Spanish Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado Makes Harmonia Mundi Label Debut Today

On his first recording for harmonia mundi, conductor Pablo Heras-Casado - whose conducting career encompasses the great symphonic and operatic repertoire, historically informed performance and cutting-edge contemporary scores - offers a fresh look at the symphonies of Franz Schubert.

Leading the period-instrument Freiburger Barockorchester, Heras-Casado pairs the lighthearted Symphony No.3 of 1815, which ends with a Rossinian tarantella, with the darker Symphony No.4 "Tragic", written one year later and looking more towards Beethoven. Echoing the Fourth's subtitle, it is a sad fact that this symphony, like all his others, was never played in public in the composer's lifetime.

In 2011, Pablo Heras-Casado began a close collaboration with the Freiburger Barockorchester. "We've clicked so well together," Mr. Heras-Casado told the New York Times. "Phrasing and harmonic sensibility and polyphonic sense - all that background we have in common. So when we have a dialogue when rehearsing, we speak the same language."

They toured extensively in 2012 and performed Schubert's Third Symphony at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart festival.

2013/14 PABLO HERAS-CASADO IN CONCERT & MET DEBUT

OCT 3-6 & 10-12: San Francisco, CA - Davies Symphony Hall
OCT 23: New York, NY - Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
NOV 11 - DEC 7: New York, NY - Metropolitan Opera DEBUT
DEC 12-14: Philadelphia, PA - Verizon Hall
APR 2-5: New York, NY - Avery Fisher Hall - New York Philharmonic DEBUT
MAY 31 & JUN 1: New York, NY - Rose Theatre

2014 FREIBURGER BAROCKORCHESTER IN CONCERT
Gottfried von der Goltz, violin and director
Petra Müllejans, violin and director

FEB 04: Washington, DC - Library of Congress
FEB 05: New York, NY - Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Lincoln Center