Mendelssohn Ades Acclaim week one

Oct 8, 2013

“Hats off to the 35-year-old Spanish conductor for his sensitive and adroit readings of the various works, and for bundling such diverse compositions in a manner that often allowed them to illuminate one another” (San Jose Mercury News). Pablo Heras-Casado has received critical acclaim for his performances in the opening program of a two-week San Francisco Symphony festival that highlights the music of Felix Mendelssohn and Thomas Adès. “It’s no wonder that his career is taking off with major orchestras” the Mercury continues, “he brings clarity and insight to the repertory — and excitement.”

The performance’s “clarity and insight” was echoed by the San Francisco Examiner, which hailed Pablo and guest soloist Leila Josefowicz’s account of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, which the violinist presented “as a retrospective view of the traditions of both the Baroque period and late nineteenth-century Russia.” “All of this played out in crystal clarity against the impeccable management of the SFS resources by Heras-Casado,” raved the Examiner,  “making for a stunningly distinctive (not to mention informative) account of Stravinsky as a ‘musician at work.’”

The San Francisco Chronicle praised Pablo’s performance of excerpts from Lully’s Armide, “done with a superbly idiomatic profile,” and of Adès’s Three Studies from Couperin, from  which Pablo “drew a virtuosic performance from the players, full of distinctive colors and moments of individual splendor.”

Closing the concert was Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony, an interpretation “that was both fierce and sensuous, so freshly conceived that this warhorse of the repertory re-emerged as a thoroughbred out for a thrill-ride” (San Jose Mercury News). San Francisco Classical Voice called it a “spectacular interpretation,” while the Examiner too weighed in: “This was an account that made it clear just why Mendelssohn continues to be so worthy of our attention, thus providing the perfect conclusion to the first part of this ongoing two-week festival.” “The combination of programming and execution makes these subscription concerts a highlight of the young season” (San Francisco Classical Voice).

Learn more about the upcoming concerts of Pablo and the SFS’s Mendelssohn / Adès festival.