casado.
...The Concerto for Orchestra was composed in a single burst of inspiration during an unexpected remission of his leukaemia, from August to October 1943. It is Bartók's only orchestral work on so large a scale. Fascinating both for its sonic hedonism and for the virtuosity it demands from each section of the orchestra (which justifies the choice of this title rather than ‘symphony’), the work sums up the composer’s achievement...

...The Piano Concerto no.3, the only keyboard work that Bartók did not compose for himself to play, has a less gruelling solo part than its two predecessors. Here he forsakes ostinatos, repeated notes and batteries of chords in favour of singing melodies. Tonality is clearly asserted (the key is E), and triads, octaves and unisons abound, as if sending out reassuring signals...

Chor & Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Pablo Heras-Casado FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY Symphonie Nr. 2 "Lobgesang"

It has been about 45 years now since Mendelssohn’s once popular but forgotten “Lobgesang” Symphony was first revived on disc by Herbert von Karajan and Wolfgang Sawallisch. In recent times, happily, it has been welcomed back without controversy into the repertory by any number of conductors as the masterpiece that it is. The Karajan were an opera, and I would advise our readers to avoid it. But in recent times, several conductors have gotten the porridge right: Ashkenazy, Chailly, Orozco-Estrada, Bosch, and now Heras-Casado, who appears in general to be a young “Mendelssohn whisperer,” conducting Mendelssohn symphonies wherever he guests.
Among these performances, Chailly’s is perhaps the most satisfying, unashamedly large-scaled and velvety, with wonderful sound. It made a big impression a few seasons ago on his East Coast tour with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Mendelssohn’s own, it bears remembering). But unfortunately, Chailly chose to conduct an early edition of the symphony, with a less impressive opening trombone fanfare and awkward transitions in the three orchestral movements.  

That puts Orozco-Estrada, Bosch, and Heras-Casado at the top of the list. The perfectly fine Ashkenazy has been available only as part of a complete set of the symphonies. The Bosch is in a league of its own for beautiful SACD sound and a swift, soft-grained yet lean approach, with just the slightest touch of “early music” phrasing to detract from the romance of it. The Orozco-Estrada and Heras-Casado performances are extremely similar and uncontroversial in their approach. Both feature fine soloists, beautiful renditions of the famous chorale Nun danket alle Gott , and lively, emotionally engaged playing in the three orchestral movements. I might be tempted to favor Orozco-Estrada on Preiser, recorded live with the Tonkunstler in the open acoustic of Vienna’s Musikverein, but that is a subjective judgment. Heras-Casado gets finely balanced sound as well, studio-recorded for Harmonia Mundi in Munich’s Philharmonie am Gasteig, but I find it just a touch dry.
Even so, I think it hard to imagine how one could fail to be swept up by the great trombone fanfare which opens the symphony and unifies it with such subtlety—and deeply moved by all which follows. Mendelssohn is lucky once again to be considered a great symphonic composer, and lucky that this hybrid work has made it back onto the concert stage. But he is not so lucky as the listener. This is memorable music, exciting, noble and pure of heart. (FANFARE / Steven Kruger)

Pablo Heras-Casado / Orchestra of St. Luke's TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 1 Op. 13 - The Tempest Op. 18

For this 2017 Harmonia Mundi release, Pablo Heras-Casado and the Orchestra of St. Luke's present two of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's early works, the Symphony No. 1 in G minor, "Winter Dreams," Op. 13, and the symphonic fantasia after Shakespeare, The Tempest, Op. 18. While the symphony in its original form failed to please Tchaikovsky's conservative teachers, Anton Rubinstein and Nikolai Zaremba, its revised version was one of the young composer's earliest successes with an audience and proved that his talents for long-breathed melodies and rich orchestration were no impediments to working in symphonic form. Heras-Casado and the St. Luke's orchestra give a moody and evocative performance, and the wintry atmosphere and luminous scene painting of the first three movements may impress listeners more than the finale, which seems forced, episodic, and academic, even in the best hands. Essentially a tone poem with a loose program, The Tempest is less problematic than the symphony in its formal aspects, and in several ways it anticipates the fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet, not least in its dramatic action music but also in its characteristic love theme. This performance is warm and passionate, and Heras-Casado and his musicians give it rhythmic vitality where the music needs it. The recorded sound in both works is vivid and spacious, and approaches audiophile quality in its crisp details and transparent tone colors. (Blair Sanderson)

Isabelle Faust / Freiburger Barockorchester / Pablo Heras-Casado MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto - Symphony No. 5 - The Hebrides

After the mystical ‘Hebrides’ Overture and the masterly ‘Reformation’ Symphony, Mendelssohn embarked on his second violin concerto. After a long gestation in which he polished the orchestration and meticulously revised the solo part, the work was finally premiered in Leipzig in 1845. From David to Joachim, virtuosos honed the violin part with the composer over successive revivals, leaving to posterity traces of their playing style: fingering, bowing and score markings. This precious heritage has been scrutinised by Isabelle, as she did for her Brahms Violin Concerto recording, as a previously unexploited expressive resource. Isabelle Faust, accompanied by the Freiburger Barockorchester, in top form, under the direction of Pablo Heras-Casado, offers us a miracle of purity and lyricism in a freshly-minted interpretation that fulfils Mendelssohn’s promise of ‘a concerto to make the angels rejoice in heaven’! (Presto Classical)

Pablo Heras-Casado / Freiburger Barockorchester FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4

Pablo Heras-Casado and his Freiburg players bring the most gorgeous string and woodwind sonorities to the Andante con moto with a beautifully shaped opening, subtly picking up a rhythmic pulse as the tempo increases in a magical transition into the Allegro un poco agitato andante. The orchestra soon gain a gutsy forward bounding momentum pointed up by timpani. There is a wonderful precision and tautness from these players, observing every nuance. Heras-Casado’s care with dynamics is superb with some wonderfully hushed moments that contrast with wonderfully rhythmically buoyant passages. He generates much excitement with some lovely individual instrumental timbres. 

A finely transparent Vivace non troppo follows, so fleet and joyful, so wonderfully Mendelssohnian. Beautifully phrased with some wonderfully sprung phrases there is a real sense of re-discovery of this wonderful music before a superb tailing off in the coda. 

These players bring a beautifully conceived opening as the theme of the Adagio is revealed, slowly taking the melody forward with a gentle pulse in the basses. The second subject each time it appears is taken at a stately pace before building to some grand climaxes, pointed up by period timpani. This conductor shapes some wonderful phrases, with lovely string and woodwind textures and again such a finely done coda. 

The Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai springs into life with exceptionally crisp and alert playing. There are some wonderfully shaped dynamics as the movement progresses, building to some wonderfully emphatic climaxes before a wonderfully quiet moment that heralds the new theme that emerges to take us to the resounding coda. This is an outstanding performance in every way. 

A bubbling rhythmic drive is given to the Allegro vivace of Symphony No.4 in A major, Op.90 ‘Italian’ again with a very fine transparency of sound. These players are able to hustle the music forward with a great feeling of spontaneity. There are moments, particular quieter ones that have a chamber like feel. Again the tautness and immaculate ensemble is impressive. Control of dynamics is again very fine, allowing many details and subtleties to emerge through the wonderfully light texture. Heras-Casado brings some very fine development passages that lead to wonderful peaks. There is a particularly beautiful woodwind passage towards the end before the glorious coda arrives. 

The Andante con moto has a fast jogging pace in the brass over which the orchestra bring a lovely longer line. Heras-Casado creates a wonderful flow here and throughout there is the most lovely instrumental tapestry of sound with wonderful shaping of phrases and always with an underlying urgency of flow. There are some most lovely hushed passages. 

There is only a slight slackening of pace as the Con moto moderato flows forward, again with a fine transparency that allows the woodwinds and each layer of the strings to emerge. There are some fine horn phrases in the trio section with beautiful little clarinet entries. 

Heras-Casado leaps into the Presto and Finale: Saltarello with some absolutely terrific flute passages. The music positively bounds ahead pointed up by the timpani. There are so many lovely little individual instrumental details and when the woodwind come in over the strings they create a terrific texture. This is a superbly played and quite captivating movement. Later there are some impressively played fast and fleet string passages before the woodwind bubble through the strings. The music rises to some fine peaks before arriving at a most lovely coda. 

This is a performance of chamber like subtlety and transparency with an underlying drive and energy.

Harmonia Mundi has a winner with Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester. If you think that you’ve heard these symphonies too many times try these performances and revel in the freshness of re-discovery. 

They receive a remarkably vivid recording from Auditorio y Centro de Congresos, Murcia, Spain. There are excellent booklet notes on the music though some information about the choice of instruments used for early 19th c. repertoire would have been useful. (Bruce Reader)

Alisa Weilerstein / Pablo Heras-Casado / Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concertos 1 & 2

Alisa Weilerstein signed an exclusive contract with Decca Classics in 2011. Her first recording under the agreement, a coupling of the concertos by Elgar and Elliott Carter, with Barenboim conducting the Berlin Staatskapelle, was released in January 2013. At the 2014 BBC Music Magazine Awards it scooped the Recording of the Year Award as well as the Concerto Award. The New York Times acclaimed “the soloist’s superb control keenly matched by the conductor’s insightful support”. In April 2014 Decca issued her new recording of the Dvořák Cello Concerto, with Jiří Bělohlávek conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Huffington Post reviewed it is “…as if Dvořák were sending her the still-wet-inked score, straight from his head to her heart and hands”, and the Daily Telegraph described it as “spine-tingling” and “irresistible”.

Alisa is very excited to announce the upcoming release of Shostakovich: Cello Concertos 1 & 2, coming from Decca Classics on September 23. Alisa worked on both cornerstones of the cello repertory with the legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, for whom both concertos were written, and who was a great friend of the composer. Here, she performs the intense but emotionally suppressed first concerto, in contrast with the sarcasm and isolation of the second, with conductor Pablo Heras-Casado and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Pablo Heras-Casado / Concerto Köln EL MAESTRO FARINELLI

 Quickly becoming known as one of the most exciting conductors of his generation, Pablo Heras-Casado is set to make his album debut, El Maestro Farinelli, on the recently re-launched label, Archiv Produktion for Deutsche Grammophon. Available May 27, 2014, this new album marks Heras-Casado’s return to his core repertoire and musical heritage, performing instrumental and vocal music associated with Farinelli, the legendary 18th-century castrato singer who served as impresario and court musician to the kings of Spain.

With El Maestro Farinelli, Archiv Produktion offered Heras-Casado the opportunity to choose what music to conduct from the Farinelli period, focusing on neglected operas where many orchestral scores had been destroyed in a palace fire in the 19-century and ultimately those that survived had to be transcribed by hand. This album features a rare world premiere of eight recordings with some arias sung by noted countertenor Bejun Mehta as well as including the works of Baroque composers like Hasse, Porpora and Jomelli, which Farinelli presented during his time as concert master in Madrid and Aranjuez.

Enjoying a diverse conducting career thus far, Pablo Heras-Casado has encompassed the great symphonic and operatic repertoire, historically-informed performance, cutting-edge contemporary scores, and has already developed a special rapport with a number of soloists, orchestras and opera houses.

Domingo VERDI

The world-renowned tenor releases his first album of baritone arias “apparently unstoppable in his second career as conductor and baritone” The Telegraph. For the very first time, Plácido Domingo records a complete album of baritone repertoire and assembles Verdi´s most beloved baritone arias from Don Carlo, Rigoletto, La Traviata and Simon Boccangera among others.
Verdi played the largest part in Domingo´s long career. His debut as an opera singer was in the part of Borsa in Rigoletto. As he has sung 22 of Verdi tenor roles and has recorded all of Verdi's tenor arias, Domingo is now exploring the darker characters of Verdi’s opera.
In 2009 Plácido Domingo performed his first baritone title role as Simon Boccanegra at the Royal Opera House in London, which was soon followed by leading roles as Rigoletto, Francesco Foscari and Giorgio Germont from La Traviata. This year will see Domingo debut in the leading roles of Nabucco at the Metropolitan Opera New York and Conte di Luna from Il Trovatore at the State Opera in Berlin.
Considered to be THE Verdi tenor of his generation, Plácido Domingo presents now a new side of his vocal abilities, for which one may want to name him THE Verdi singer.
Plácido Domingo is accompanied by the Orquestra de la Comunítat Valencíana under the direction of conductor Pablo Heras-Casado.

Plácido Domingo about Verdi: “Verdi is a wellspring of great music, and every lyric singer is grateful to him. When you think of the musical distance that he travelled from his first opera, Oberto, in 1839, to Falstaff, in 1893, the evolution is almost incredible. The passion, the dramatic sense, the sensitivity to the voice – those qualities were there from the start. But the ability to develop individual characters in music, the refinement in orchestration, and the gradual transformation of Italian opera from a series of beautiful set-pieces into a logical, dramatic whole – this process of maturation seems almost miraculous. So for me 2013 must be a special celebration, a tribute, and an act of thanksgiving and love toward Giuseppe Verdi.”