Madness and Folly: Night Music from Spain

Pablo Heras-Casado, principal guest conductor at Teatro Real in Madrid and director of the Granada Festival, makes his Juilliard415 debut with a program inspired by the Spanish Baroque.

Pablo Heras Casado conducts Madness and Folly: Night Music From Spain, featuring Juan Marcolini’s Overture to La Dicha en la desgracia y via campestre, Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso on La Follia (after Corelli), Georg Philipp Telemann’s Ouverture-Suite, TWV 55:G10, Burlesque de Quixotte, Luigi Boccherini’s La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid, Op. 30, No. 6 (G. 324), Boccherini’s Concerto for Cello, 2 Oboes, 2 Horns, and Strings in D Major, No. 8, G. 483, with Juilliard cellist Sydney Zum Mallen, José de Nebra’s Seguidillas, and Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Dances from Don Juan.

“Early music remains a focal point for Pablo Heras-Casado,” writes Thomas May in the program notes. “In 2007, Heras-Casado cofounded La Compañía Teatro del Príncipe in Aranjuez to explore the neglected heritage of opera, zarzuela, and its offshoots originating from the Spanish Baroque.”

This program is part of the 10th anniversary celebration of Juilliard Historical Performance, which is taking place throughout the 2019-20 season. Juilliard’s full-scholarship Historical Performance program was established and endowed in 2008 by the generous support of Bruce and Suzie Kovner.

About Pablo Heras-Casado

Pablo Heras-Casado’s career encompasses the great symphonic and operatic repertoire, historically informed performances, and contemporary scores. Principal guest conductor at Teatro Real in Madrid and director of the Granada Festival, Heras-Casado also enjoys a long-term collaboration with Freiburger Barockorchester featuring numerous touring and recording projects.

Last January, Heras-Casado conducted Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Teatro Real, starting his first-ever Ring cycle, which spans four consecutive seasons. His extensive discography includes a series of recordings for Harmonia Mundi titled Die Neue Romantik, featuring Mendelssohn, Schumann, and other Romantic composers, recorded with Freiburger Barockorchester and musicians such as Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Alexander Melnikov. The latest recording focuses on Mendelssohn, with Heras-Casado joined by Kristian Bezuidenhout on the fortepiano.

Other releases on the label include Debussy with Philharmonia Orchestra, and Bartók with Münchner Philharmoniker and Javier Perianes; a DVD of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer at Teatro Real; and Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale with Balthasar-Neumann-Chor and Ensemble.

In great demand as a guest conductor with leading orchestras, Heras-Casado is conductor laureate of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, following his tenure as principal conductor from 2011 to 2017, and also regularly leads the San Francisco, Chicago, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras; Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Philadelphia Orchestra. He also frequently conducts the Philharmonia and London Symphony orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, Münchner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Berlin, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Mariinsky Theatre and Israel Philharmonic orchestras. He has conducted the Berliner and Wiener Philharmonikers and recently developed a close partnership with Verbier Festival. As an opera conductor, he has been on the podiums of the Metropolitan Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Festspiel Baden-Baden, and Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Musical America’s 2014 conductor of the year, Heras-Casado holds the Medalla de Honor of the Rodriguez Acosta Foundation, Medalla de Andalucia 2019, and ambassador award of this region.

He is honorary ambassador and recipient of the golden medal of merit by the Council of Granada, as well as an honorary citizen of Granada, his hometown. In December 2018, he was awarded the title Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic by the ambassador of France in Spain, Yves Saint-Geours. As the Spanish charity Ayuda en Acción’s global ambassador, Heras-Casado supports and promotes its work internationally.

About Juilliard415

Celebrating its 10th anniversary season, Juilliard415, the school’s principal period-instrument ensemble, has brought major figures in the field of early music to lead performances of both rare and canonical works by composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. The many distinguished guests who have led Juilliard415 include Harry Bicket, William Christie, Monica Huggett, Nicholas McGegan, Rachel Podger, Jordi Savall, and Masaaki Suzuki. Juilliard415 tours extensively in the U.S. and abroad, having now performed on five continents, with notable appearances at the Boston Early Music Festival, Leipzig Bachfest, and Utrecht Early Music Festival (where Juilliard was the first-ever conservatory in residence), and on a 10-concert tour of New Zealand, where it returns for a second tour in spring 2020.