Heras-Casado and the ideal ‘Parsifal’ (Spanish Review)

13 Aug 2024

Scherzo, Justo Romero

Heras-Casado and the ideal Parsifal

Pablo Heras-Casado triumphed once again in Bayreuth, the Wagnerian sanctuary, where he has established himself as one of the most appreciated and blessed figures by the thousands of fervent music lovers who, year after year, make a pilgrimage to this Bavarian town of barely 75,000 inhabitants, where Wagner himself built a theater of unique acoustics and characteristics in 1876. The thunderous ovation heard by the Granada-born conductor when he burst in to salute at the end of the performance was truly exceptional, even in a place as mythomaniacal as Bayreuth. An ovation perhaps only comparable to those heard in the new Bayreuth by Barenboim and Levine, and today by Thielemann or Bichkov. In fact, and with the prospect of conducting the new Ring in 2028 and other projects in the pipeline, and his harmony with Katharina Wagner, Heras-Casado is seen as the natural heir to Barenboim and Thielemann on the now vacant throne of Bayreuth.

The Spanish conductor has returned with the successful production he premiered last year of Parsifal, the Wagnerian sanctum sanctorum, scenically signed by Jay Sheib. Parsimoniously officiated, basking in its mystical harmonic evolutions, in the long, slow developments of its motifs and Leitmotifs. Heras-Casado expanded silences, breaths and phraseological measures to where it is only possible in the complex but ideal acoustics of Bayreuth and its invisible pit. Also in its unique silence. A version in which time seemed to mark the tempo by itself. No rush, no clock. The Prelude, the “Music of Transformation” of the first act, or the “Good Friday Incantations” in the third, were symphonic episodes of spirituality to the surface, as raw as the endless wound of Amfortas. A “sacred scenic” festival performance charged with temperance, in which the portentous Bayreuth Orchestra and its legendary choir found their perfect match in the batonless hands of the maestro from Granada.

 

Las provincias, César Rus

The consolidation of Pablo Heras-Casado

To get to conduct in Bayreuth is a milestone. Very few conductors achieve it. But to consolidate is even more difficult […]. Therefore, if last year the Bayreuth Festival was marked by the debut of Pablo Heras-Casado in the new production of “Parsifal”, this year has been, for him, the year of his consolidation by repeating the title and announcing that in 2028 he will conduct the new production of “The Ring of the Nibelung”. In short, the conductor from Granada is already one of the world’s leading conductors in Wagnerian repertoire and, moreover, with his brilliant career he is breaking frontiers for Spanish conducting.

The success of his “Parsifal” last year was so resounding that it merited that Deutsche Gramophon edited the recording on video and disc. This year he repeated the success, but an evolved success. Now we hear a more articulate and wide-ranging direction without renouncing the clarity and sharpness with which it made an impact last year. All this together with the flexibility and narrative sense that characterize it. The result is that he gets the best results from the orchestra and the marvelous choir.