Pablo Heras-Casado celebrates the centenary of El retablo de Maese Pedro, by Manuel de Falla

Feb 10, 2023

This weekend, Pablo Heras-Casado will conduct the Mahler Chamber Orchestra to celebrate the centenary of Falla’s El retablo de Maese Pedro. Next February 17, they will perform at the Auditorio de Girona, where it will be recorded for harmonia Mundi, and the following day at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Both concerts are part of the 25th anniversary season of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

The program of this unique concert includes the hand-puppet opera, in concert version, El Retablo de Maese Pedro, which celebrates this year’s 100th anniversary of its premiere (1923). The cast includes Airam Hernández (Maese Pedro), José Antonio López (Don Quixote), Adeline d’Aviau de Ternay and Héctor López de Ayala Uribe (Trujamán). El retablo de Maese Pedro, premiered one hundred years ago, on March 23, 1923, in Seville. The work is inspired by Chapter XXVI of the second part of Don Quixote.

Two other works complete the program: the Concerto for harpsichord with soloist Benjamin Alard, also by Falla, premiered in 1926, and the Pulcinella Suite, by Igor Stravinsky. Heras-Casado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra already recorded in 2019 another project dedicated to Falla which included works El sombrero de tres picos and El amor brujo.