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| Pablo Heras-Casado |
The Spanish conductor puzzles me. He is everywhere doing everything, generating great buzz and press, conducting major orchestras in major musical capitals of the world.Witness this NY Times Profile, a positive NY Times Review from the Mostly Mozart fetival, another favorable NY Times Review of an outdoor Beethoven and Ravel concert, and a glowing early review from the San Francisco Chronicle.
If he is half as good as his clippings, this is a rising star that would benefit the Houston Symphony, were we to latch onto him. To hear some, he's the second coming of Gustavo Dudamel.
So what's the problem?
Maybe nothing. Maybe I'm just old and cynical. Maybe my earlier review of Heras-Casado was too cranky. Maybe the unsatisfying concert was fluke.
But just because I am old and cynical doesn't mean I'm necessarily wrong--or that I am right. After the jump some reasons why all of us (me included) ought to give Heras-Casado a fresh listen--a fresh and very objective listen.
On October 18 when the Houston Symphony plays the first in this year's concerts with Pablo-Heras Casado, a few things are guaranteed to occur.
- Lang Lang will perform a Beethoven piano concerto (either the second, third or fifth depending upon which performance you attend).
- The performance will be electrifying, because that is what Lang Lang does.
- There will be cheers and ovations. Because that is what happens when Lang Lang plays.
But if he is not, glow can hide a lot of faults, but only temporarily. After the wedding comes the marriage. And the Houston Symphony needs to make a good match.It will need to look beyond the glow and include some analysis.
Looking through the resources available, there is just enough in there to make me question whether someone with that background is ready to lead an organization like the Houston Symphony. I have several basic questions:
- Does he have sufficient experience with the core reptoire?
- As far as I can tell, he does not yet have administrative experience as an artistic director.
- And (showing my own prejudices perhaps) can someone who is basically a singer lead an instrumental group? In music school we hardly considered singers to be musicians at all.
- Heras-Casado started in choral music and early music. He is young, learning and learning well by all accounts.
- The Houston Symphony is neither a choral society nor an early music ensemble.
- HSO plays pieces like Beethoven 7, which Heras-Casado performed for the first time last year.
- Lots of folks are hiring this man to guest conduct. Only a week before he arrives in Houston he will be at the Marinsky Theater. Is he learning repertoire (and lots of it) on planes?
- The Berlin Philharmonic lent him their podium. The musicians make that choice, and they don't do that for just anyone. But he hasn't been back.
- Until he was hired by the Orchestra of St. Luke's this past year, Heras-Casado does not to have any experience as a music director as opposed to a guest artist.
- This LA Times Review, which had issues with Heras-Casado's Heldenleben, is most clear about the problem. Does he know the core repetoir?
But even Gustavo Dudamel is not the second coming of Gustavo Dudamel.
I have seen Dudamel flop, including a Zarathustra with Berlin that is uncomfortable to watch. And yet, a horn player in the Vienna Philharmonic tells me that Dudamel is the genuine article and the shine appears not to be off in LA. Conducting is complicated, and a conductor who works with one orchestra might fall flat with another.
Three Beethoven concertos in three days will be a good test of whether the young maestro knows his stuff. There simply won't be time to learn the music on the podium. I commit to listening with fresh ears, to looking forward to the concert, and to expecting to enjoy it. I will forget last year's Beethoven and Petrushka.
But I will have my hype filter on.
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